I have been told so many different things my head is spinning.
In a morning, pop your tacho card in (still analogue) and take 15 mins for your “walk round check”. My truck is currently running 24/7 so night man brings it in, yard lads check it, wash it, refuel it, deal with any defects.
I have been doing the 15 min thing, but told by another driver that the guy that taught his cpc course said you dont need 15 (?) and that 5 mins is adequate if thats how long it takes you to do your checks.
Another driver said thats bullcrap, and if you dont have the 15 mins and the ministry pull you then you`re in the ■■■■? !!
It’s basically proof that you’ve carried out your checks, put card in, check oil, start up (if it needs air, leave on tickover not 17 million Revs [emoji57]) walk round check, check load, strap load, fill in paperwork, have a ■■■■, coffee & go.
If anyone can do all that in 3 minutes, they need to be called Speedy Gonzales & some of them work at our place [emoji6]. (Numptys)
Trouble:
I have been told so many different things my head is spinning.
In a morning, pop your tacho card in (still analogue) and take 15 mins for your “walk round check”. My truck is currently running 24/7 so night man brings it in, yard lads check it, wash it, refuel it, deal with any defects.
I have been doing the 15 min thing, but told by another driver that the guy that taught his cpc course said you dont need 15 (?) and that 5 mins is adequate if thats how long it takes you to do your checks.
Another driver said thats bullcrap, and if you dont have the 15 mins and the ministry pull you then you`re in the [zb]? !!
Any one have clarification on this?
If it only takes 5 minutes thats fine until you get pulled and something is wrong. Then they might start asking how much attention your paying to your checks if they were done that fast…
Depends. If you drive a different truck every day you would be expected to take longer as you would have to check it had MOT, plate, O licence etc whereas if you drive the same truck every day and it had a valid O licence disc in the windscreen yesterday, it would be reasonable to assume it was still there today. Similarly if there was plenty of tread on the tyres yesterday it would be reasonable to assume that most of it was still there today etc.
The important thing is that you do vehicle checks, it doesn’t matter if it takes 5 minutes or 25 minutes, if you get stopped and something that should have shown up on your pre-run vehicle checks is found to be wrong it’s no good saying the yard bloke does the vehicle checks because no-ones going to care, you’re the one who will get fined and possibly get points on your licence.
The 15 minute thing is bs, a lot of companies insist that you spend 15 minutes on pre-run checks but there’s nothing in the law that says you have to.
I don’t know about dvsa view on it but at Dhl for example if you don’t have 15 min lead in time it gets flagged up in tacho analysis. Some depots clamp down on it and some depots don’t give a ■■■■.
5 Minutes stood by the diesel pumps telling the Day Man how tough Night Men have it.
5 Minutes stood by the wash telling the Day Man how you always get the ■■■■■ that the other Night Men don’t want.
5 Minutes stood by the Day Man telling him not to hang the job out tomorrow because you always work your willy off to get the wagon back for him on time, as he hooks your trailer up.
1 Minute in the lay-by up the road putting on the trailer plate which you helpfully took off the dropped trailer, but were so busy telling your Oppo how great your life is that you forgot to put it back on in the yard.
Repeats with roles reversed when you get back to the yard in the morning.
5 Minutes stood by the diesel pumps telling the Day Man how tough Night Men have it.
5 Minutes stood by the wash telling the Day Man how you always get the [zb] that the other Night Men don’t want.
5 Minutes stood by the Day Man telling him not to hang the job out tomorrow because you always work your willy off to get the wagon back for him on time, as he hooks your trailer up.
1 Minute in the lay-by up the road putting on the trailer plate which you helpfully took off the dropped trailer, but were so busy telling your Oppo how great your life is that you forgot to put it back on in the yard.
Repeats with roles reversed when you get back to the yard in the morning.
With some of the comments I see the CPC is doing its job well.
Pre use vehicle checks takes as long as it takes .
Just because the last chap checked everything don’t mean that when you check everything all the lights are gonna work a bulb can blow at any time.
Remember that little bit of white plastic belongs to YOU not the boss not the chap in the chip shop but YOU its YOUR licence no one else’s .
We get 30 mins but they don’t even flinch if it takes an hour .
