I’m curious as to what training is being given to those drivers who are having to use digital tachographs?
Have your employers organised it totally internally or are they using outside training?
Is the training, if you’ve had some, based on a computerised simulation or done with a tacho rigged up in a case?
Was it specific to just one of the three different models?
Was it any good?
I’ve made an investment in my own knowledge and am considering two uses for it…
1 - I’ll be offering all drivers registered with our agency free training as soon as they get their card
2 - I’ll be offering it at very competitive prices to clients and prospective clients as a way of generating goodwill
I’m also working on a simple set of instructions as a memory jogger
i think it’s going to be a case of “well, how hard can it be”? attitude.
if you can manage to tune the radio stations in and save them to a preset and use a mobile phone then you can work a digital tachograph.
until it all goes wrong that is - and the ministry step in because fred hasn’t had any breaks since he got the new truck because he didn’t know how to change the mode or that the mode always returns to other duties after being driven.
johnny:
i think it’s going to be a case of “well, how hard can it be”? attitude.
if you can manage to tune the radio stations in and save them to a preset and use a mobile phone then you can work a digital tachograph.
until it all goes wrong that is - and the ministry step in because fred hasn’t had any breaks since he got the new truck because he didn’t know how to change the mode or that the mode always returns to other duties after being driven.
If your shift starts with the insertion of your card, and ends when the card comes out then digital tachos are as easy as remembering to switch modes to rest when you need to
but - and this is a quote from the not very helpful vosa site for drivers “Details of time spent working away from the vehicle that are currently written on the rear of the record sheet will now be input manually into the tachograph. The system will also record details of any faults / interference, errors and over speeding that occur.”
The process of entering that ‘other work’ or indeed the PoA that you had when the wagon wasn’t back from it’s night shift when you arrived for your shift is not at all intuitive or simple. It takes a lot of repetition in the learning process and I predict will be forgotten within a week if not used regularly.
The process of entering that ‘other work’ or indeed the PoA that you had when the wagon wasn’t back from it’s night shift when you arrived for your shift is not at all intuitive or simple. It takes a lot of repetition in the learning process and I predict will be forgotten within a week if not used regularly.
Had training for the Siemens unit last week - not hard at all, the unit even prompts you for this when you put the card in at the start of the shift.
johnny:
i think it’s going to be a case of “well, how hard can it be”? attitude.
if you can manage to tune the radio stations in and save them to a preset and use a mobile phone then you can work a digital tachograph.
until it all goes wrong that is - and the ministry step in because fred hasn’t had any breaks since he got the new truck because he didn’t know how to change the mode or that the mode always returns to other duties after being driven.
If your shift starts with the insertion of your card, and ends when the card comes out then digital tachos are as easy as remembering to switch modes to rest when you need to
but - and this is a quote from the not very helpful vosa site for drivers “Details of time spent working away from the vehicle that are currently written on the rear of the record sheet will now be input manually into the tachograph. The system will also record details of any faults / interference, errors and over speeding that occur.”
The process of entering that ‘other work’ or indeed the PoA that you had when the wagon wasn’t back from it’s night shift when you arrived for your shift is not at all intuitive or simple. It takes a lot of repetition in the learning process and I predict will be forgotten within a week if not used regularly.
what other work?
what do you mean waiting for my truck to return?
i am the only driver of the truck except for my boss who drives it on the day i don’t (monday).
i have never had to wait for my truck to return and the only thing i record on the reverse of the card is ferry delays that affect my spreadover or additional spreadover or driving time due to parking difficulties - ie. friday 10 hours 20 minutes driving total due to a severe lack of available off street parking in the kent area which is exactly what i wrote on the reverse of the card - despite trying several parking spots along the a2 30 minutes before my 10 hours was up.
everywhere was full of foreign registered trucks.
i don’t understand drivers that turn up for work and wait for a truck to arrive, they tell you what time to be in therefore they (the office/transport staff) should have a vehicle in position for the driver, when this has happened to me in the past i have given my mobile number and told them to call me when the truck arrives and gone home, i refuse to sit around in some waiting room because some office bod cannot do their job properly.
The process of entering that ‘other work’ or indeed the PoA that you had when the wagon wasn’t back from it’s night shift when you arrived for your shift is not at all intuitive or simple. It takes a lot of repetition in the learning process and I predict will be forgotten within a week if not used regularly.
Had training for the Siemens unit last week - not hard at all, the unit even prompts you for this when you put the card in at the start of the shift.
G
Were you aware that the Siemens units when they change from other duties to driving automatically add a minute to the driving time record as this is the time taken by the unit to change modes?
Were you aware that the Siemens units when they change from other duties to driving automatically add a minute to the driving time record as this is the time taken by the unit to change modes?
Not strictly true. The Vehicle Unit time resolution is one second, however, the time of activity is recorded in whole minutes only. If you drive for any period within a minute, then the whole minute is recorded as driving.
If the VU records driving in a minute either side of a stationary minute (stopped at traffic lights) then the stationary minute will also be classed as driving.
If the mode is changed within 2 minutes of the vehicle becoming stationary then the whole of that period wil be recorded as the selected mode.
If you were to split a minute between ‘work’ and ‘rest’ then the minute would be allocated to the period that had the longest activity.
If both periods have the same length, then the VU will record the minute as the activity represented as the last mode selected. Hopefully the examples below will make the muddy water clearer
Activity times Activity Vehicle unit records
06:30:00 to 06:30:24 break
06:30:25 to 06:31:00 Driving 06:30:00 to 06:30:59 as driving
06:31:00 to 06:31:20 Work
06:31:21 to 06:31:59 Break 06:31:00 to 06:31:59 as break
06:32:00 to 06:34:58 Driving
06:34:59 to 06:35:59 stationary (traffic lights)
06:36:00 onwards Driving 06:32:00 onwards as driving; there was driving in the minute either side of the ‘stationary minute’ therefore the lot gets classified as ‘driving’
Gazzareth said;
Nothing like a bit of well designed software then !!!
Nothing to do with the software writers. EEC 1360/2002 is the legislation, all 240+ pages of it that says how these things will recorded time and activity. The software writers and vehicle unit manufacturers are only doing what the legislators require them to do. Actually, the situation is not that different from analogue charts, the chart records continuously. Unless you have some very expensive kit, you will only be able to read the chart to an accuracy of +/- one minute, but the complete record is still there.
johnny:
i don’t understand drivers that turn up for work and wait for a truck to arrive, they tell you what time to be in therefore they (the office/transport staff) should have a vehicle in position for the driver, when this has happened to me in the past i have given my mobile number and told them to call me when the truck arrives and gone home, i refuse to sit around in some waiting room because some office bod cannot do their job properly.
You’re very lucky if you always live close enough to the job to be abe to go home in those circumstances… It’s not always a matter of ‘some office bod not doing their job properly’ there could be any number of reasons why you get that start of shift delay that needs recording as a PoA.
Not least of which would be the incoming driver reporting a defect that can be fixed in a short time…
