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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to wonder why the HELL you'd apply for a job involving driving, when you can't drive?

98 replies

katherinealice · 04/04/2017 13:20

I'm so annoyed as this is putting me in a really unfair position. Repeatedly I am being paired up with non drivers, and work anti social hours when there's no public transport. So I am expected to pick them up & drop off? AIBU to think this takes the piss?

OP posts:
Original poster
katherinealice · 04/04/2017 14:26

They really wouldn't provide a mini bus you know.

OP posts:
toomuchtvandsocialmedia · 04/04/2017 14:28

I would read this and check that you are adequately insured

www.gocompare.com/car-insurance/insuring-your-car-for-work-use/#IJ7D7WsvKDZEE66X.97

BarbaraofSeville · 04/04/2017 14:28

What should happen and what does happen in certain sectors doesn't match up unfortunately.

People working in home care should be paid more than minimum wage, after all it's a much more important and responsible job than other minimum wage jobs like stacking shelves in supermarkets and warehouses and they shouldn't have to subsidise their employer's business with cars etc or travel around in their own time.

But this sort of work has been privatised so it's profit before service quality and employment rights unfortunately.

And in a lot of cases it's counterproductive to treat workers so badly and pay them so little because then people don't always stay in the sector long term which leads to increased costs for training, uniforms and DBS checks, although a lot of time the employees would be expected to pay for these themselves Sad.

It's disgusting and short sighted the way industries like these are run and staff recruitment and retention is poor because when people look at what they can earn, a lot of people will probably look at supermarket or fast food work before care work, because at least they're not expected to drive here, there and everywhere in their own time and at their own cost as well as being treated like crap for crap wages by their employer.

Funded properly with properly treated and paid employees, a lot of people could probably get a lot of job satisfaction from care work and stay doing it in the long term.

TheWalkingTiger · 04/04/2017 14:30

I did, but said I was willing to learn. They paid for driving lessons.

But I did have a very scarce skill that was key to the job.

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 04/04/2017 14:31

Tell them you've had to sell your car and get a moped instead as you can't afford to run a car any more. No lifts available.

(I reckon you're a carer too - the people who run those agencies tend to be utter shits to staff)

Original poster
katherinealice · 04/04/2017 14:34

Some of the suggestions are fun but not workable.

OP posts:
PigletJohn · 04/04/2017 14:35

I have a feeling your car is going to be off the road soon, with an inexplicable not-starting problem.

Gunpowder · 04/04/2017 14:35

But if there are very few driver/carers won't they be keen to keep OP? Isn't the extra £10 /£20 a lower cost to them than getting a minibus or having uncovered shifts?

watchoutformybutt · 04/04/2017 14:36

You don't seem like you would really do anything to tackle it to be honest. If you just wanted to vent then fair enough but it's a waste of everyone's time trying to suggest stuff if you just rubbish every idea.

BonTemps · 04/04/2017 14:39

Check with your insurance. I work in the caring sector and like you were expected to pick people up, but it came to light after an accident that the driver wasn't insured , we are expected to have business insurance to travel to and from and in between but we are not insured to carry people. For that you need more of a taxi policy which in all fairness is just way too expensive.

Increasinglymiddleaged · 04/04/2017 14:40

I think in one way yabu because they were probably forced to apply by the job centre and then just ended up in that situation.

It is your employer who ibu rather than the other staff expecting you to ferry people around without being paid for your time and giving you bad shifts when there is no public transport.

TheWhiteRoseOfYork · 04/04/2017 14:40

But if they have no one to cover the shifts, they are hardly going to punish you , a driver, by not giving you any shifts! Sounds like you are more of an asset than Marie, who can't get herself anywhere without a driver. I would say you have more leverage than you think. Just say no more, personal reasons is a good one to quote. You don't have to disclose what they are!

Original poster
katherinealice · 04/04/2017 14:43

Guys the thing is, if my car is off the road then I get hardly any hours. Which is the position the non drivers are in. I know that's shit for them but at the same time they get picked up & dropped off.

As for not doing anything to sort it I've written to my MP, who ignored me, and I've spoken to the company. Company just brush you off "oh yeah we'll pay you petrol costs" well ok but it's not the petrol costs it's the TIME. And if somebody lives in the opposite direction to you then you don't get money for that. What I mean is say Marie lives 4 miles away from me but 2 miles away from Mrs Smith I'd only get 2 miles petrol money.

