Dipper_Dave:
I should add here that as a tramping box jockey your either driving or on break, other work is minimal apart from daily checks and minor faffing about like washing the truck for example. POA is never used.
It’s one of the more hour intensive sectors but as far as actual physical graft goes not so much.
Some love it some hate it, some can’t envisage being at work that long but for me it’s a lifestyle choice that suits me at the moment.
Pretty much identical to me. If you equate wages to actual working time, it’s the best paid job in the industry
Dipper_Dave:
Although I work a lot of 14 to 15 hour days I rarely have 9 off usually 10 to 12.
I work the drivers hours regs to suit me or more accurately my employer so they can afford to keep me employed and increase the profitability of their company and in turn me.
But I love trucking and I like to truck (sure theres a song about this ), im staggered by how good an employee I am, in fact even though im just a number in the corporate monster im currently loyal to I often wonder what a prime asset I could be to a smaller entity.
I also like fishing, swimming and socialising with complete strangers.
Job offers by PM please, form an orderley que.
Although so as to not confuse anyone, if you do a 14 or 15 hour day then have 10 or 12 hours off, it still only counts as having 9 hours off and using one of your reduced rests because your not getting a full 11 hours off before the end of your 24 hour period.
I know of someone recently who was repeatedly working 14 and 15 hour days, 0500 to 2000 for example, then starting the next day at 0800 and genuinely thinking that meant because he’d had 12 hours off it didn’t count as a reduced rest.
I used to think this was the case as well. I did two tacho hours DCPC courses 1 before I started driving one shortly after, and I am sure they only talked about a reduced rest being less than nine hours. The 11/13 didn’t come into it. It is only since I started coming on this site that I learnt that they had to be taken in a 24 period.
OVLOV JAY:
Pretty much identical to me. If you equate wages to actual working time, it’s the best paid job in the industry
Yep and then there’s the quality time when I get home the weekend and the wife has missed me enough to give me hug with a happy ending. Even after 25years together.
Then there’s the camaraderie, still a bit about in the container job, no matter what company you work for we all love a good moan. Usually about Maritime closing the bar at Alconbury
Plenty of banter as well, always amusing to watch a noob handle a shortened blind side reverse onto an inverter. Still remember my first time, shocking doesn’t cover it.
OVLOV JAY:
Pretty much identical to me. If you equate wages to actual working time, it’s the best paid job in the industry
Yep and then there’s the quality time when I get home the weekend and the wife has missed me enough to give me hug with a happy ending. Even after 25years together.
Then there’s the camaraderie, still a bit about in the container job, no matter what company you work for we all love a good moan. Usually about Maritime closing the bar at Alconbury
Plenty of banter as well, always amusing to watch a noob handle a shortened blind side reverse onto an inverter. Still remember my first time, shocking doesn’t cover it.
Agree on all of that. Especially the camaraderie bit. I’m on first name terms with drivers from other companies that I’ve never worked with. You don’t get much of that on general to be honest
Dipper_Dave:
Yep treat your working days as 24hour blocks rather than days and all becomes clearer.
That would help, but in truth they are not blocks 24 hours long, but up to 24 hours long (for single-manning, anyway!).
I think the simplest rule of thumb is that a rest is reduced if either the shift exceeds 13 hours (the absolute maximum being 15 hours), or if the following shift starts less than 11 hours following the end of the first (the absolute minimum being nine).
This does not allow you to calculate the actual deemed length of the rest, but the only time I can see you would need to know the exact figure, is if you are attaching reduced weekly rest compensation to the end of a reduced daily rest - and you could avoid the need to do this by just adding a minimum of 2 hours onto the compensation (which is less than the length of time it would take to learn how to get the precise answer!).
Rjan:
That would help, but in truth they are not blocks 24 hours long, but up to 24 hours long (for single-manning, anyway!).
Slightly pedantic but I cant disagree as you could work 10 hours then have 11 off and start a new 24hour block. Your working day is governed by your rest periods within your 24 hour block starting when you commence your shift.
I think the simplest rule of thumb is that a rest is reduced if either the shift exceeds 13 hours (the absolute maximum being 15 hours), or if the following shift starts less than 11 hours following the end of the first (the absolute minimum being nine).
Not really as it doesnt take into consideration a split rest where 3 hours is taken during the shift allowing for a 9 hour rest at the end of the shift prior to the start of the next shift providing that whole 24 hour period has a total of at least 12 hours rest, I.e. 3 and a 9.
Heck you could have a 4 and a 9 or 5 and a 9, as long as the last one is at least 9, maybe even a 4 and a 10.
Oh christ ive bored myself, forget this ■■■■ and just crack on, the best way to learn the regs is to live them.
