Got this off the Driver hour guard site"
The Drivers Hours Legislation throughout the EC is to change sometime in 2005, a specific date has not yet been set in concrete. The changes to take place include the following changes: Driving for a period of 3 hrs instead of 4.5 hrs, then a rest period of no less than 30 minutes must be taken followed by a further rest of 15 minutes or more no later than 1.5 hrs later, however, it will be permissible to take a 45 minute rest after no more than 3 hrs, then continue for a further 3 hrs before requiring a further rest period. Weekly rest of 36 hrs at base is to be abolished, with a weekly rest minimum of 45 hrs per week being required each week, the 24 hr weekly rest away from base will still be permitted. The Daily Rest requirement is to be increased from 11 hrs to 12 hrs per day, however, the rest reduction to 9 hrs on no more than 3 occassions per week will remain in place, and compensation repayments for reducing to a 9 hr rest period will no longer be required. The Split Shift is to be abolished therefore bringing all drivers under 1 set of rules".
I have not heard of this change before, has anyone else ■■.
no not heard anything yet,but mayby davey driver might shed some light on it
I think it is just a proposed change that has to go through a lot of debate and dicussion. I read something on the Euro transport web thing.
Wake up Davey, come and explain it all 
fta.co.uk/information/keycam … hanges.htm
Summary of the European Commission proposals
Position as at July 2004In August 2003 the Commission has published its revised proposed amendments to the EU drivers’ hours regulations 3820/85 that also necessitate some amendments to the tachograph regulations 3821/85 in respect of record keeping and downloading of data from digital tachographs. Following is a summary of the main points of interest to FTA members (proposals for psv operations not included). While the Commission has included the majority of the recommendations of the Parliament, it has rejected some that are significant to certain sectors of industry.
While FTA maintains its policy that the existing Regulation 3820/85 is preferable, in general, the revised proposal appeared to be less damaging than the Commission’s original proposals. However in June 2004 the Council of Ministers reached political agreement on amendments to the drivers’ hours regulation that would have a significantly damaging effect on many sectors of the road freight transport industry.
Bearing in mind the Council of Ministers has reached political agreement that depending on support from the European Parliament could amend the Commission’s proposal, the following information reflects the main changes proposed by the Commission together with the Council’s position
In scope - extended to include vehicles between 2.8 and 3.5 tonnes on international point to point deliveries.
Council position: change to vehicles combinations exceeding 3.5tonnes
Driving time - proposed to specify a weekly maximum of 56 hours. Of significance is that where driving is undertak
en partly ‘on site’ and partly on ‘open’ road ALL driving will be counted towards driving limits - (currently driving ‘on site’ is regarded as ‘other work’). However driving that is undertaken solely on site will continue to be out of scope of the Regulations. Also to be included in driving totals is time spent driving a vehicle that is exempt from EU regulations on the same day as driving a vehicle that is ‘in scope’ (generally referred to as ‘mixed driving’).
Council position:supports Commission proposal
Breaks - after at most four and a half hours of driving a driver shall observe a break of at least 45 minutes unless he begins a rest; this break may be replaced by a break of at least 15 minutes followed by a break of at least 30 minutes each distributed over the period in such a way as to comply with the aforementioned provisions.
Council position: A driver should take a break of five minutes for every half an hour driving (or part thereof) subject to a minimum break of 15 minutes and of course a maximum driving time of four and a half hours.
*Daily rest - it is proposed to increase the daily rest to 12 hours however it would still be possible to reduce this to a minimum of 9 hours three times per week. There would be no requirement to compensate reduction in daily rest.
It is proposed to change the provision whereby drivers could satisfy the daily rest requirement by splitting it into three pieces. The new provision would allow rest to be split into two separate periods the first of which must be an uninterrupted period of at least 3 hours and a second uninterrupted period of at least nine hours.
In the case of multi-manned operations daily rest requirement would be 12 hours in a 30 hour period however this could be reduced to a minimum of 9 hours three times per week.
It is proposed that daily rest taken on ferries could be interrupted twice on condition that the periods of interruption did not exceed one hour in total and that actual rest taken totals 12 hours.
Council position: change daily rest proposal to 11 hours as at present allowing reduction to nine hours three times per week without the need to compensate. Change multi-manning proposal to nine hours rest within a 30 hours period. Council supports Commission proposal on split rest.
*Week - 00.00 hours Monday to 24.00 hours Sunday. This re-instates the fixed week.
Council position: supports Commission proposal
*Weekly rest - remains at 45 hours with reductions to 24 hours away from base and 36 hours at base. Compensation would be required by the end of the following week.
Council position: change to weekly rest may be reduced to 24 hours at home or away - compensation must be made en-bloc by the end of third week following the reduction.
However ‘in any two consecutive weeks at least one regular weekly rest period of 45 consecutive hours must be taken’. This effectively means a 5 day week every second week.
*Records - at roadside checks records to be available for the current day plus those for the previous 15 consecutive days.
Council position: change to ‘the current week’ plus records used by the driver in the previous 15 days. Also from 1 January 2008 records to be available for roadside checks should be ‘the current day’ plus the previous 28 days.
*Exemptions/Derogations: - the Commission has deleted many of the exemptions currently enjoyed for some specific operations. The following are some of the main proposals on exemptions and derogations;
o exemption for breakdown vehicles used within 100km radius of base
o derogation for vehicles not exceeding 7.5 tonnes used to deliver postal items as part of the universal service within a 50km radius of base
o derogation for vehicles used in connection water services, highway maintenance and refuse collection
o does not make provide for vehicles used in connection with gas or electricity or for collection of milk from farm to dairy, carriage of live animals or animal carcases. Vehicles used for postal services that are over 7.5 tonnes and all vehicles over 3.5 tonnes used for such services outwith a 50 km radius of base will no longer be exempt.The Commission rejected FTA and Parliament recommendations to reinstate exemptions for gas, electricity, milk, etc
Council position: in general supports Commission but introduces derogation for vehicles used for milk collection from farms, vehicles used for animal waste or carcasses not intended for human consumption and vehicles used exclusively on roads inside hub facilities such as ports, interports and railway terminals.
*Consignor Liability: consignors, freight forwarders, prime contractors, sub-contractors and driver employment businesses to ensure that contractually agreed time schedules respect the provision of the regulations.
Council Position: supports Commission proposal and adds tour operators to the list.
nomad98:
to be abolished
I have not heard of this change before, has anyone else ■■.
Yep, about a year or so ago, probably about August 2003. 
Again we have another set of proposals that have seemingly been put on the back burner.
Digital tachos have been a fiasco.
The German toll system has been a fiasco.
The WTR has somewhat ‘crawled’ into existance, but not in all countries.
Compulsory training for new and existing drivers would appear to be an idea that policticians are hoping will just go away.
And I’m sure there are more.
Krankee:
The German toll system has been a fiasco.
While it is true the actual start of the MAUT was a fiasco when it did start, around 16 months late, it has worked near perfectly. Better to start it late and make sure it works than bring it in on time while it didn’t. Personally I hope this is the system the UK adopt when the finally bring one in.