Any Orange subscribers out there may be interested in subscribing to Wildfire.
Orange (in their wisdom) will not let anybody who doesn't already have Wildfire, subscribe to it. They are trialing a new voice dialing service as a 'replacement' for new customers.
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Has anyone experience of the Halfords deal of fully fitted hands free kit for £99.99? From the pictures it looks semi professional and it mutes the radio and comes through the speakers similar to professionally fitted ones?
I know you can get units that plug into cig lighters and other ones with separate speakers but they just seem to be a bit more messy.
Any thoughts?
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So they are. Apologies.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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>> Any Orange subscribers out there may be interested in subscribing to Wildfire. Orange (in their wisdom) will not let anybody who doesn't already have Wildfire, subscribe to it. They are trialing a new voice dialing service as a 'replacement' for new customers.
I think Wildfire is so naff that I abandon the call if I hear it on the other end. I suspect Orange realise it is a big negative to many people and have killed it off.
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Wildfire is all but useless when running with a full hands free car kit. I think it's a combination of the mic being too far away and background noise.
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It's interesting to read all these posts from people who are obviously trying to act responsibly re phones in cars . I doubt anyone here has anything to worry about, given that the use of hand-held phones -even, God help us- to text while driving ,is commonplace. if you get nicked because of your hands-free setup I'd want to know how many of the other boneheads have been nicked first !
Anyway- re auto-answer .it's hard to find in setttings on most phones because it only shows as an option when the hands free is plugged in.
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Your attention please...
HMG have at last made and published the Statutory Instrument outlawing the use of mobile phones wef 1.12.03.
It is The Road vehicles (Construction and Use)(Amendment) (N0 4)Regulation 2003.
It can be viewed in its entirity at
www.tinyurl.com/sj4n
DVD
link corrected. DD
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DVD - could you check that link please - I got an error message when I clicked - thanks very much
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Just tried it to check and doesnt work but it does if fed in as a key word.
Try
www.hmso.gov.uk/si/si2003/20032695.htm
Fingers crossed
DVD
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Well spotted...so the answer to the thread is
(a) a mobile telephone or other device is to be treated as hand-held if it is, or must be, held at some point during the course of making or receiving a call or performing any other interactive communication function;
Well, I don't hold my phone, it rests in the bit between the seats, so I'm OK then....or am I?
Awaiting the definition of "held" with bated breath...
Seriously, if the phone is on a holder of some kind and all you need do is punch buttons, that seems OK, does it not? I.e. not true hands free...
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Your last para has it Smokie. But no texting...
DVD
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Because it is getting dark so early I can't think straight...
basically I am OK if I use a blue tooth head set (rather than mike + speaker) and am OK it I use my little pinky to answer a call.
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Henry k & pdc. Disagree totally; works fine for me with plumbed-in, "walk & talk" and bluetooth hands free. Never in 4 years had anyone mention any unspecified naffness.
Now to the letter of the law;
"5(c) it is unsafe or impracticable for him to cease driving in order to make the call"
Anyone care to say a few words on the minefield that I suspect is contained in "impracticable"?
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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Did you miss the 'and'?
If you are dialing 999 in response to a genuine emergency then they probably won't prosecute you, unless you caused the emergency whilst using a hand held phone!
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Yep, missed it. Thank you hxj.
That would be as in 'ands free ...
Boom boom
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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Yes but with a true car kit the microphone is about 15 inches away from you and wildfire is hopeless.
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DVD, you put a full stop at the end of the earlier link you provided. That is why it didn't work. I have amended.
btw, there's no need to copy the link as tinyurl automatically adds the link to your PC's clipboard. All you need to do is paste (ctrl+v) the link into your post.
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So, if you do not actually HOLD the phone whilst you dial the number, you are not breaking the law? The SI says:
(6) For the purposes of this regulation -
(a) a mobile telephone or other device is to be treated as hand-held if it is, or must be, held at some point during the course of making or receiving a call or performing any other interactive communication function
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Never mind phones, hands free or otherwise, what about smoking whilst driving?
All that opening packets, lighting up, opening the window to chuck out fag ends, packets, lighters, matches and other associated carcinogenic paraphernalia.
Pipe smokers are ever worse !!!!!!!
