Hi Both,
Thanks very much for your opinions, it seems like I surmised the people who make the rules should be better able to understand them.
Now for the sensitive bit eh, unfortunately the said pc is a bit of a **** and I just fear if I “get one over” on him we will be the subject of his attentions on a regular basis 
. Oh well, never mind we have nothing to hide 
Cheers
Hi All,
Hope this only appears once(don’t ask!!)
Posted this question a while ago:
"Have a bit of a poser here, we operate a small fleet of mostly 4.5tonne vans on an island and have been quite happily driving without using tachos or log books because of the “island” rule and not driving more than 4 hours on any day ie “domestic rules”. Well Mr Plod stopped one of the vans recently and discovered that a couple of times in the past year unbeknown to me the vehicle had left the island for a few hours and had been driven on the mainland .
OK I hold my hands up we couldn’t claim the vehicle had been used “exclusively” on the island so he now says we have to drive on ec rules everyday although the vehicle is only driven for about 2 hours.
Accepting this as the situation, he tells us that the vehicle can now NEVER revert to the previous method while in our ownership.
My question is if we were to buy a 3.5tonne vehicle for the very occaisonal mainland trips and undertook never to take the larger vehicles again is there any way we could regain the exclusive use clause, or is it lost forever "
Update:
Wrote to VOSA to get clarification on this point and they say in their opinion the tacho rule applies to the DRIVER and not the VEHICLE and it would only need to have a chart in if the driver was using the vehicle “in scope” of tachograph rules.
Now my problem is what do I do next? Does the VOSA view outweigh the Police view? I don’t want to upset the policeman involved for obvious reasons
What with VOSA being ‘subject matter experts’ I would say their info is more likely to be correct.
As for upsetting the policeman, he will probably be peeved he’s been proved wrong whatever way you go about it. This could be one of those times where it’s not what you say but how you say it! If he were to try and make an issue of it and you were to end up in court, wouldn’t he look silly being over ruled by expert advice.
What you need to do is let him know that in the nicest possible way!! 
donttalktosh:
Wrote to VOSA to get clarification on this point and they say in their opinion the tacho rule applies to the DRIVER and not the VEHICLE and it would only need to have a chart in if the driver was using the vehicle “in scope” of tachograph rules.
That tallies with my reply at the time, except in Civil Service jargon.
donttalktosh:
Does the VOSA view outweigh the Police view?
No because they are both Prosecuting Authorities.
However, the legislation is usually couched in the terms of, “An Enforcement Officer or a Police Officer…” soon to be replaced with, from what I’m reading about the new Reform Act, “An Enforcement Officer, or a Police Officer, or a Police Community Support Officer, or a Taffic Warden, or anyone with shiny buttons and wearing a cap…” 
I would argue that the wording signifies that it is for VOSA to take a lead role in setting policy and providing advice, although ultimately, it would be for the CPS, or I assume in your area, the Procurator Fiscal, to ultimately decide on whether or not a prosecution would be pursued, and considering the fact that VOSA have provided a counter opinion, then I cannot see the matter as being in the public interest and therefore not pursued.
As you obviously know the Officer, invite him to call in for coffee.