I’ve done Leeds-Lowestoft-Great Yarmouth x 2-Norwich and back to Ossett,in a day,with an artic. (Night out at home. 
)
It was bloody hard to do though,and timing was extremely tight,but it was one of those days,where everything went spot on.
Even my Renault Premium auto surprised me. 
Ken.
LIfted from a thread running Oct 06:
On the 9.9.06 I left Lymm, went to Ipswich, onto West Thurrock & back to Lymm. 811 kms.
I knew it would be tight on 10 hours driving to get back into Lymm. I thought if i was just off I could park in Knutsford services, forgetting (as a part time driver) that is now closed to LGV’s.
Time was indeed extremely tight but i pushed on back into Poplar 2000.
My electronic timer (which is only as accurate as my operation of it. i.e remembering to start & stop it) clocked 10 hrs + 5 minutes.
I wrote a note on the back of the card: “few minutes over 10 hours to get into safe parking, previous services closed to trucks”
The analysis of the chart shows the driving time as 9 hrs 57 mins. But i have received a notice of infringement + 3 penalty points because i claimed the exception.
My thinking is that as no infringement was commited, the note does not come into play.
Surely a VOSA officer, seeing the card as legal, would not even look at the back of the card?
However I’ve been driving a lot longer than you Doc & i knew where the places were. It makes a difference. Also, it was a saturday.
The points were subsequently recscinded.
… and yes, that’s an average speed of 50mph with a limited to 89kph truck! Possible because both places were close to the motorway or dual carriageway, there were no hold ups (luckily) so most of the 10 hrs was spent at about 53 (D carriageways) or 55.
I admit i was somewhat awestruck myself when i worked it out!
Not trying to be clever, just pointing out what is possible if things go right. (rarely in haulage!).
Since when did drivers get penalty points for hours offences?
Wheel Nut:
Since when did drivers get penalty points for hours offences?
Exactly what I was thinking.
They cannot retrospectively put points on your license. Not for speeding or going over your hours, especially by five minutes.
Sorry chaps, because i lifted this from another thread not in its entirety, it lost the reference to the company’s in house points.
See here for the full story:
http://trucknetuk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20256&highlight=ipswich
I didn’t originally provide a link to it as i didn’t think the thread was particularly relevant to this one, only that bit of it.
Driveroneuk:
So, did you get your night out? Where did you park?
Or did they send somebody out to get you?More £££ for the n/o allowance & running in on day 2■■
They sent someone out to get me as they needed the vehicle back for loading for the next job. I’m sure an experienced driver could have shaved off a bit of time here and there, and maybe at different times of the day/week I could have shaved off a bit of time myself, but I’m fairly satisfied that someone with my level of experience couldn’t have managed it within 10 hours.
Hope you got paid for all hours worked… that’s until you were back at base. … and didn’t expect you to drive back to base in a company van.
Hmmm… well under the circumstances I left out of my timesheet the waiting time for the van to come and the time it took to drive the 70 miles to base, which it was expected (without consultation) that I would do. In retrospect that is probably every bit as illegal as it would have been to continue driving. Problem is that as a newbie I’m just glad to be racking up the experience.
Are people in my situation being exploited? Undoubtedly! But I’d be naive to be making waves at this point in my driving career.
Dr Dubya:
Are people in my situation being exploited? Undoubtedly! But I’d be naive to be making waves at this point in my driving career.
That’s fair comment.
If i was still operating my own lorry i wish i could find a diver to come & work for me who would be happy to do the last 2 or 3 hours of every day for free!
Without ANY doubt you should have filled in your time sheet for the time you handed in the keys for the vehicle you drove back in. If it was a van, it was definately illegal.
As was discussed, that run would be tight for an experienced driver. So to send an inexperienced one on it & expect it to be done in 1 shift confirms what most of us here at TN have known for ages, office staff = stupid.
Well, at least you wasn’t silly enough to carry on after Newark!! You could have dropped yourself in the doo doo if caught.
Dr Dubya:
Hmmm… well under the circumstances I left out of my timesheet the waiting time for the van to come and the time it took to drive the 70 miles to base, which it was expected (without consultation) that I would do. In retrospect that is probably every bit as illegal as it would have been to continue driving. Problem is that as a newbie I’m just glad to be racking up the experience.Are people in my situation being exploited? Undoubtedly! But I’d be naive to be making waves at this point in my driving career.
I think you just need some self confidence pal.
Experienced or not, make waves. You’re a human being who doesn’t deserve to be treated with disregard, despite your career length so far.
YOU: “Well, I’ve run out of time boss. Nothing I can do about it. Why on earth did you send me on such a long run?”
BOSS " Other blokes can do it"
YOU “Well I’m not other blokes, I stick to the speed limit, and I didn’t know the drops. Make sure when you send the van out, you send two drivers because it is illegal for me to now carry out any other duties”
And stick to it. If they send one driver, you’re perfectly within your rights to sit tight and say “I’m not driving, so find somebody who can”
When you drove that van back, if you’d have had an accident, they never would have backed you. To save their own skin they’d have denied all knowledge.
Self confidence mate. Be a bit bolshy, after all, you’re the captain of the ship. Personally, I love to put the office wallies (and egotistical forklift drivers who think they can dictate to me how my trailer is loaded) in their place. But, you have to instantly know you’re right, and that is where the confidence comes from.
If you remember nothing, then please try to get this to sink in THEY WON’T BACK YOU if you cause a crash whilst doing something illegal.
That job was a night out job. No doubt about it. Even the most experienced would have had trouble squeezing that into ten hours. Also, I find when I arrive at drops, the odd bit of shunting onto a bay takes up a few minutes driving.You can lose fifteen minutes per day from stupid little movements which the tachograph still records as driving. So bear that in mind the next time you know a job is two hours and five minutes away. Then five minutes shunting. That is two hours and ten minutes in total, but the boss will say “Nah mate, don’t know what you’re complaining about, its only two hours”
They will push you, they will try you. If you work for an agency it is slightly harder to be bolshy. However, agencies have benefits. You will gain experience fast, and within just two months you will feel strangely experienced.
Just stick up for yourself more, and stick to it. People will really respect you for it, and it feels less awkward the more you do it.
Good luck next time, and remember, they won’t back you.
Cheers Ezydriver, I will most certainly make my opinions clearly known before the next 400+ miler. To be fair to the agency they were ok about it, whether the client’s were arsey with the agency I don’t know, guess I’ll know if I get any more work from them 
Where in Norwich did you have to go?
A shopfitters unit a bit further up the A140 from the airport