This has happened to me twice in recent weeks. It is a pain having to then book a 45 break before moving anywhere, and getting 20odd hours awarded against my driving aggregate fortnight.
At some point during oneâs drive out on shift, the card might be losing power whilst mounted in the digi device.
A power interruption may be causing the âSecurity breachâ error, as Iâm not one for having Magnets about my cab!
When inserting the card for the following shift, the card doesnât give me a chance to say âyesâ to a manual tacho entry, instead going straight into mounted mode, and assuming I was driving solidly for the entire daily rest Iâve just taken 20.5 hours in my case. Of course an immediate 4.5hour infringement gets flashed up, obliging me to take a 45 break at the very start of my duty before proceeding. TOTAL pain in the arse this - but what is the solution?
Easy - exit truck, go to office and tell them tacho is buggered and vehicle is VOR. Maybe include a printout since obviously your an HGV driver so know nothing about driving HGVs in their eyes.
Unless youâre one of those crazy people who âlive in a tin canâ ( ), then ask for the nearest tacho centre as you cant drive with a faulty tacho.
If office still donât understand, tell them the magic phrase âcomputer says noâ - they always understand that.
Whatever causes it, that is one seriously screwed tacho and I suspect would result in VOSA doing a lot of spring cleaning of your cab, inc behind the dash in an attempt to find that magnet.
Why would the tacho be able to book anything assuming the card wasnât left in the tacho while you were on daily rest period ?.In which case that would have been a manual entry ? , ( donât ask me how without the back of a tacho chart to record it on).
How can it book driving if the tacho is switched to duty at the start of a shift ?.
What it all tells me is that âifâ I ever went back to driving a truck it would have to be old enough to have a âproperâ old school tacho,that I could understand how to use,fitted in it.
If you forget to pop your card at the end of a shift, then it will either register âBreakâ, âPOAâ or âOther Workâ for the period you went home and had your daily rest. We get routinely told to âalways switch the mode to break before ejecting your card, and select Break before inserting your card for the next shiftâ.
In my case, this âcard not closedâ bypassed the normal opportunity to make a manual entry as usual, and instead incorrectly records 20.5 hours DRIVING across my daily rest period - which would look bloody strange on a digitrace with no vehicle movement recorded across those 20.5 hours. The printout of the day before and today - shows this clearly to VOSA though, or as argued above - âYou wouldnât have a leg to stand onâ.
I donât actually think it is possible to drive for 20.5 hours solid - on one small tank of fuel, without falling asleep, and without getting pulled by plod for trying to drive off the end of the pier at Thurso or Lizard Point, depending upon which way you are going⌠(or off the spiral ramp at coming into Dover, I guessâŚ)
Winseer:
If you forget to pop your card at the end of a shift, then it will either register âBreakâ, âPOAâ or âOther Workâ for the period you went home and had your daily rest. We get routinely told to âalways switch the mode to break before ejecting your card, and select Break before inserting your card for the next shiftâ.
In my case, this âcard not closedâ bypassed the normal opportunity to make a manual entry as usual, and instead incorrectly records 20.5 hours DRIVING across my daily rest period - which would look bloody strange on a digitrace with no vehicle movement recorded across those 20.5 hours. The printout of the day before and today - shows this clearly to VOSA though, or as argued above - âYou wouldnât have a leg to stand onâ.
I donât actually think it is possible to drive for 20.5 hours solid - on one small tank of fuel, without falling asleep, and without getting pulled by plod for trying to drive off the end of the pier at Thurso or Lizard Point, depending upon which way you are going⌠(or off the spiral ramp at coming into Dover, I guessâŚ)
Do you park your truck on your drive at home then? Has your employer not heard of manual entries? No one finishes work the moment they take the card out unless youâre overnighting in it and then I think that is a bit dodgy but apparently not illegal.
Top tip: When entering the card make sure the tacho is on the mode you want it to be from that moment onwards, otherwise it will quite possibly screw you up if you forget, putting a minute of some other mode in which of course might give you an infringement.
Sand Fisher:
Do you park your truck on your drive at home then? Has your employer not heard of manual entries? No one finishes work the moment they take the card out unless youâre overnighting in it and then I think that is a bit dodgy but apparently not illegal.
.
Weâve had this before.
Some of us do all our admin work before booking off. Then keys in pocket and go home. Normally no work related duties outside of card being in slot.
Travelling to and fro isnât work.
Winseer:
If you forget to pop your card at the end of a shift, then it will either register âBreakâ, âPOAâ or âOther Workâ
So are saying that you forgot to remove a tacho card from the tacho and it therefore somehow recorded your daily rest period as driving ?.
There would be no mystery or issue about that.So surely youâd just make a manual entry explaining the error just as if youâd have accidently left a paper chart in the tacho and the tacho was left switched to duty or driving,during your daily rest.Let alone if the day driver then removed it and left it in the office without telling anyone. Which probably explains why I donât remember ever once forgetting to remove a chart at the end of a shift.
Although making a manual entry in the case of digi tachos really would be an unfathomable mystery,at least to me.When just using the thing normally would probably result in a whole shift being wasted trying to sort the thing out.
Winseer:
If you forget to pop your card at the end of a shift, then it will either register âBreakâ, âPOAâ or âOther Workâ for the period you went home and had your daily rest. We get routinely told to âalways switch the mode to break before ejecting your card, and select Break before inserting your card for the next shiftâ.