But then, if every one stopped smoking, the government would have to find £1,000 an extra tax per taxpayer - my wife and I would be £2k per annum worse off - what a paradox.
Please don?t stop smoking though, please smoke more, but not whilst driving.
I?ve got three kids, a wife and a Volvo to run, better smokers help subsidise me !!!!!!!
Then there are all the smokers who have heart attacks at the wheel and take half a dozen other road users with them.
Would banning smokers from driving not make the roads safer?
Paul {Forest of Bowland}
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Would banning smokers from driving not make the roads safer?
Probably, but where do you draw the line?
Fined for changing a radio station, cassette, or CD? Fined for picking our nose whilst stuck in traffic? Fined for anything which involves removing one hand from the steering wheel?
Lets ban manual gearboxes while we're at it. In fact lets ban the car altogether.
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>> Would banning smokers from driving not make the roads safer? Probably, but where do you draw the line? Fined for changing a radio station, cassette, or CD? Fined for picking our nose whilst stuck in traffic? Fined for anything which involves removing one hand from the steering wheel? Lets ban manual gearboxes while we're at it. In fact lets ban the car altogether.
Picking your nose should be banned as it is actually quite dangerous. If youhave yr finger shoved up your nostril and someone rear ends you, it has been known that yr finger travels into yr brain killing you! ;-)
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Hey, look! An immoderate post from DD. Had a bad day, DD? And it was only 10:30 in the morning.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land
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At least the senior traff plod interviewed on the box the other day was straight forward enough to admit that it will "take quite a bit of case law"[1] to define the boundaries.
[1] not my words.
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The following comments are my thoughts only and are the guidelines that we will be following. I make no representations for it beyond that. It contains my personal opinions only. You follow my thoughts at your own risk. Clear ?
Mobile phone use by employees while driving has always been an issue for the HSE even when it was not illegal (or at least, not explicitly so) now that it is illegal it will become an even more obvious issue.
So those of you who have employees with mobile phones need to worry about it.
Clearly your policies should already advise against mobile phone use while driving. You\'ll now need to strengthen that and forbid phone use while driving if the phone is not mounted in a cradle pointing out that the variety of headphones which have been used and tacitly accepted until now will no longer be accepted.
You also need to ensure that your policy states that if someone rings a mobile phone, they should check that the driver is not driving, or if he is that he at least has a cradle fitted. The call should be kept to a minimum whatever and if a cradle is not being used then you should disconnect.
It would cause you significant issues if an employee caught using a phone was prepared to say in mitigation that he was talking to his manager and felt unable to ring off since his company would not find this acceptable since you may have some legal liability and most certainly will fall foul of the HSE and its rules.
If you have someone who may need to drive & phone, then you need to issue them with a car kit and classify it as PPE - the misuse, non-use or deactivation of which is a criminal offence.
Most important is to ensure that your company and its staff have a culture which finds it unacceptable to make long calls while driving and any calls at all if not hands free according to the law and has policies in place enforcing this.
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Mark, your post reads like direct advice to companies to take certain actions to prevent prosecution and whilst I'm not questioning the content/sentiment, what is the authority you are using? Is this a quote from some HSE directive, I can't tell from reading what's here.
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Nsar,
Please see the paragraph I have now inserted at the beginning of my previous note. There is no authority behind my comments. It is simply my reaction to current HSE guidelines and the potential implications of the new laws as we see it.
However, whether or not my thoughts on the answer are appropriate, it is nonetheless an issue which all companies should pay attention to and to which they should find an answer/approach which they believe appropriate.
MArk.
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Mark - some advice. My company provides a car or allowance for my job. I take the allowance. I get a company phone.
If you take the car, they fit a hands free etc. If you take the allowance, they say it is your responsibility to fit a hands free at your cost.
Company policy currently says that phone calls should not be taken/made when on the move, or if they are, should be keot to an absolute minimum.
Do you reckon they need to reconsider provision of hands free kits to car allowance people in the light of what you've said?
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Oops, my last post should have started Some Advice please!
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My own opinion is as follows;
Either it should be stated that without a car kit you should not use the phone while moving or the appropriate equipment needs to be provided.
They have the choice of either stating that the phone must not be used, or if there is a busienss need and/or expectation of your availability on the end of a phone, then they should provide the cradle as part of your PPE.
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Thanks Mark, will ask and update with their reply
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