stagedriver:
I wasn’t sure because effectively on day 7 I’m not working, I’m making my way home in a company vehicle and not being paid. Can stop at my own leisure…
You want paying,when I go over my 15 hrs and get recovered I get paid,there no way I’d do 16/17/20 hrs and not get paid,just stick the extra hours over 15 hrs on a short day
tachograph:
Sorry to disappoint both of you but whether you’re getting paid or not doesn’t come into it, nor does the fact that the company brought your own car out to you.
Travelling time to take charge of a vehicle, or travelling back to base or home after relinquishing control of a vehicle that’s neither at base or the drivers home cannot be regarded as break or rest.
The only way you could legally circumvent this rule would be to go home and them return to the same location after your weekly rest period to continue the journey, but I’m guessing that’s not an option for you.
Surely your company aren’t going to want the vehicle stuck an hour from base for 24 hours if they can arrange to recover you legally
Drivers of passenger-carrying vehicles are often required to be relocated to a vehicle they are required to drive or from a vehicle they have driven.
Where a vehicle coming within the scope of the EU rules is neither at the driver’s home nor at the employer’s operational centre where the driver is normally based, but is at a separate location, time spent travelling to or from that location to take charge of the vehicle may not be counted as a rest or break, unless the driver is in a ferry or train and has access to a bunk or couchette.
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For example: If a coach driver had to drive for 1 hour by car to pick up a coach from a location that was not at the driver’s home or his normal operating base then this driving would count as other work. Similarly, if he had to drive back by car from a location that was not his normal operating base, this would count as other work.
This regulation as written gives rise to other queries regarding what is NOT said:
1)This refers to a coach driver because the practice of meeting an onward travelling vehicle is a common occurrence for PSV work. It does not mention goods vehicle drivers for whom this is not a normal occurrence.
2)It refers to driving a car, it does not mention being a passenger in a car being driven by someone else.
As far as (2) is concerned being a ‘coach driver passenger’ is stretching the issue since multiple crews are driven to meet different vehicles as a matter of routine. But day-work goods vehicle drivers are a different issue since they do not normally travel to meet a vehicle.
Or, is the only legal “duty time expired” way of getting home (possibly collecting one’s own car from the operator’s base)to be lying down in a bunk or couchette on a train or ferry regardless of (EU regs) vehicle type?
This regulation as written gives rise to other queries regarding what is NOT said:
1)This refers to a coach driver because the practice of meeting an onward travelling vehicle is a common occurrence for PSV work. It does not mention goods vehicle drivers for whom this is not a normal occurrence.
2)It refers to driving a car, it does not mention being a passenger in a car being driven by someone else.
As far as (2) is concerned being a ‘coach driver passenger’ is stretching the issue since multiple crews are driven to meet different vehicles as a matter of routine. But day-work goods vehicle drivers are a different issue since they do not normally travel to meet a vehicle.
Or, is the only legal “duty time expired” way of getting home (possibly collecting one’s own car from the operator’s base)to be lying down in a bunk or couchette on a train or ferry regardless of (EU regs) vehicle type?
It mentions coaches and not lorries because the quote was taken from “PSV 375” which is VOSA’s guide to the regulations for coach drivers, The regulation is the same for lorries as can be seen in “GV262” which is VOSA’s guide for lorry drivers.
It’s a guide and is not meant to mention every possible scenario, you can find the actual regulation in article 9 - 561/2006.
The only legal way I know of for getting home after your working time is up is to make your own way home in your rest time, but that would mean that you would have to make your own way back in your own time to restart work from the same location after the rest period.
Nothing to stop the company from collecting their vehicle in the meantime? (spare keys) Which would mean it’s a bit pointless going back to wherever it was.
Nothing to stop the company from collecting their vehicle in the meantime? (spare keys) Which would mean it’s a bit pointless going back to wherever it was.
Pointless = yes but the legal requirement is to record that trip from where the rest started back to base
So if the driver went home from the place where they started the rest period in a car then that’s ok and does not need recording and going from home back to where they started the rest period does not need recording but from the place where they started the rest period back to base does legally need recording which in a car needs to be recorded as other work
Realistically they is no way the authorities could determine what you did in a car so if you went from home to base in the car but recorded other work for 1 hour prior to arriving at base then all is correctly recorded legally
Nothing to stop the company from collecting their vehicle in the meantime? (spare keys) Which would mean it’s a bit pointless going back to wherever it was.
It’s certainly not illegal for a company to recover their vehicle while the vehicles driver is on a night out.
However if the vehicle happened to be parked in a lay-by miles from anywhere so the driver couldn’t possibly be in B&B, and the vehicle was taken back to base while the driver went home, I think it would be fairly obvious that the company and the driver were deliberately circumventing the regulations.
If VOSA found out about such an arrangement I wouldn’t be surprised if they started taking a bit more interest in the company than they previously had.
