Break; POA ; Other work

NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS (INTERACTIVE)
1

I get a little confused about these. OK…at the start of the day it’s simple enough. Stick your tacho on ‘Other work’ while you do your checks and paper-work. But then…once you start driving the tacho is set to ‘drive’. Once you stop…say to load or unload…why not just put the tacho to ‘break’? What are the benefits of using the other non-driving modes? Apologies for being somewhat ignorant.

2

Ader1:
I get a little confused about these. OK…at the start of the day it’s simple enough. Stick your tacho on ‘Other work’ while you do your checks and paper-work. But then…once you start driving the tacho is set to ‘drive’. Once you stop…say to load or unload…why not just put the tacho to ‘break’? What are the benefits of using the other non-driving modes? Apologies for being somewhat ignorant.

  1. Because if you doing any activity ie work you cant legally be on break or poa.
  2. If your not doing any work and you can use break that’s fine the only prob is if its only a 15 or 30 min break you still need to get the other bit of break in and if you do get a whole 45 in and you only did 2hrs driving and your next port of call is 5 hrs away your gonna have to have another 45 where by having only a 15 or 30 means you only need a 30 later saving 15mins that could mean getting to your pick up or not ( on time )
3

As Nick says - recording break or POA when working is illegal = false record = expensive if caught

Also said - if taking enough break to reset the 4.5 driving time clock can on occasion cause the driver to need an extra 15 mins
Its daft that taking too much break can penalise a driver but thats law V logic

4

Thank you very much. I think I’m beginning to get the hang of it. I really don’t know why I’m so unconfident about it. Is this feeling quite common?

5

Ader1:
Thank you very much. I think I’m beginning to get the hang of it. I really don’t know why I’m so unconfident about it. Is this feeling quite common?

Yes. I remember using a digi unit for the first time. I’d had no training at all. I think I just hit some buttons until it started recording what I was doing. Thank god it wasn’t a 1.4 unit.

And when I saw a Stoneridge for the first time :astonished:

It becomes second nature eventually.

6

Thanks Terry

7

If your still not confident …
use a pad and write times down…
Remember that by using POA in the same time blocks or even in conjunction with breaks can reset your driving time on the tacho head …