this is a bit long winded but stick with it, it will become clear what my question is towards the end
today when i went to work the wagon wasn’t there so i had to wait around for a while it turned up at about 0945 (i started at 0930)
i got in the van and made the usual manual entries for the previous nights rest.
i then loaded and went to do my first tip at Hatfield. as were not allowed in the back at ocado and have to sit in a small room to await the return of the keys i put the tacho on to break which i believe is right as you can do what you want really.
below is a script of my print out for today
break 0000 0829 08h30 Manual entry
break 0830 0847 00h18 Manual entry
ow 0848 0849 00h02 (vehicle checks already done)
drive 0850 0852 00h03 putting on bay for loading
ow 0853 0904 00h12 loading
drive 0905 1137 02h33 fareham to Hatfield
ow 1138 1139 00h02 grabbing paperwork and wallet
rest 1140 1213 00h34 getting tipped
drive 1214 1245 00h32 to next drop
this is where the question comes from
when i get to the next drop I’m about to put it to other work and notice that my complete driving time is 00:32.
why did it reset? surely it should have said 03:08 and gave me another 1 hour 20 minutes driving (to get to fleet services to chill and watch the world go by). instead i had to sit at south mimms in a queue to get in the lorry park as the service station was full of trucks and queuing trucks with loads of trucks driving around people and over the kerb on the right to get in early (but that’s another moan I’ll keep to myself at the moment).
can anybody answer this as the way i saw it is i entered the manual entries as both rest they surely would have just carried on from the night and not counted to my current daily rest?
is this a glitch in the tacho head or did i do something wrong?
Firstly, I don’t think it should have reset as the first 18 minute break shouldn’t have counted towards your 45 as you hadn’t done any driving at all at that point. This example demonstrates very well why the timer built into a digital tacho is nothing more than a guide to driving time. It is very good as resetting when it shouldn’t, for example if you take 3 15 minute breaks it resets, which is no longer correct, it also counts POA as break, which is wrong. You did still have 1h22 left and when your card data is analysed by the proper software back at the yard it’ll agree with that.
Secondly (but unconnected to the main question) there is no reason I am aware of to manually input your daily rest. You only need to do manual entries for time spent on duty when the card is not in a tacho unit (from 0830GMT in your case).
repton:
Secondly (but unconnected to the main question) there is no reason I am aware of to manually input your daily rest. You only need to do manual entries for time spent on duty when the card is not in a tacho unit (from 0830GMT in your case).
Paul
thanks for that paul,
as to the inputting of the night before rest it is just something i have always done, especially if starting later than your normal trucker (after about 8 ish in the morning).
would you mention this to your boss or is it just more annoying than a glitch with the unit?
The unit is doing what it was designed to do and what it has to do by Law, although, I would question whether the 18 minutes break at the start of the day should have been counted.
The legislation governing how digital tachos work was published in 2002, before we had RTD or 561 drivers hours. At that time 3 breaks of 15 minutes were perfectly legal (if properly spaced throughout the driving period of 4.5 hours) A European Court ruling form the early 90’s basically said that once you obtain 45 minutes break in (at least) 15 minute chunks the 4.5 hour driving period starts again, this is not optional, it’s how it’s calculated.
The only way for this to change is for the technical spec to be altered, TBH you don’t have much chance of that happening.
If you had put 15 minutes of POA in the same thing would have happened, the driving time would have been zeroed. That’s what the Reg says, but that is not how the enforcement authorities see it, unless you are the second man on a multi-manned vehicle.
Giblsa:
would you mention this to your boss or is it just more annoying than a glitch with the unit?
As geebee45 has said it’s simply that the unit was designed before the current rules came in. Personally I think it’s a foolish oversight to design them with fixed rules like that that can’t easily be updated as you very quickly end up in the situation we’re in now where the built in timer is wrong almost as often as it’s right for some shift patterns. IMO if you’re not going to do it properly you’re better off not bothering at all.
repton:
As geebee45 has said it’s simply that the unit was designed before the current rules came in. Personally I think it’s a foolish oversight to design them with fixed rules like that that can’t easily be updated as you very quickly end up in the situation we’re in now where the built in timer is wrong almost as often as it’s right for some shift patterns. IMO if you’re not going to do it properly you’re better off not bothering at all.
Paul
Good idea Paul, make them easy to update.
A small problem though.
There are plenty of gaffers who would make the contacts to find out how to update them. They could then find someone who could write an “update”, to make the machine do whatever they wanted it to do.
