Was given this during this week …thought be useful info …
Be a brave (or wealthy) man who is the first to test this out in France!
Try telling the Basque police why you have no 28 days of tacho records.
Well i will let you know in just over 2 weeks, Having time off my employer who is based in France usually gives me an attestation before i start back. If legislation states i do not need one, i wait and see.
frenchflyer:
If legislation states i do not need one, i wait and see.
As far as I remember, legislation never said you did need a letter of attestation.
It was the French (again) who came up with the idea that you had to prove yourself innocent of working in your time off.
Their method of you proving your innocence is the letter of attestation.
Everyone else then jumped on the band wagon.
To keep the peace and to save all the grief of attending courts all over Europe to protest your innocence, companies provide us with letters of attestation.
It is also France who have decided to enforce the 45hr rest away from your cab thing now, despite it being in the legislation since 2007.
And again, everyone else is following suit when they feel like it.
A mate of mine was pulled in Reims 12 months ago. He had started the previous day which was wednesday afternoon. The guy who had the truck for the previous 2 weeks had driven around with no tacho. He had the number from the dvla for his faulty tacho card and was waiting for a new one…and also had permission to work from the company. On being pulled and told there was a €1500 fine to him he showed his attestation. No probs said the french with them believing he was not the driver but they dont recognise the attestation letter, but the fine was for the company and not the driver for having missing mileage on the truck tacho head. Guess what…they dont accept notices from the DVLA eiher !! He paid the fine on his credit card and got the money back 6 weeks later after fighting for it…now xoing container work elsewhere !
Simon:
frenchflyer:
If legislation states i do not need one, i wait and see.It is France who have decided to enforce the 45hr rest away from your cab thing now, despite it being in the legislation since 2007.
And again, everyone else is following suit when they feel like it.
Absolute rubbish Simon
It was the Belgian government that first imposed the 45 hour rest thing, as you put it, then the French government then decided to follow suit afterwards.
And , I would love to know, if any of the UK drivers that are still having a 45 in those two countries, have any been fined for doing so.
There was an attestation letter waiting for me yesterday when I picked up my truck from the depot. If they’re no longer required our firm isn’t aware of it…
In theory if you only use digi tachos and do your manual entries correctly to show your weekly rests you shouldn’t need an attestation.
I don’t do any European driving (in the lorry) at all. Don’t even do nights out, just work days Mon-Fri. Yet still my employer (a well known big logistics company) insists on issuing me with “gap letters” to cover any non-driving days - even though I do manual entries on my card anyway. I’ve tried politely declining them (and explained why) but my manager insists that it’s company policy so we have to do them.
Attestation letters are not required in the UK , it is down to the Police or Dvsa to prove a driver has sufficient weekly rest.
If you want to be a bouncer on your weekly rest, they must provide evidence of insufficient rest.
The nature of my job means I could work for several weeks without driving a truck. And there is no way I’m doing a manual entry for that lot or for a weekly rest. I’ve always done letters of attestation to cover periods of work or weekly rest not taken over a weekend. Never do them for weekly rest over a weekend and if you read the guidance notes for filling out the form it does say they weren’t needed to cover weekly rest periods on weekends.
The problem I see us having now is large gaps in our records, which could cause some issues if we get checked in certain countries. The DVSA are happy for us to carry a diary or time sheet, covering the period from the last weekly rest.
pierrot 14:
Simon:
frenchflyer:
If legislation states i do not need one, i wait and see.It is France who have decided to enforce the 45hr rest away from your cab thing now, despite it being in the legislation since 2007.
And again, everyone else is following suit when they feel like it.Absolute rubbish Simon
It was the Belgian government that first imposed the 45 hour rest thing, as you put it, then the French government then decided to follow suit afterwards.
And , I would love to know, if any of the UK drivers that are still having a 45 in those two countries, have any been fined for doing so.
Oops sorry, so it was the Belgians 1st, closely followed by the French. My bad 
Would anyone have the EU directive on this change of stance?
GOT IT!Thanks.
It is about of ‘REGULATION (EU) No 165/2014 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 4 February 2014’.
It is said in this Regulation:
Article 34
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Member States shall not impose on drivers a requirement to present forms attesting to their activities while away from the vehicle.
and
Article 48
Entry into force This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
It shall, subject to the transitional measures in Article 46, apply with effect from 2 March 2016. However, Articles 24, 34 and 45 shall apply with effect from 2 March 2015.
Conclusion: from 2 March 2015 are no longer necessary forms of attestation of the activity. But, in accordance with Article 34, paragraph (3) shall be given manual processing.
returned to work in Le Havre on the 1 April attestation required. My firm must not be aware of the new legislation also.
frenchflyer:
returned to work in Le Havre on the 1 April attestation required. My firm must not be aware of the new legislation also.
I do not know if the firms must be cautioned. Each country has an institution of control, and on their website there is probably warnings about the Reg. No. 165/2014.
toby1234abc:
Attestation letters are not required in the UK , it is down to the Police or Dvsa to prove a driver has sufficient weekly rest.
If you want to be a bouncer on your weekly rest, they must provide evidence of insufficient rest.
The onus is on the driver to prove he had his daily/weekly rest not dvsa has to prove it. Were now all guilty till we prove were innocent