I have gone back to erecting street lights so we don’t use the tacho as much. What i would like to know is, who is responsible for the downloading of the info off my card and the tacho itself. We recently got a new truck (58) reg and they have only done a print out of my card once, and when i said they also need to do the truck they did’nt seem bothered, just hope there is no come back on me.
Am i also exempt from the EU rules.
Also whilst i’m at it is it a legal requirement to fill out a daily check sheet as i havnt seen one since i started there in June.
brit_mark:
I have gone back to erecting street lights so we don’t use the tacho as much. What i would like to know is, who is responsible for the downloading of the info off my card and the tacho itself. We recently got a new truck (58) reg and they have only done a print out of my card once, and when i said they also need to do the truck they did’nt seem bothered, just hope there is no come back on me.
Am i also exempt from the EU rules.
Also whilst i’m at it is it a legal requirement to fill out a daily check sheet as i havnt seen one since i started there in June.
Your employer is responsible for all the bumf to do with the card. Your bit is just to keep hold of your card and be able to produce it to either your employer or enforcement agencies.
I could be wrong but i don’t believe there is a legal requirement for a daily check sheet.
It is a legal requirment for the operator to ensure a nil defect sheet is competed every day even if it is a new wagon.
As Mike said your employer is responsable for downloading your driver card to a computer once a month or in any event before data is lost and the tacho head unit in the truck once every couple or three months. The info on the card is over written every month or two depending how much driving you do although the head unit in the vehicle holds about a year’s worth of activity.
Whilst working on an agency for about 4 months, I must have worked with around 10-12 different local transport firms but I don’t think one of them had any sort of defect sheet available. I did ask, as my previous full time job was very hot on getting the sheets done.
I just made sure I did the checks and if there were any defects, I told the company I was working for and phoned my agency for them to make a note of the defects also.
As said it’s the employers responsibility to download the data from both the VDU and the driver card, you do however have a responsibility to make your driver card available for download.
The company should download the data from the driver card no later than 28 days from the last download.
The company should download the data from the VDU no later than 56 days from the last download.
There is no legal requirement to complete a daily walk round check sheet, if no defects are found. The requirement comes from Operator Licensing that vehicles are kept in a fit and serviceable condition. One of the easiest ways for operators to ensure vehicles are fit for service is to get their drivers to give them a ‘once over’ before they take the vehicle on the road. Effectively there are two defect reporting systems; the nil-defect return and the defect return. With nil-defect you fill in the paperwork every day saying that you have checked the vehicle over and found no faults. With defect return you check the vehicle and only fill in the paperwork if you find a fault. It’s hard to say which is the better system, they both have advantages and disadvantages. Either way, there should be a clear fault reporting process and a clear ‘audit trail’ of what was done about the fault.
It is the responsibility of the Transport Undertaking (basically the Operator) to download both the driver card and the Vehicle Unit. Cards must be downloaded at least every 28 days, if you are working under EU drivers hours rules. There is a further clause that says cards must be downloaded as soon as a driver stops working for a TU as a driver. You could read this as the end of each shift as an agency driver, particularly if you work on an ad hoc basis for a particular TU.
The VU needs downloading every 56 days or immediately before the vehicle is returned to the hirer or sold, if the 56 day limit has not been reached.
Both card and VU downloaded data needs to be kept for 1 year.
Highway maintenance is exempt EU regs and comes under UK Domestic Hours rules. As such you do not need to use the tacho on Domestic Rules journeys, you may use a log book, although there are exemptions from keeping even these simple records. That said, there is a debate going on as to whether erecting lighting columns on a newly built road is ‘maintenance’ or not. My personal opinion is that it’s not, as there was nothing there to start with and maintenance is the repair and upkeep of a structure or facility that has already been constructed. Although I can see the other side of the argument and just how would you prove exactly what job the driver was doing on a daily basis anyway?