In my case, this âcard not closedâ bypassed the normal opportunity to make a manual entry as usual, and instead incorrectly records 20.5 hours DRIVING across my daily rest period - which would look bloody strange on a digitrace with no vehicle movement recorded across those 20.5 hours. The printout of the day before and today - shows this clearly to VOSA though, or as argued above - âYou wouldnât have a leg to stand onâ.
I donât actually think it is possible to drive for 20.5 hours solid - on one small tank of fuel, without falling asleep, and without getting pulled by plod for trying to drive off the end of the pier at Thurso or Lizard Point, depending upon which way you are going⌠(or off the spiral ramp at coming into Dover, I guessâŚ)
Do you park your truck on your drive at home then? Has your employer not heard of manual entries? No one finishes work the moment they take the card out unless youâre overnighting in it and then I think that is a bit dodgy but apparently not illegal.
Top tip: When entering the card make sure the tacho is on the mode you want it to be from that moment onwards, otherwise it will quite possibly screw you up if you forget, putting a minute of some other mode in which of course might give you an infringement.
I always eject the card with break mode selected. I always insert the card with break mode selected. The trouble I have been having is that the card goes âcard not closedâ error, and then by-passes the normal opportunity to make a manual entry.
This books ALL the time when the card was not in the device âthrough as solid drivingâ - not even âother workâ - but just âsolid drivingâ - 20.34 hrs worthâŚ
This entire thread is regarding why the digicard device DOES this�
the maoster:
Winseer, why do you eject and reinsert the card with break mode selected?
His boss told him to do it so that they can get an extra 10-15 minutes a day out of him.
Maybe Iâm being a bit naive/thick here but I donât understand that. In my mind card in = start of shift and card out = end of shift * the proviso being you arenât waiting for a vehicle at start of shift, and also if youâre sufficiently â â â â youâll subsequently do a manual entry to cover the minutes not accounted for on your card for getting keys and papers at the beginning and handing keys/paperwork in at the end of shift?
My point to Winseer being that regardless of which mode you select the card will only register any activity if itâs actually inserted into the unit and also (if weâre being pedantic) the act of card removal or insertion should actually be other work.
The only thing âobligingâ you to take a 45 minute break at the start of your shift is you - not the tachograph. Likewise the 20 hours driving time erroneously recorded is not actually impacting on your fortnightly drive time, other than in your head. Report the fault and crack on as normal.
Roymondo:
The only thing âobligingâ you to take a 45 minute break at the start of your shift is you - not the tachograph. Likewise the 20 hours driving time erroneously recorded is not actually impacting on your fortnightly drive time, other than in your head. Report the fault and crack on as normal.
Agree.
How is a 45 going to reset a 20hr continuous drive?
the maoster:
Maybe Iâm being a bit naive/thick here but I donât understand that. In my mind card in = start of shift and card out = end of shift * the proviso being you arenât waiting for a vehicle at start of shift, and also if youâre sufficiently â â â â youâll subsequently do a manual entry to cover the minutes not accounted for on your card for getting keys and papers at the beginning and handing keys/paperwork in at the end of shift?
That isnât being â â â â , that is called doing it properly and accurately recording your time as youâre required to.
Where Iâm at even if I get given the keys and paperwork straight away its at least 5 minutes from walking in the office door to getting to where the truck is parked and as soon as I walk in the office door after going there straight from my car Iâm doing work related tasks. Likewise when finishing from ejecting the card to going to the office to hand back the keys, handing in the paperwork, booking in the trailer and anything else can be 5-10 minutes. Until I walk out of that office door to go to my car to go home Iâm doing work related tasks.
If you do it your way and youâre paid by what is on your card you could be doing yourself out of 15 minutes a day, 1.25hrs a week, 65 hours a year - you can be doing yourself out of an entire weekâs wage.
the maoster:
Maybe Iâm being a bit naive/thick here but I donât understand that. In my mind card in = start of shift and card out = end of shift * the proviso being you arenât waiting for a vehicle at start of shift, and also if youâre sufficiently â â â â youâll subsequently do a manual entry to cover the minutes not accounted for on your card for getting keys and papers at the beginning and handing keys/paperwork in at the end of shift?
That isnât being â â â â , that is called doing it properly and accurately recording your time as youâre required to.
We used a clocking in and out machine just like in a factory and youâd obviously incriminate yourself with the ministry if the tacho and clock card records didnât match.Also always recorded my daily rest period as a manual entry to provide a continuous 24 hour record on the chart.
Conor:
If you do it your way and youâre paid by what is on your card you could be doing yourself out of 15 minutes a day, 1.25hrs a week, 65 hours a year - you can be doing yourself out of an entire weekâs wage.
Iâm paid by whatâs on my time sheet, not whatâs on my card. The only day I get a start time is a Monday. If for example I have a 7am start then Iâm in the yard for 0650, the keys are still in the lorry so I grab a coffee from the machine, jump in the truck and as soon as the clock says 7am I bang the card in. Iâm not â â â â â â â about booking the 10 minutes I was in early for. If Iâm that bothered Iâll just wait an extra 10 minutes somewhere during the day.
), then ask for the nearest tacho centre as you cant drive with a faulty tacho.
