Your mate must have done something to rub the copper the wrong way.
The police have set fines for particular offenses, might be worth seeing if your mate has been fined for breach of driving hour regulations. Wouldnt surprise me if the copper didnt know the difference between them and wtd. If so he could probably dispute the fine on the basis that its false.
520 quid for a few minor breaches of wtd regs is a joke tbh.
I’m very tempted to call bs on this, unless we can see the paperwork, on the face of it (I may well be wrong) but it sounds like your mate and the copper haven’t understood the wtd, you only need 15 minutes rest at the 6 hour point, getting 29 minutes in exceeds this. If he’s trying to get a 30 in for the eu regs that means he’s probably already had a 15 at some point.
I can’t see any offence for not taking a full 15/30/45 minute break, I can see offences for exceeding 4.5 hours (between 5.5 & 6.5 hours = £120 gfp) and exceeding 6.5 hours = £200 gfp. There’s nothing for WTD offences (breaks or hours) in the GFP guide.
You have every right to take it to court it is not relevant if the copper took them or not, if you take it to court the plod have to produce the tacho as evidence which has to be given to the defence team … the old analogue tacho’s are very easy to read, if you do wish to take it to court it will be under exhibit aa i aa 2 aa 3 etc what ever the initials of the copper is.
Is this a mmtm pink chalk around wheels?
Yorkysays:-:
What was the ‘reason’ this Copper pulled your Mate? Did he ‘do’ something to attract his attention?
Did his Company offer to help in someway?
No reason, he’d driven past twice previously that day.
For those who don’t know ‘Switch Island’, it’s the junction of the A59, M57 & M58, there used to be a giant oval roundabout and now the east/west drives through the middle, leaving just under half of the old roundabout unused (the northern half) since then it’s become a VOSA chechpoint with a weighbridge & loads of parking for naughty boys coming off the Irish ferries without enough rest time.
Our boss has already sent the cheque, to be paid back weekly I presume!!
limeyphil:
tell him to take it to court, i’ll pm you his defense.
i have a defense for every tachograph offence apart from fraud.
it comes from case law. and it’s a classic.
As above, too late as already paid and the boss isn’t really combative enough!!
Ross.
PS, to those who think it’s some kind of made up story, that says more about you than me!!
MADBAZ:
I’m very tempted to call bs on this, unless we can see the paperwork, on the face of it (I may well be wrong) but it sounds like your mate and the copper haven’t understood the wtd, you only need 15 minutes rest at the 6 hour point, getting 29 minutes in exceeds this. If he’s trying to get a 30 in for the eu regs that means he’s probably already had a 15 at some point.
bigr250:
the copper took the 3 discs and told him “you’ll get these back in about 2 months”!
3 different days by the sounds of it fella
Understood, but I think there’s more to this than WTD, more likely a breach of EU regs, driving more than 4.5 hours.
Someone pass the clothes peg, i can smell BS!
stevieboy308:
MADBAZ:
I’m very tempted to call bs on this, unless we can see the paperwork, on the face of it (I may well be wrong) but it sounds like your mate and the copper haven’t understood the wtd, you only need 15 minutes rest at the 6 hour point, getting 29 minutes in exceeds this. If he’s trying to get a 30 in for the eu regs that means he’s probably already had a 15 at some point.bigr250:
the copper took the 3 discs and told him “you’ll get these back in about 2 months”!3 different days by the sounds of it fella
Spot on stevieboy.
AS POSTED, two counts of exceding 6hrs!!!
One count of taking 29mins when 30 was required, all on different days.
MADBAZ, plod even commented to him that, “you don’t do much driving do you”, most days our tipper’s don’t do more than 300kms!! No 4.5hrs driving infringements, the furthest they normally go is Goole but most days they don’t go any further than Oswestry!!
Ross.
truckerjon:
Someone pass the clothes peg, i can smell BS!
I couldn’t give a toss whether you believe it or not, move on, cos your nose is clearly too close to your underpants!! 
i’d love to see the ticket.
exceeding 6 hours?
and taking 29 minutes when 30 are required?
if that’s how the police officer wrote it, then it wouldn’t have made it as far as the courts front door.
it looks like your mate is as thick as pig [zb]. and your boss shouldn’t run a bath never mind a company.
limeyphil:
it looks like your mate is as thick as pig [zb]. and your boss shouldn’t run a bath never mind a company.
PM on the way!!
I’m always dubious when I hear of fines like these for what are minor indiscretions as my dealings with vosa even when working for dodgy operators have always been a but of friendly advice and it’s not the end of the world as its the odd silly thing over a period of time.
I’ve heard story’s like it and when you get to the bottom of it there was loads more problems and a big attitude problem. I’ve never been one to now and scrape to old bill or vosa but a bit of speak as you like to be spoken to goes a long way.
I was stopped by a traffic cop with his colleague ‘in training’ last year.
We run squeaky clean hours-wise and have immaculate kit, so I sat there confidently waiting whilst he checked the truck then the card…I nearly laid an egg when he says ‘oops…looks like you only took a 29 minute break on the 23rd!’.
An error of judgement that day in question by me obviously, dunno what the hell I was thinking!
Cop almost apologized for spotting it but said that since he and his trainee had both seen evidence of the offence they couldn’t ignore it. He told me I would only get a letter though.
Sure enough, I received a letter of caution, copied it and gave to the boss. No fine, no court, end of story. Whew!
Lesson learned for me…33 minutes from then on.
Scannyfanny:
We run squeaky clean hours-wise and have immaculate kit, so I sat there confidently waiting whilst he checked the truck then the card…I nearly laid an egg when he says ‘oops…looks like you only took a 29 minute break on the 23rd!’.
