There has been lot in the press of late about drinking alcohol and still being over the limit the next day. What safe guards do you profesional drivers take to make sure you do not fall foul of the law and do the companies you work for have any extra restrictions on alcohol limits that joe public doesn’t? i.e. lower alcohol limits.
hi alan,i personally wouldn’t bother with a beer if i knew i had an early start the next day,however i have witnessed on many occaisions drivers downing half a dozen plus pints,then just 6 hours onto the road…stupidity or what,asking for trouble!! 
I Personally do not drink alcohol at all during the week, not worth taking the risk.
Don’t get caught 
I dont drink (well not since 1976), but when I did drink I would not drink any alcohol within 24 hours of driving, though I believe it can take longer than that to pass through the system. Should a ‘zero tolerance’ ever be implemented then a 24 hour abstainence would be pretty much essential. Anyone that couldn’t manage that is probably in the wrong job 
Tiger.
The 12 hour rule…
I may have a couple of pints with dinner but thats it…
Have witnessed some pretty heavy drinking at Truckstop bars up and down the country, It is a bit of double standards to allow a venue that is an overnight stop for HGV to have an alcohol license, BUT we are all sensible and know our limits dont we?
In aviation, it’s generally accepted that if you’ve been drinking reasonably, ie one or two pints, that it’s “twelve hours bottle to throttle”. Thats with a much more strict allowance also. Under current rules, you could drink a pint (slowly, with food) and be within the legal blood/alcohol limit if a blood test were to be taken immediately. You may fail the breathaliser, but that’s not a legally binding measurement, merely a guide, that’s why you have to do another down at the station.
So if you have one or two pints the night before, and you have a good 9-10 hour sleep, chances are you’ll be fine, and your body should have got rid of the alcohol long before then. If your body hasn’t neutralised the alcohol, you’ve probably got a medical issue which needs addressing!
An enormous factor in all of this is how your body deals with alcohol. It’s the one case where being fatter is more beneficial as fat absorbs the alcohol, whereas a super-fit person is much more likely to feel stronger effects from the same amount consumed. Again, overall bodily size makes a difference, as a pint will affect a tiny person much more than a well-built person.
Consumption with food is another variable. With a full stomach, the alcohol is absorbed much more slowly so the body can deal with it more effectively.
So basically, there’s no simple equation which you can go by.
Deepinvet:
The 12 hour rule…
That’s the SAFEST option.
There is a way of working out the time it takes for alcohol to exit the body for everybody if they KNOW how many units they have consumed.
I’ll try and find it but it might take some time.
The alcohol exits everybody at the same rate as all our livers are the same - male, female, large or small sized people - all the same.
PERSONALLY i dont drink on a school night. I look forward to a few at home on Friday night and a Saturday night out with my mates , that’s it then .
I do miss the Sunday Session but it just isn’t worth it in my eyes.
Now if I go to an event ( christening for example) I book the Monday off so I can enjoy the day
You’re right, but the actual blood/alcohol level will be different depending on how much blood you have in your body 
don’t drink at all during the week now, years ago always used to down a few even though i had early starts, older and wiser now, program on the tv before xmas, it takes 12 hrs for a pint of stella to go through your system.
i always have a few pints. I have been breathalyised quite a few times. For me maybe three pints and my tea, and 7/8 hours kip and i’m fine. I used todo the all day bender on a Sunday but i gave that up after i got breathalysed in OConnors one Monday morning. I passed the breathalyser, but like the guard said he ‘could tell i’d been drinking’, it was 6 am when i was breathalysed and i left the pub at 1am. That was my wake up call. But i’m sure we’ve all heard true stories about 20 stone guys having four or five pints and passing a breath test just after coming out the pub.
Although there is does seem to be a campaign to discourage the consumption of any alchohol prior to driving, it has to be said that more accidents/crashes/deaths etc are caused by sober drivers. Just a thought
i dont believe in this fri night, sat night thing, i think your far better to drink steadily through the week and that way your system adjusts to it.
pete-b:
I Personally do not drink alcohol at all during the week, not worth taking the risk.
Ditto, I wait for the weekend.
ROG:
Deepinvet:
The 12 hour rule…That’s the SAFEST option.
There is a way of working out the time it takes for alcohol to exit the body for everybody if they KNOW how many units they have consumed.
I’ll try and find it but it might take some time.
The alcohol exits everybody at the same rate as all our livers are the same - male, female, large or small sized people - all the same.
As a pilot we had the ‘12 hrs bottle to throttle’ rule. Works for me 
i stopped drinking 20 yrs ago when i started driving full time, use to be a 10 to 15 pints a night man then i just stopped. i don’t miss it still go out and i might have one pint but then its onto the soft drinks, i just hate the sore head in the morning
I’ve seen drivers out during the week, and just about making it back to their cabs and too me that is totally wrong, maybe they will think once they get stopped and band. i know people that say they can handle it but in reality can they 
ROG:
Deepinvet:
The 12 hour rule…That’s the SAFEST option.
There is a way of working out the time it takes for alcohol to exit the body for everybody if they KNOW how many units they have consumed.
I’ll try and find it but it might take some time.
The alcohol exits everybody at the same rate as all our livers are the same - male, female, large or small sized people - all the same.
it takes a hour for your body to break down 1 unit of alcohol no matter what body size you are fat,thin,like you said livers are the same no matter what
Thetaff:
ROG:
Deepinvet:
The 12 hour rule…That’s the SAFEST option.
There is a way of working out the time it takes for alcohol to exit the body for everybody if they KNOW how many units they have consumed.
I’ll try and find it but it might take some time.
The alcohol exits everybody at the same rate as all our livers are the same - male, female, large or small sized people - all the same.
it takes a hour for your body to break down 1 unit of alcohol no matter what body size you are fat,thin,like you said livers are the same no matter what
The one hour one unit is a resonable measure, but it is based on an average.
The elimination rate and blood concertration will be different for different people.
http://www.forcon.ca/learning/alcohol.html
Elimination of alcohol
Alcohol is eliminated from the body by excretion and metabolism. Most alcohol is metabolized, or burned, in a manner similar to food, yielding carbon dioxide and water. A small portion of alcohol is excreted, such as through the breath, leaving the body as alcohol, unchanged. It is this latter process that allows for breath alcohol testing.
Average rate of eliminationElimination occurs at a constant rate for a given individual.The median rate of decrease in BAC is considered to be 15 milligrams per cent (mg%) per hour. The range of decrease in BAC is 10-20 mg% per hour. This range represents the extreme ends of the rate encountered in a normal population. Most people eliminate at a rate of between 13 and 18 mg% per hour. Of these, the majority eliminates at the higher end. Very few people eliminate at as low a rate as 10 mg% per hour.
I will drink the night before driving, but no more than a pint or 2 and I’m pretty sure that’s cleared my body by the time I go to work.
I’ve never really been one for heavy drinking sessions. especially now I’m a bit older and it takes me more time to recover from the effects.
And even a few drinks will effect me the next morning.
The other side effect that put me off drinking more when I was tramping is having to get out of my warm bunk in the middle of the night and have a pee. 
Thanks for all the posts lads it does seem like there are a lot of variables to consider. I read somewhere that 17% of drunk drive convictions were morning after cases. I bet there are loads of general drivers out there at 7.30 still over the limit.
Unfortunatelly there is no distintion between the drunk who staggers from the pub to his car and the morning after driver with a DR10 conviction in many people’s eyes. I only ask the question because I really enjoy my few pints on a night but worry about when it’s safe to get behind the wheel. I have heared that the limit is lower for C and C+E drivers than car drivers.