MartinC
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Posts posted by MartinC
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I've a Candy 1000T washing machine powered by a Victron 1600Watt inverter. On the heating cycle the inverter overload light often blinks, which means it's right on the limit. It doesn't cut out mind you and will run the quite intensive cycles as well as the economy cycle. In view of this I think your 1500Watt unit is going to be borderline.
My experience as well.
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Seen far too many come to us absolutley scared witless, in awe of the double locks and quite frankly shell shocked. They then moor up and we can hear the dolcet tones of the 'how to do boating video' - too late. It is seriously time the company did a proper hand over and included some tuition before another of their hirers ends up hurt or dead.
Possibly a bit off the original topic but
please see my post under Incident Reporting thread:
"BW advise me that they will consider withdrawing boat licenses from any hire company
which does not give "adequate" lock tuition."
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Tell her it is case No 25 and you can add a subsequent case No 91 in the same location.
According to her letter the summary should be on the website
www.waterways-ombudsman.org. Althouh I admit I haven't checked.
Tony
Edit, I have just checked and tried a search with case No. and title phrase and- Nothing! If any of you whizz kids out there can battle through it, the heading is : "Case No 25 - mooring, following piling works, opposite the complainants home and complaint handling." If necessary I will try to scan it and put it up as a Jpeg..
Tony
Sorry for previous posting, it "got away".
Thanks for the case numbers. The Ombudsman has just posted her 2006/7 report on her site
and summaries of the two cases are included.
Case 91 appears to "tell off" BW for not complaining to Royal Mail about
missing mail!
Case 25 summary has little information about time scales so it looks
like a Freedom of Information case.
This had lead me to look a little more closely at the arrangements and
funding of the Ombudsman. No indication as to how the "independent"
members of the committee are appointed and no sign of any accounts
other than it appears that BW have to pick up most if not all of the tab.
A little more "transparency" might not come admiss bearing in mind
that our licence fees are contributing to her costs.
Martin
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Having just read the ombudsman's report, that does not seem to be the case. Edited extract from the report:
Tony
Glad to see that Tony has got hold of the report. I tried the Ombudsman. She
said "I am afraid I do not index complaints by canal so I am not sure which complaint you are referring to. Full adjudications are not publicly available."
I would like to see a copy of the report to see how it fits in with her Terms
of Reference. I was about to use the Freedom of Information Act but if
Tony can direct me to another source it would be very helpful.
As others have said this is getting epidemic and it is time that licence payers
took a stand. I would be interested to know if anyone knows if the IWA
have shown any concern
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Another thing that I dont quite understand is why people keep going back to the hire company if they have been in a collision with one of their boats?
Surely if a lorry hits your car you'll deal with the freight company's insurance? Same goes for boat hire companies, they should put you in touch with their insurers whose job it is to deal with these things?
Or am I missing something again?
If only life were so straightforward.
Taking the comparison of your motor accident, if you talk to anyone who has had their
car hit by a self drive hire vehicle you may discover that it is not plain sailing.
The insurance is in the name of the owner of the vehicle or, in this case, narrowboat.
If the hirer does not report the accident or does not co-operate with the insurer, you, as
the third party will not make any progress with the insurers. Also the owner may choose
not to refer the matter to the insurers in the first place.
Unfortunately I have seen quite a few cases like this, sometimes because the more accidents
passed on to the hire company's insurers the higher next year's premium! The better hire company
will often deal with it "in house" and replace your fender.
Some people get very cross with the hire company but legally they are not responsible for
the actions of their hirers. Except in exceptional circumstances your claim is against the navigator.
There is another point, although slightly "off topic"
I wonder how many potential hirers ever bother to check the hire conditions. A lot of them are
a total mess with contradictions in the insurance wordings.
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Copy of e-mail from BW on this subject:
From: "Enquiries HQ General" <Enquiries.hq@britishwaterways.co.uk>
Date: 25 June 2007 10:47:18 BST
Subject: RE: Licensing Conditions for Leisure Business Craft used for Holiday Hire
Thank you for email.
British Waterways would only consider that they have the power to revoke a licence for a hire craft if it was proved that the hire company was a fault.
Hire companies are required as part of their licence agreement to provide adequate coaching in the use of locks and of the boat (section 8 of the terms and conditions)
If a particular hire base or company constantly fails to provide this training and this leads to constant bad boat handling then British Waterways will in the first instance write to the company concerned and if then decided it was required revoke the licence.
However if adequate coaching is being given then the hire company can not be held responsible and British Waterways would be able to take no action as hire companies are not responsible for events outside their control (section 4.5)
British Waterways have no say on who hire companies can or can not hire to and if they wish to hire to single sex groups then that is their choice to do so although most companies will not do this or require a very large damage deposit before hiring to such groups.
Justin Davies
Customer Services Advisor
British Waterways
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BW advise me that they will considering withdrawing boat licenses from any hire company
which does not give "adequate" lock tuition.
We have all met hirers who have had little or no tuition and, hopefully, have helped them
through their first locks.
Can I suggest that it is all our interests to report "incidents" like this to force the minority
of hire companies involved to mend their ways and make it easier for everyone.
Comments from any one?
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They are, however, well known for attempting to wriggle out of liability.
Would be interested to know a bit more about this. Who is the wriggly worm?
The underwriters (Navigators) and not the agency (Craftinsure) have the final say (before
it ends up with the FSO).
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An update on a couple of replies.
Autherley Junction "black hole" has been removed by BW with a
promise of a replacement, some time!
Great Heywood is still uninviting, and the boatyard charge you £1
for the favour of supplying the service. Had to use it, however, at
the end of May as the BW facility at Stone was out, and according to
local information had been for a week. A notice on the door at invited you
to ring "Steve" on his mobile for "further information"
boat insurance
in New to Boating?
Posted
Try www.craftinsure.com
A very simple site, policy underwritten with Zurich group.
I have no connection with them, other than as a customer for the past few years.