I rent the car I drive and share it with another driver. I do weekdays and Saturday nights, he does the rest. My colleague came home early last night as clutch appeared to be on way out. Yup - confirmed first thing this morning. Good news is when I rang the owner he confirmed the spare he keeps was available. The bad news he gave me (I hadnt logged on due to clutch) was our main mast had been hit by lightening and initially all phone lines and data despatch had been knocked out!

Voice operation was going by 11.00 am but it seems there was no procedure to deal with allocating all pre booked and school run jobs to cars. System restored by 14.00 but lots of unhappy drivers and more importantly, unhappy customers. I had a job to pick up from a school but the lad wasn't there cos no one brought him in. Cant understand why there is no plan B. In the 3 years I have been driving I have never had to work on voice control. Reminds me of when I had a CB radio years ago. I fear I nearly said 10 4 good buddy to the operator. Would have been embarassing.

Clutch wont be done until Friday PM, earliest garage can do.

Does your office not realise that every driver has a mobile?