Hello all.
I’ve just committed what is my first and I’m determined will be my last ever serious tacho offence. I’m not looking for sympathy but I’m ■■■■■■■■ it if I’m honest and wanted some advice.
I’ve been driving for almost a year and so far have only had a few minor infringements which were all at the start. These were mainly rushing for timed deliveries and then going over my six hours WTD by a few mins (but never my driving time). Also had one where I didn’t realise tacho hadn’t defaulted to ‘other work’ like in most of the wagons and was still on rest - making it look like I’d not done my morning checks.
All the above were noted by my employer and I signed to confirm that I had acknowledged and we had put in place measures to prevent reoccurence.
However, the following is much much worse.
I did an agency job which was my first time working in London - long drive from North Midlands. It became apparent I was going to struggle to get back so they pulled me out of last drop. I then realised I still wasn’t going to get back and called agency and customer.
They gave me two choices. Either sleep in wagon or drive back and make a note on printout. There was nobody available to pick me up but I was assured that in the instances where this had happened before that it hadn’t been an issue - they said that there are generally allowances for unexpected situations.
I didn’t have any contact lens solution/cases with me and so I didn’t think it a good idea to stay out. My eyes were already sore and had I taken out my lenses I wouldn’t have been able to put back in as go rock hard. Furthermore, if I took them out and got collected in morning I’d still have an hour’s drive from depot to my house which I’d not want to do with compromised vision. I appreciate this would all likely be seen as ‘bad planning’.
So I chose to drive back and make a note on printout. I’d been planning to pull into a service station and do this but ended up stuck in standstill traffic so decided just to do a printout there and then - I wanted to do it before 10 hours driving time was up so it looked like I’d thought this through and not made a knee-jerk decision to drive on.
However, I couldn’t find the print option on the tacho - usually it can be accessed with arrow keys. I thought ‘maybe I need to pop card out to access head unit data’ and did so. Traffic starts moving so card goes back in and I drive on thinking I’ll just do it when I get back.
It takes me 1.5 hours to get back (had originally said 45 mins on sat nav) and I’m already thinking ‘this was a bad idea’. When I get back card won’t eject and I realise it’s wedged in slot. I manage to push it in with bank card and then eject it but it quickly becomes apparent that it wasn’t active so now there’s a discrepancy between head unit and card.
It now looks like I’ve intentionally pulled card to avoid going over ten hours! No inspection officer is going to believe this tall tale but it’s the honest truth. I did a manual entry this morn and selected ‘other work’ until the correct finish time as I figured it’d look worse to select rest as that’s what somebody would do who was trying to hide his activity.
What’s the best option to come clean about this? Am I totally ■■■■■■?
I’m not one of those guys that bends the rules regularly and I’ve learnt my lesson. However, I’m worried that the above is already enough to get me in serious hot water.
