In the near future I’ll be doing some farm collection milk tanker driving. I have been looking at a Drivers’ guide to on-road compliance and it says that ‘Vehicles used for milk collections from farms’ are exempt from EU regulations. In this case, forgive me if I’m being ignorant, under what regulations would I be driving? And when one uses the digi tachograph, does one opt for ‘out of scope’? Thanks.
Well you’ve got me there, but let me know as I’ll whack a couple of pint’s of full fat in the back of my trailer and crack on if thats the case.
Does Fiona’s creamy mess count I wonder? 
I’m doing milk now, its a bit of an eye opener where you’re expected to go 
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You’ll be running under domestic hours which basically state that you can only work 11 hours in 24, thats it, simple as that. You are not required to take any breaks in the day just as long you have 13 hours off at the end (remember that 13 hours must end within 24 hours of your start time on that shift).
Theres no need for tachographs, a logbook will do, if you do use a digi tacho put it “out of scope” to let VOSA know thats what you were doing, but it will still nag you to take a 45 after 4.5 hours driving, stupid bloody thing gets right on my ■■■■.
Good luck its a great job, can’t wait for the snow .
Thank you all very much.
schrodingers cat:
You’ll be running under domestic hours which basically state that you can only work 11 hours in 24, thats it, simple as that. You are not required to take any breaks in the day just as long you have 13 hours off at the end (remember that 13 hours must end within 24 hours of your start time on that shift).Theres no need for tachographs, a logbook will do, if you do use a digi tacho put it “out of scope” to let VOSA know thats what you were doing, but it will still nag you to take a 45 after 4.5 hours driving, stupid bloody thing gets right on my ■■■■.
I think I’m getting somewhere now with what you’ve said here. Just one question. Aren’t you then required to take 30 minutes before 6 hours is up? Isn’t this something to do with Working Time Directive?
Ader1:
Thank you all very much.I think I’m getting somewhere now with what you’ve said here. Just one question. Aren’t you then required to take 30 minutes before 6 hours is up? Isn’t this something to do with Working Time Directive?
Nope your exempt from that as well 
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The company you will be working for IS required to allow adequate breaks so if you want them you can take them.
The company I work for insists that we comply with the WTD but thats a company rule not a legal issue.
Thanks for the information.
This should clear it up as far as the WTD is concerned 
What’s it all about?
Although most workers in the UK are governed by the main Working Time Directive (WTD), those in the transport sector were not included and are instead covered by two further sets of working time regulations — the Horizontal Amending Directive (HAD) and the Road Transport Directive (RTD).
The HAD was implemented in the UK in August 2003 to remove the exemptions in the main WTD on workers in the transport sector, applying the whole main directive package to non-mobile workers in the transport sector and a limited number of the main directive’s rules to mobile workers.
The RTD, implemented in April 2005 in the UK, applies to all employed mobile workers whose work is subject to normal EU drivers’ hours rules.
What are the basic HAD rules?
The HAD applies all the usual restrictions of the main WTD to non-mobile workers and provides more limited protection to mobile workers in the road transport sector, ensuring in particular that workers who are mobile workers but are not subject to EU drivers’ hours rules (and therefore not covered by the RTD) will be entitled to:
An average 48-hour working week over a reference period (usually 17 weeks)
5.6 weeks’ paid annual holiday [/i]Health assessments for night workers
Provision for adequate rest
It also ensures that those subject to the RTD (mobile workers who are subject to EU drivers’ hours rules) will be entitled to health assessments if they are night workers and four weeks’ paid annual leave.
Note that under HAD, non-mobile workers are entitled to an uninterrupted period of rest of 11 hours a day while mobile workers who are not subject to EU drivers’ hours rules are entitled simply to ‘adequate rest’. Similarly, non-mobile workers are entitled to a minimum of one day off a week while mobile workers, again, are required to be given ‘adequate rest’.
‘Adequate rest’ means that workers should have regular rest periods. These should be sufficiently long and continuous to ensure that workers do not injure themselves, fellow workers or others and that they do not damage their health, either in the short term or long term.
What are the basic RTD rules?
The Road Transport Directive applies to mobile workers who are employed in work subject to EU drivers’ hours rules.
The two most important working time limits imposed by the RTD are:
An average of 48 hours a week over a reference period (usually 17 weeks - although this can be extended up to 26 weeks by collective of workforce agreement)
An absolute maximum of 60 hours in any fixed week. The fixed week starts at midnight on Sunday and finishes at midnight the following Sunday.[/i][/i]
Ader1:
Aren’t you then required to take 30 minutes before 6 hours is up? Isn’t this something to do with Working Time Directive?
Nope, that’s not a requirement of the WTD. It’s 15 minutes before exceeding 6 hours work, not 30.
It won’t apply to you working under domestic rules anyway.
Apart from the above excellent info,take some sea sick tablets 
Best advice I got was, when you are running both of your mirrors through hedges (and you will), stick your offside mirror in harder, that way if it folds in, you won’t have to stop to put it back out.
Just remember, if you arrive at a farm and the feed lorry is already unloading by blowing feed through 5 pipes to a badly sited silo, he wont want to move till its finished!
The vast majority of milk tanker drivers are OK but the one I met last week may have been having a bad day!
Have fun
Better roads (photo not taken by me, preview of my diary)
toowise:
Just remember, if you arrive at a farm and the feed lorry is already unloading by blowing feed through 5 pipes to a badly sited silo, he wont want to move till its finished!The vast majority of milk tanker drivers are OK but the one I met last week may have been having a bad day!
well said that man !
i used to be on the milk , really cushy job , just got to have yer wits about you during maize time & icy roads in the winter , other than that the jobs a doddle, you will be exposed to a whole new world well some farmers are in a world of their own anyway