The company I work for has a number of 4x4’s which are used to tow trailed machines, this takes the train weight to over three and a half tons which is why the 4x4’s are having digital tachos fitted, can anyone confirm that the drivers of these vehicles are subject to drivers hours and regulations? what about when their not towing? And as I will occasionally be asked to drive them towing or not how will that affect my hours when driving my truck as I use an analogue tachograph, my boss is currently looking into these questions but from my view pre warned is pre armed, many thanks for any info offered,
from what i can gather from your post you will obviously have to use the tachos when you are towing (GTW over 3.5t) but if you are towing under that train weight or not towing at all you wont need to use the tachos,
however, one thing to bear in mind is that if you spend anytime at all during a working week driving under EU Regs you will have to record all other work activities on the back of a tacho disc or a piece of tacho paper for that week. the days that you are using the tacho you will have to adhere to the drivers hours and rules, when not using the tacho except for recording your activities (other work and breaks) you just record any driving as other work.
as to how it will affect you when you are driving the truck it is exactly the same really, if your driving you stick to the EU Regs, if your not driving (doing other work) but have done that working week you need to record it on a disc or back of printout paper.
i hope that makes sense to you
Lee G:
from what i can gather from your post you will obviously have to use the tachos when you are towing (GTW over 3.5t) but if you are towing under that train weight or not towing at all you wont need to use the tachos,
It goes on the plated weights - If the vehicle is plated at 2.5 tonnes and the trailer is plated at 2 tonnes then it comes under EU regs - the actual weight at the time does not matter as the EU regs go on the plated weights
A large van plated at 5 tonnes may only weigh 3 tonnes when empty but it comes under full EU regs all the time