hi guys, my company as like most comply with 48 hours of work averaged over 26 weeks working time directive,
EU legislation. I told my boss the company can opt out of this , he said rubbish we can,t , I know as a driver I cannot opt out as an individual. mobile worker. yesterday at birch services there was a load of vosa blokes there and vosa women.
they told me as an individual I cannot opt out of it. as a company you can. then dave at work said there wrong they must be on about the night time rule start before 4am which I have opted out of. I said no they were not on about night rule they said in plain English that 48 hours of work averaged over 26 weeks working time directive,
EU legislation. as a company you can opt out. anyone else heard this. thanx
Perhaps a company can opt out (warehouse staff, managers etc) but companies don’t drive LGV’s under EU regs. Drivers do and drivers that are subject to EU driver’s regs may not opt out of the 48 average.
Perhaps the VOSA bod just got his/her facts wrong is a distinct possibility.
gothika:
hi guys, my company as like most comply with 48 hours of work averaged over 26 weeks working time directive,
EU legislation. I told my boss the company can opt out of this , he said rubbish we can,t , I know as a driver I cannot opt out as an individual. mobile worker. yesterday at birch services there was a load of vosa blokes there and vosa women.
they told me as an individual I cannot opt out of it. as a company you can. then dave at work said there wrong they must be on about the night time rule start before 4am which I have opted out of. I said no they were not on about night rule they said in plain English that 48 hours of work averaged over 26 weeks working time directive,
EU legislation. as a company you can opt out. anyone else heard this. thanx
We opted out of the night time rule as a consensus decision by the other drivers but the 48 hr average rule can be opted out on a voluntary basis by an individual in writing to your gaffer .However Drivers of vehicles over 3.5 t CANNOT opt out at all (i’m assuming you are a driver )because drivers hours take precedence
Why would anyone want to work more, 48 hours is enough for anyone and that’s 10 more than it should be. Sooner they do away with POA and breaks that don’t count towards your working hours the better
Never heard of a company opt out but loads of companies do not seem to bother with it which is not surprising as the authorities do not seem bothered either
Personally, I reckon if all companies said sod it then I do not think anything would happen to rectify it
gothika:
hi guys, my company as like most comply with 48 hours of work averaged over 26 weeks working time directive,
EU legislation. I told my boss the company can opt out of this , he said rubbish we can,t , I know as a driver I cannot opt out as an individual. mobile worker. yesterday at birch services there was a load of vosa blokes there and vosa women.
they told me as an individual I cannot opt out of it. as a company you can. then dave at work said there wrong they must be on about the night time rule start before 4am which I have opted out of. I said no they were not on about night rule they said in plain English that 48 hours of work averaged over 26 weeks working time directive,
EU legislation. as a company you can opt out. anyone else heard this. thanx
There is no opt out of the RT(WT)R 48 hour average weekly working time.
Workers who come under the 1998 working time regulations can opt out of the 48 hour week, but mobile workers who work to the “Road Transport Working Time) Regulations 2005” can only opt out of the night time working limit not the 48 hour week.
mac12:
Why would anyone want to work more, 48 hours is enough for anyone and that’s 10 more than it should be. Sooner they do away with POA and breaks that don’t count towards your working hours the better
Well said m8.
However, the company I work for can’t manage drivers hours properly. They try to claim to a lot of the drivers that they can carry hours into the next period as long as they pay them back ASAP, which is blatant lies or pure ignorance. I don’t allow them to try that BS with me and just tell them how many hours I have left to work near the end of the period. I feel frustrated at my colleagues who allow them to get away with this. Most of them work through their breaks too, which is madness. The Union guys know about it, but do nothing. The lot of them complain about how crap the company is to work for, but if they tried to see the bigger picture, showed a bit of solidarity and refused to break the law, it would be a far better place to work. (Not to mention safer)
I think the reason why many companies and the authorities are not bothered with the RTD/WTD is because it does not address the issue of long hours on duty - from clocking in to clocking off
Had there been a set rule for the length of a shift and for the total shift time done in a week and/or the average shift totals for X amount of weeks then things would be very different because it would be easy for the authorities to police that via the start and finish times on the tacho and/or company clock cards etc
I think the original idea was for shift/on-duty times but guess which country vetoed it … the UK if memory serves right
gothika:
hi guys, my company as like most comply with 48 hours of work averaged over 26 weeks working time directive,
EU legislation. I told my boss the company can opt out of this , he said rubbish we can,t , I know as a driver I cannot opt out as an individual. mobile worker. yesterday at birch services there was a load of vosa blokes there and vosa women.
