Frustrated father takes truck company to freight association

A father has taken his frustrations of struggling to get a truck company to pay for damages caused to his daughter’s vehicle to the Road Freight Association (RFA).

For four months Isaac Photo of Pretoria has been struggling to get Nida Trucks, a company based in KwaZulu-Natal, to repair damages that one of their drivers caused to a utility bakkie that his daughter uses to commute between home and school. The incident happened in Midrand when his daughter was dropping off a friend. It is alleged that the driver bumped into the bakkie after he failed to make a stop at a stop sign. 

The truck’s bulbar scrapped the side of the bakkie. 

“I can go to my insurance and they can fix the car provided I pay the R4,500 excess. I have the money for that but my problem is that the insurance says that will be captured by my insurer and it reflects badly on my insurance record hence I want this company to repair the vehicle at their own cost,” said Photo.

He started making contact with the company in September last year but has been battling to get anyone to speak to. 

“When I called them for the first time, I was told to speak to a lady called Maggie whose job is to deal with accident claims. Her phone rang unanswered and it took me back to the receptionist. I must have spoken to at least three people from that company who kept referring me to Maggie but her phone was still unanswered.  . I then sent her emails but she has yet to respond.

“At one stage I was given the CEOs email address and he also did not come back to me. Now I’m left frustrated because there is no-one at the company who is responding to my efforts to reach out ,” said Photo.

The RFA could not be reached immediately to confirm the complaint yesterday.

Sowetan Consumer also saw at least four emails that Photo sent to Maggie between September 5 and September 21 which Maggie allegedly did not reply to.

Sowetan Consumer also called the company and our call was transferred to Maggie but the phone just kept ringing until it was rerouted back to the receptionist. Sowetan Consumer spoke to three different receptionists who kept forwarding our calls to Maggie. Neither did she respond to several comment-seeking emails sent to her. 

“Because of these frustrations, I even considered going to their offices and confront them but I did not know where their offices are. So this week, (last week) I decided to rather contact the association as the last resort . I think this route will work better because companies are accountable to the associations where they have membership. 

“I could have gone to the Small Claims Court route but that would have been time-consuming for me. I just want this company to do right by my daughter because the damage caused by that truck is an eyesore,” said Photo.