The other paragraph rjan discuss’s encompasses compensating for reduced weekly rests en bloc which doesnt mean you can have 2 reduced weekly rests even if youve compensated not withstanding a long weekly rest that can be attached to eIther week, oh FFS kill me now. Must dash the wifes lost the soap in the bath and not sure if I can find it but it wont be for lack of trying.
To cut a long story short just wing it and hope for the best.
Rjan:
I think the simplest rule of thumb is that a rest is reduced if either the shift exceeds 13 hours (the absolute maximum being 15 hours), or if the following shift starts less than 11 hours following the end of the first (the absolute minimum being nine).
Not really as it doesnt take into consideration a split rest where 3 hours is taken during the shift allowing for a 9 hour rest at the end of the shift prior to the start of the next shift providing that whole 24 hour period has a total of at least 12 hours rest, I.e. 3 and a 9.
Haha indeed! I hope you’ll trust me when I say I did have the split rest in mind as an exception, but it’s not an especially common situation in my experience to have a single block of 3 hours break during a working day.
The important thing about rules of thumb is that they fail on the right side not the wrong side. The over-13-or-under-11, max 3 times per week, rule of thumb is probably as simple and failsafe as it can be made for establishing whether a rest is counted as being reduced.
If you want to go outside this, the driver will have to be smarter than the average bear, but as a word of warning I’ve yet to meet a person who will dare to claim they know how to apply all the rules when casually asked a question about an irregular shift pattern proposal.
Most of us survive by asking:
Will the driving hours per shift be above 9?
Will the shift length be above 13?
Will a series of working days exceed 5 in a row?
Will a weekly rest period have fewer than two clear days off?
Will your working days be irregular without any rhythm or rota?
Will there sometimes be unsociable/night working (i.e. defined broadly as between 10pm to 6am)?
Will the number of hours worked per week exceed 48?
If the answer is yes to any one question, there will probably be additional bookkeeping to do, and there will be rules that need to be learned and looked at very closely (which as drivers we usually learned in turn as we faced each situation separately).
If the answer is yes to several at once, and you don’t already know the rules from past experience, then god help you unless you work for a reputable employer with a system.
Dipper_Dave:
Although I work a lot of 14 to 15 hour days I rarely have 9 off usually 10 to 12.
I work the drivers hours regs to suit me or more accurately my employer so they can afford to keep me employed and increase the profitability of their company and in turn me.
But I love trucking and I like to truck (sure theres a song about this ), im staggered by how good an employee I am, in fact even though im just a number in the corporate monster im currently loyal to I often wonder what a prime asset I could be to a smaller entity.
I also like fishing, swimming and socialising with complete strangers.
Job offers by PM please, form an orderley que.
It’s queue by the way!
If I was still in business I would employ you on top dollar…just for the entertainment value of your deviant lifestyle , and the driver facing cameras making us a fortune on a weirdo dodgy website !
Dipper_Dave:
… a shortened blind side reverse onto an inverter.
I ain’t done many containers - whats an inverter ? thank you please
Also called a lifter mainly found in scrapyard to lift a 20’ box off then twist it so the doors are at the top and the box can be loaded with stuff.
Once loaded unless your lucky it’s round to the welders to have any holes fixed and or a few nudges from a machine to push the sides in as it can bulge a bit after loading, look more round than rectangle some days.
Small bulges you may get away with but a big bulge can see the box rejected once at the port or railhead.
Sometimes when collecting from a scrapyard youl have a message the empty box needs to loaded on the trailer doors to cab due to the setup of the inverter.
Tips.
Some inverters are more forgiving than others, tight ones can be tricky but all good fun.
Some can be reversed onto stretched others need your trailer shortened. Watch what others do or ask if in doubt.
You may need to drop the air on the unit to assist in pick up but wait for the lads instructions before doing so.
Dipper_Dave:
… a shortened blind side reverse onto an inverter.
I ain’t done many containers - whats an inverter ? thank you please
Also called a lifter mainly found in scrapyard to lift a 20’ box off then twist it so the doors are at the top and the box can be loaded with stuff.
Once loaded unless your lucky it’s round to the welders to have any holes fixed and or a few nudges from a machine to push the sides in as it can bulge a bit after loading, look more round than rectangle some days.
Small bulges you may get away with but a big bulge can see the box rejected once at the port or railhead.
Sometimes when collecting from a scrapyard youl have a message the empty box needs to loaded on the trailer doors to cab due to the setup of the inverter.
Tips.
Some inverters are more forgiving than others, tight ones can be tricky but all good fun.
Some can be reversed onto stretched others need your trailer shortened. Watch what others do or ask if in doubt.
You may need to drop the air on the unit to assist in pick up but wait for the lads instructions before doing so.
), im staggered by how good an employee I am, in fact even though im just a number in the corporate monster im currently loyal to I often wonder what a prime asset I could be to a smaller entity.
