started this morning at 6am, picked up a load and brought it back to tne yard -total driving time 90mins then got sent to Aberdeen just made it to the outskirts before my break was due.started back at 1pm took another hour to get to pick up point then sat till 8pm getting loaded moving the wagon when required to aid with the loading i then drove till 9.30pm and according to the way i read the regulations i had to stop because i had done my 15 hours. am i right?
Your 15 hours were up at 21.00, if you worked until 21.30 then you have done 15 1/2 hours.
If between the arrival at the pick up point at, as I read it 14:00 and departing at 20:00 you got a total of 4 hours rest in no more than two segments and the shortest segment no less than 1 hour you were OK driving until 21:30 and could have gone until 22:00.
In fact if you had managed to get 3.5 hours rest in in that period, same rules as above then you were OK until 21:30.
If you ddin’t get 4 hours, or 3.5 hours, then you should have stopped, as Gurner says, by 21:00.
after i parked up at nine i was picked up by the driver of a 7.5 tonner who was on the same job and had done the same hours as me who seemed to be of the opinion that because he had not driven since 10 am he was legal to drive after working 18 hours right or wrong ?
Wrong, you have to have 11 hours daily rest each day.
lets say you start at 00.00, meaning by 00.00 (24 hours later) you have to have had 11 hours rest.
Starting at 00.00 you could have worked until 13.00 and then had 11 hours off.
However, 3 times a week the 11 hour rest period can be reduced to 9 hours, meaning you could have started at 00.00 and finished at 15.00, giving you 9 hours rest before 00.00 comes around again.
There is also a system in place to allow you to split your daily rest giving you a total working day of 16 hours, but to do this, you must have a maximum of 3 seperate rest periods, the last one being a minimum of 8 hours.
The 2 other breaks must be at least an hour long and combined total of 4 hours, or you could have just one 4 hour break as alot do on containers.
An example of that would be, you start at 00.00 and then work for 8 hours, then at 08.00 you stop for 4 hours and move off again at 12.00, now all is required to qualify for a 16 hour day is that your final rest period is 8 hour, so you could work on until 16.00 giving you a total working day of 16 hours.
This does not require any compensation.
Gurner:
An example of that would be, you start at 00.00 and then work for 8 hours, then at 08.00 you stop for 4 hours and move off again at 12.00, now all is required to qualify for a 16 hour day is that your final rest period is 8 hour, so you could work on until 16.00 giving you a total working day of 16 hours.
This does not require any compensation.
But 00h00->08h00 is 8 hours and 12h00->16h00 is 4 hours, so that’s a 12 hour day not 16.
Or am I missing something?
Paul
(still a bit confused about the hours rules…)
Your total working day (4 hour break included) is 16 hours, 00.00 to 16.00 hours.
Yes you could say that you only worked for 12, but thats how you get the 16 hour spreadover.
scooby doo:
after i parked up at nine i was picked up by the driver of a 7.5 tonner who was on the same job and had done the same hours as me who seemed to be of the opinion that because he had not driven since 10 am he was legal to drive after working 18 hours right or wrong ?
Had he been doing other work since 10 AM or had he not been working? If he hadn’t been working he may have had a 9 hour break in that time, 9 consecutive hours that is, and that means he would have been legal when he picked you up. If he was off duty at 10 AM he could have started again at 19:00.
If he was doing other work after 10 AM then he was illegal by a long way.
Gurner:
The 2 other breaks must be at least an hour long and combined total of 4 hours, or you could have just one 4 hour break as alot do on containers.
Remember Gurner that the other breaks don’t have to total 4 hours to qualify for a split shift, they could be less it would just mean the third and last break would need to be more than 8 hours so the three breaks total 12 hours. You could for instance take 1 hour, 2 hours and 9 hours and that would be a split rest, very handy when you have used all your nines up. 
so if i had not moved the wagon between 2pm and 8 pm i could have extended my working day to 16 hours?
As long as you were at rest and not doing other work then yes you could have.