I am off to Ireland on Tuesday via Holyhead to Dublin. If I am taking my daily break and interrupting this with a movement onto the ferry, do I need to use the ferry mode on the digi tacho ? And how many hours off in total do I need to take ■■?
Coffeeholic:
First thing, there is no such thing as ferry mode. The modes available on a tacho are Driving, which unless you have a really old one you cannot select manually, Other Work, POA and Break/Rest.You only use the ferry option if the crossing will be part of your daily rest period otherwise you just use the tacho as normal.
If it will be part of your daily rest you arrive in the port and book on and join the lane to wait for boarding and put your tacho on rest, and go into the menu and set the end country to UK. Just before you board go into the menu and select the ferry option, this will mark the data with the reason you are interrupting your rest period. When you move to board the mode will change to driving. Once on board select rest mode again.
When you come to disembark, if you have completed your 11 hour rest go into the menu and set begin country to F and change mode to other work. If you will be completing your rest once ashore then go into the menu and select the ferry option, again it will mark the data with the reason you are interrupting your rest. Disembark and when parked up change the mode to rest. When you have completed your rest set begin country to F and change mode to other work.
That’s it. The ferry option is the digital equivalent of writing on the back of a chart the reason for interrupting your rest and isn’t used every time you are on a ferry, which unfortunately some of the drivers at our place, and agency drivers who work with us, think. They use it every time they get on the ferry to and from Dublin even though we are not using the crossing as part of our daily rest.
Coffeeholic:
russell2587:
Very good reply coffee, I usually go Dover Calais and have never used it before, the crossing will be part of an 11 rest, now I know I have to have 11 rest and not include time driving on and off. Say that totals 15 mins can I start after 11 1/4 of arriving at Portsmouth or do I have to have extra 15 mins break as well making 11 1/2 if you know what I mean?You just need the 11 hours rest and whatever the time is for the two interruptions, so if those two add up to 15 minutes you can resume 11¼ hours after beginning your rest in Portsmouth.
One thing to be aware of is that the rest must, as with all daily rest periods, completed within the 24-hour period which began when you started work today. This means that in the case of the rest and interruptions totalling 11¼ hours your shift today can not be more than 12¾ hours, 12¾ + 11¼ = 24.
kevin_c329:
I am off to Ireland on Tuesday via Holyhead to Dublin. If I am taking my daily break and interrupting this with a movement onto the ferry, do I need to use the ferry mode on the digi tacho ? And how many hours off in total do I need to take ■■?
You can’t legally interrupt the daily rest period to embark/disembark a ferry unless you have access to a bunk/couchette during the trip which you’re not likely to have on the Holyhead/Dublin ferry.
The answer to your question is that there’s no real point that I know of in using the ferry option in those circumstances and you should have 11 consecutive hours rest or 9 consecutive hours rest if you’re having a reduced daily rest period 
tachograph:
kevin_c329:
I am off to Ireland on Tuesday via Holyhead to Dublin. If I am taking my daily break and interrupting this with a movement onto the ferry, do I need to use the ferry mode on the digi tacho ? And how many hours off in total do I need to take ■■?You can’t legally interrupt the daily rest period to embark/disembark a ferry unless you have access to a bunk/couchette during the trip which you’re not likely to have on the Holyhead/Dublin ferry.
The answer to your question is that there’s no real point that I know of in using the ferry option in those circumstances and you should have 11 consecutive hours rest or 9 consecutive hours rest if you’re having a reduced daily rest period
You do get a cabin on a night sailing but even during the day you could use the ferry crossing as a 3 hour rest period and save your reduced breaks for later in the week
Wheel Nut:
You do get a cabin on a night sailing but even during the day you could use the ferry crossing as a 3 hour rest period and save your reduced breaks for later in the week
I’m surprised that you get a cabin even on the night run but then I’ve never been to Ireland via Holyhead, actually I haven’t been to Ireland for years.
If you do have access to a bunk/couchette then you could interrupt the daily rest period no more than twice by up-to 1 hour in total.
Without a bunk you could use the trip as a 3 hour part of the daily rest but I’m not sure you could then also interrupt the rest period by embarking/disembarking a ferry.
The rules that allow you to interrupt the daily rest say that you can have a maximum of two interruptions totalling no more than 1 hour, I would assume that the period between the 3 hour rest and the 9 hours rest would count as an interruption.
I’ll wait to be corrected though
You always get a cabin on that crossing regardless of time of day. I will be on the Sunday lunchtime sailing to Dublin and again on Monday morning coming back and will have a cabin both times,although I won’t be using either crossing as part an interrupted daily rest. I will be using the time as part of a split daily rest.
You will get around 4 hours on rest during the crossing, more if you are caring dangerous goods, as I will be on Sunday, because you board about 30 minutes before everyone else and are last off so you will need around 7 hours rest to go with the time on board for a daily rest period.
I will probably be doing the crossing again on Tuesday so depending what sailing you are on I might see you.