Our kit is a bit older, 06 ‘Bathtub’ Freuhauf & a 53reg R124, the unit had only been tested two days before (I took it) & not a bad looking old truck.
Scannyfanny:
Sure enough, I received a letter of caution, copied it and gave to the boss. No fine, no court, end of story. Whew!Lesson learned for me…33 minutes from then on.
I thought a few words would’ve been enough, after all, our lads don’t come close to needing to go over their hours. When you had this (29mins) problem, did you have a ‘digi’ or analogue? This has always been my main point on this, how T/F can you tell our lad was 1 min short on a paper disc??
Ross.
bigr250:
Scannyfanny:
We run squeaky clean hours-wise and have immaculate kit, so I sat there confidently waiting whilst he checked the truck then the card…I nearly laid an egg when he says ‘oops…looks like you only took a 29 minute break on the 23rd!’.Our kit is a bit older, 06 ‘Bathtub’ Freuhauf & a 53reg R124, the unit had only been tested two days before (I took it) & not a bad looking old truck.
Scannyfanny:
Sure enough, I received a letter of caution, copied it and gave to the boss. No fine, no court, end of story. Whew!Lesson learned for me…33 minutes from then on.
I thought a few words would’ve been enough, after all, our lads don’t come close to needing to go over their hours. When you had this (29mins) problem, did you have a ‘digi’ or analogue? This has always been my main point on this, how T/F can you tell our lad was 1 min short on a paper disc??
Ross.
Yeah, me too…it was obvious when he stopped me he was training his young mate. The same officer had also stopped me for the same reason…training another newbie 2 weeks before within a quarter mile of the same spot. He didn’t twig this until I asked him if he was the traffic cop training officer for our area and used his name (which I had remembered) and he says ‘why’…I reply that he had also stopped me two weeks ago and his face went a bit red! About 3 minutes later he discovers my offence. Then it was me that had the red face! Then as he’s getting out of the wagon he says he won’t be stopping this truck for a while as he knows I’m the only driver of it. Great.
I was driving with a digi card…100% my fault…
This is where digi comes in handy I must have been lucky because all my driving infringements on digi have been met with we can see your not running bent just watch out incase you get someone out of training school but ways been the odd 5 minutes here and there.
Same with anilogue it was the same only problem I had was with a driver who was going all day when I wasn’t checking as my wife was very ill. I sacked him over lots of issues fought vosa and personally pulled there case apart as it was ■■■■ poor. Id say no matter what alwYs go to court you would be surprised how poor vosa and police traffic cases can be
Harry Monk:
My guess is that he failed the “attitude test”.
Agree’d. I follow a VOSA officer on twitter and he rarely gives out fines for tacho offenses unless there’s a fair few of them and even then it’s £60 each.
Sam Millar:
Agree’d. I follow a VOSA officer on twitter and he rarely gives out fines for tacho offenses unless there’s a fair few of them and even then it’s £60 each.
So it must be true eh?? But, I followed a #61 bus in Liverpool the other day, it said “INDIA” on the tyres but it definately only went to Seaforth!!
Even if it is true, that’s only 1 VOSA man, there’s hundreds of them and 99% of the ones I’ve met love to write a ticket, they’ll say things like; “we’re here to help you”!! Truth is, “we’re here to catch you out & knick you”!!!
Ross.
Scannyfanny:
bigr250:
Scannyfanny:
We run squeaky clean hours-wise and have immaculate kit, so I sat there confidently waiting whilst he checked the truck then the card…I nearly laid an egg when he says ‘oops…looks like you only took a 29 minute break on the 23rd!’.Our kit is a bit older, 06 ‘Bathtub’ Freuhauf & a 53reg R124, the unit had only been tested two days before (I took it) & not a bad looking old truck.
Scannyfanny:
Sure enough, I received a letter of caution, copied it and gave to the boss. No fine, no court, end of story. Whew!Lesson learned for me…33 minutes from then on.
I thought a few words would’ve been enough, after all, our lads don’t come close to needing to go over their hours. When you had this (29mins) problem, did you have a ‘digi’ or analogue? This has always been my main point on this, how T/F can you tell our lad was 1 min short on a paper disc??
Ross.Yeah, me too…it was obvious when he stopped me he was training his young mate. The same officer had also stopped me for the same reason…training another newbie 2 weeks before within a quarter mile of the same spot. He didn’t twig this until I asked him if he was the traffic cop training officer for our area and used his name (which I had remembered) and he says ‘why’…I reply that he had also stopped me two weeks ago and his face went a bit red! About 3 minutes later he discovers my offence. Then it was me that had the red face! Then as he’s getting out of the wagon he says he won’t be stopping this truck for a while as he knows I’m the only driver of it. Great.
I was driving with a digi card…100% my fault…
In that case he had no reason to stop you for another check as you hadnt gone over the 28 day grace period and he should have issued you with a letter stating the fact your tacos had been checked on the previous date. get stopped hand that in job sorted away you go
bigr250:
Even if it is true, that’s only 1 VOSA man, there’s hundreds of them and 99% of the ones I’ve met love to write a ticket, they’ll say things like; “we’re here to help you”!! Truth is, “we’re here to catch you out & knick you”!!!
You must have had back luck then cos 100% of the ones I’ve met so far have been spot on and happily ignore minor problems.
One of them who stopped me near Newcastle last year handed my cards back with “just be a bit careful with your breaks as there are a couple that are only 44 minutes in there”, and twice in the last 12 months I’ve been stopped and checked over by a wheeltapper and both times they’ve completely ignored minor things like marker lights being out.
Paul