they told me as an individual I cannot opt out of it. as a company you can. then dave at work said there wrong they must be on about the night time rule start before 4am which I have opted out of. I said no they were not on about night rule they said in plain English that 48 hours of work averaged over 26 weeks working time directive,
EU legislation. as a company you can opt out. anyone else heard this. thanx
There is no ‘opt out’ for companies or individuals. Maybe wires crossed because there is an option to extend the reference period used to calculate drivers weekly working time average. The standard reference period is over 17 weeks…this can be extended by a workforce or collective agreement upto a maximum of 26 weeks.
the 26 week period works better than the 17 week period because if you take your 4 weeks holiday entitlement every year then you should not go over the 48 hour average i.e you take 2 weeks off every 6 month.
mac12:
Why would anyone want to work more, 48 hours is enough for anyone and that’s 10 more than it should be. Sooner they do away with POA and breaks that don’t count towards your working hours the better
To earn more
CHEERS LADS, GOD KNOWS WHAT VOSA ARE ON ABOUT THEN, I WENT OVER LAST PERIOD I DO,NT CARE NO ONE IN UK IS EVER BEEN CONVIVTED, sorry relised caps on, yes poa holidays reduce wtd hours. should be ok this period as on sick 3 weeks with broken ribs ladder came off truck. I want to work more than 48 hours for money as I get decent cash on weekend, work one weekend next one off and so on. this week even with all my breaks off mon to Friday wtd 56 hours means only 4 hrs left to work weekend not worth it. next week I,ll try and get more breaks in so I can work the weekend. all these rules and regulations get on ya ■■■■.
SteveBarnsleytrucker:
the 26 week period works better than the 17 week period because if you take your 4 weeks holiday entitlement every year then you should not go over the 48 hour average i.e you take 2 weeks off every 6 month.
But in calculating your working hours over whatever Reference Period is used, each week of annual leave counts as 48 hours “working” time, so has next to no effect on the average.
Roymondo:
SteveBarnsleytrucker:
the 26 week period works better than the 17 week period because if you take your 4 weeks holiday entitlement every year then you should not go over the 48 hour average i.e you take 2 weeks off every 6 month.But in calculating your working hours over whatever Reference Period is used, each week of annual leave counts as 48 hours “working” time, so has next to no effect on the average.
you are correct but a days holiday only counts as 8 hrs so 4 days hol counts as 32 hours but 5 days counts as 48 hrs
bloody madness 
green456:
Roymondo:
SteveBarnsleytrucker:
the 26 week period works better than the 17 week period because if you take your 4 weeks holiday entitlement every year then you should not go over the 48 hour average i.e you take 2 weeks off every 6 month.But in calculating your working hours over whatever Reference Period is used, each week of annual leave counts as 48 hours “working” time, so has next to no effect on the average.
you are correct but a days holiday only counts as 8 hrs so 4 days hol counts as 32 hours but 5 days counts as 48 hrs
bloody madness
You think that’s “bloody madness” 
If you normally work Monday to Friday and have 5 days holiday consisting of say Wednesday Thursday Friday Monday and Tuesday it counts as 40 hours, but if you have holiday Monday to Friday it counts as 48 hours, work that out 
tachograph:
green456:
Roymondo:
SteveBarnsleytrucker:
the 26 week period works better than the 17 week period because if you take your 4 weeks holiday entitlement every year then you should not go over the 48 hour average i.e you take 2 weeks off every 6 month.But in calculating your working hours over whatever Reference Period is used, each week of annual leave counts as 48 hours “working” time, so has next to no effect on the average.
you are correct but a days holiday only counts as 8 hrs so 4 days hol counts as 32 hours but 5 days counts as 48 hrs
bloody madnessYou think that’s “bloody madness”
If you normally work Monday to Friday and have 5 days holiday consisting of say Wednesday Thursday Friday Monday and Tuesday it counts as 40 hours, but if you have holiday Monday to Friday it counts as 48 hours, work that out
that’s what I stated above 
you took 3 days off in week one = 3x 8 hrs
you then took 2 days off in week two = 2 x 8 hrs = 40 hrs but take five days off in same week = 48 hrs