It quietens down then they recruit a load of people get new clients and then the drivers leave.

I know some of you think it's so simple and I should just refuse. Well I would but I would have NO money then!

OP posts:
MipMipMip · 04/04/2017 14:46

My deepest sympathy. I don't have anything sensible to suggest but I did understand the position you are in and I really feel for you. I'm sorry. Flowers

BarbaraofSeville · 04/04/2017 14:47

Marie needs to get herself a bike so she can get to yours for the start of the shift. If it really is about 4 miles (I know you were just saying that for illustration) and she is able bodied enough to do care work, it's not much of an arduous journey.

DingDongtheWitchIsDangDiddlyDe · 04/04/2017 14:47

That still doesn't answer why you're pissed at your colleagues and not at the people actually causing your problems.

You need to find a different job, or accept it, if you feel like there is nothing you can do about it.

thatdearoctopus · 04/04/2017 14:48

OK, so I'm a teacher. If I can't drive to work for some reason, there's no one to cover my class. I cannot imagine my Head penalising one of my colleagues for that by, say, refusing to put them forward for passing the Threshold to a higher payscale.

kaitlinktm · 04/04/2017 14:49

Surely your co-workers pay you petrol money though Katherine? After all, if there were buses available, they would have to pay bus fare.

Gunpowder · 04/04/2017 14:49

Bontemps point is good. It's (thankfully) unlikely but if, for example, you were taking three colleagues to work on an icy day and you skidded and crashed causing one of them to die and the others to have life-limiting injuries - could you be sued in a civil suit? Would it open the agency up to a civil suit? I don't know if it's worth it if your insurance is invalidated by the lift-giving.

thatdearoctopus · 04/04/2017 14:50

I'd be pissed off at any colleague who expected me to travel to their home twice a day to pick up/drop off, yet not offer anything towards the favour.
And I don't accept that "they can't afford it." Nor can the OP.

Original poster
katherinealice · 04/04/2017 14:52

No, they don't. It used to be the case they'd give you £2 but now they don't as "supposedly" we get petrol money.

Octopus but your a teacher. Better comparison would be if you were a midwife and you and your colleague are going to a home birth to deliver a baby. You refuse to pick up colleague. Yeh technically you're in the right but you're not going to be popular when someone's baby dies because you refused to pick up colleague.

OP posts:
Original poster
katherinealice · 04/04/2017 14:52

4 times a day sometimes Sad

OP posts:
Doglikeafox · 04/04/2017 14:53

This gives me the rage aswell.
DP works in an office a 20 minute driver from our home. A lady (A) from work usually uses public transport that comes every 30 mins. Usually, the first bus leaves 10 mins after she finishes work but if she gets kept behind at work, it means waiting 40 minutes. DP regularly offers to give her a lift if she misses the bus, as it only takes an extra 15 mins and is only slightly out the way and happens maybe once a month.
Lady B is another friend from work, who also relies on public transport. She asked DP if he could start giving her lifts to work since she lives on his way to work and works the same hours. That was fine, and it quickly became an every day thing, before and after work. She never offered petrol money, but DP didn't mind as she was good company and it didn't take any extra time. However, lady B then moved house to near lady A, and still expects DP to give her lifts to and from work because he is happy to do it for lady A. This would now mean an extra 30 mins added to DP's day every day, however lady B is NEVER ready to go when DP gets there so he has to sit outside waiting, sometimes nearly being late himself and waiting outside for up to 25 minutes on more than one occasion!
Lady B gives no thanks, and really seems to have no idea what a massive inconvenience she is.
I'm at home all day with 3 under 3s and to be honest sometimes I am just so desperate for him to get home that this 30 mins (atleast!) is a real pain. DP is too kind though, and would never say anything Sad

floraeasy · 04/04/2017 14:53

Why aren't you getting mad at your employers instead? They are the ones advertising for people who drive and then taking on people who don't

^ This.

kaitlinktm · 04/04/2017 14:54

Octopus I remember though at my last school that several people were appointed to do long-term supply who had no real means of getting there (say several buses). I was really put under pressure to give lifts to three of these people (not all at the same time). It really annoyed me as the people putting me under pressure didn't have to give anyone a lift. One of the people was quite nice but the other two were very entitled and I am sure they viewed it as part of my job.