Good morning everyone, I hope you can help with a problem at our depot.
A couple of times some of our lads have run out of driving hours perhaps 1or 2 hours from the depot and the boss seems to think its ok to send someone in a sprinter to collect the vehicle and we drive the van back to base.Is this legal or does he need to send two people and we are chauffeured back to depot?
Not legal strictly speaking but quite widespread practice I’d say , personally I wouldn’t get my knickers in a twist over it . Assuming it’s a once in a blue moon occurrence .
Personally unless it happens on a Friday I would have a night out , but I’m guessing the truck is needed for another run or whatever .
I’m sure the usuall suspects will be along soon to tell you it’s a no no and £ ■■■ fine and 6 months in prison 
Bang out of order tell the men to grow a pair! 
■■■■ planning 
and yes two drivers back to base! 
then gossip mongerers at the depot, will say but then " you have to get dropped off at home " then a taxi to work in the morning blah, blah, blah but as you’re conversing on an open forum, 
don’t worry who’ll be looking in! 
probably your gaffer, dvsa or stobrats ( they don’t take kindly to employees slagging them on social media, jeez they even make you sign so you don’t upset them with the truth like■■? ) they’ve employees in the office who look in here 24/ 7/ 366 this years a leap year by the way! 
so yes welcome to the site and happy new year! your gaffer’s a bar steward
Mikeyd only lube with trousers down dvsa or with our Beverley NO LUBE, and a 16" ■■■■■■■■, no tea or biscuits I’m afraid! Firing squad at dawn or international truck stop just before Jct 14, M6 north! I hope this helps people, we’re only in 2016, and motorways are nearly 50 years old! Jeez how did we cope on log books? LOL
Just driving hours or duty hours as well?
Seany:
Just driving hours or duty hours as well?
I was thinking that, as I think it’s only illegal if it’s a duty hours issue!
Thanks for the input, we only work nine hours per day (some would say lucky) but sometimes, as yesterday traffic hold ups cause delays and my mate was unable to complete his run with driving time.We are not paid overtime at all (something we need to take up with bosses I know) but I insisted it was unacceptable to be expected to drive a firms vehicle back to depot when your max hours have been reached even if we were paid, I wanted to confirm it is by illegal to carry out this procedure.
ta very much
chingfordhighstreet:
Good morning everyone, I hope you can help with a problem at our depot.
A couple of times some of our lads have run out of driving hours perhaps 1or 2 hours from the depot and the boss seems to think its ok to send someone in a sprinter to collect the vehicle and we drive the van back to base.Is this legal or does he need to send two people and we are chauffeured back to depot?
A van under 3.5 tonnes is other work for EU regs when driven so cannot count as rest
Being a passenger in the van in this situation cannot count as rest
Perhaps you could tell us if any rest rules have been broken 
chingfordhighstreet:
Thanks for the input, we only work nine hours per day
Perfectly legal to swap and drive van for a few hours
If you have duty time left yes it’s legal…
If you still have time before requiring a daily rest (ie when your 15 hours are up) then it is legal to drive a non-tachograph back to the yard.
If you require to stop for a daily rest then it will be illegal however you travel back to base, but best practice will be to send two drivers so a driver isn’t doing driving of any sort after 15 hours.
Thanks again for the input, it appears that it would be legal to return driving non hgv vehicle if not exceeding daily rest period, it looks like we should be pushing for overtime pay to cover extra hours.
Thanks for explaining.
chingfordhighstreet:
Good morning everyone, I hope you can help with a problem at our depot.
A couple of times some of our lads have run out of driving hours perhaps 1or 2 hours from the depot and the boss seems to think its ok to send someone in a sprinter to collect the vehicle and we drive the van back to base.Is this legal or does he need to send two people and we are chauffeured back to depot?
Driving is Driving (or not?)
When i run out of driving Time a Van came with 2 Man. One drove the Lorry back,and one drove me back.
They even let me waiting till they found a second Driver,riskin me running out of Sift Hour.
Now,i will not Name that Companies,and i was still in the 15 Hour Shift Time.
That didnt happen very often,as a good Company would review your Duty if that happens more then once.
Wot says Your Union Shop Stuart? Is he off Sick?
That here a short List of Law for Van Drivers with Link attached
WVM van drivers’ hours for under 3.5 tons in the UK are controlled by the Work Time Directive, which requires all van drivers obey the GB Domestic Drivers Hours Rules & Health & Safety Executive Rules regarding drivers of vans.
You don’t have to keep records but if you don’t and have an accident you will be questioned.
The police may go to great lengths checking traffic cameras you would have passed through on that day or any other day.
You should drive for a maximum of ten hours per day and work for a maximum of eleven hours.
You should take your breaks in your daily driving hours as per GB Domestic (none EU) HGV driver.
You should take your rest periods and time off as per a Domestic HGV driver.
If you do keep a log book record it will assist you greatly if you have an accident, in that it will show you care.
ALL DRIVERS ARE ALSO CONTROLLED BY THE HEALTH AND SAFETY EXECUTIVE WHICH REQUIRES REGULAR BREAKS FOR VAN DRIVERS. THESE ARE 15/20 MINS EVERY 2 HOURS AT LEAST (NOTE AT LEAST). The documents available for download after this section ALSO cover the legal requirements for ALL employers. They must NOT require YOU to undertake tasks that would cause you to break the law. They MUST responsibly plan your daily van rounds and be competent to do so. IF THEY DON’T AND YOU HAVE AN ACCIDENT CAUSING DEATH THEY MAY BE SENT TO PRISON.
transportcafe.co.uk/driving-hours
If the Maximum Lenght of Driving Hour for a Van Driver is 10 Hour,and you can drive an HGV for 10 Hour,do you can drive 20 Hour in one Shift
NO
So,what gives someone the Idea you can drive a Van after you have completed your Daily/Weekly Driving Hour?
Who said the driver had driven for 9 or 10 hours that day
It could be they ran out of the 2 weekly driving hour limit of 90 hours on that day
If the van driving comes under domestic then the easy solution is to use a company car
If you run out of driving hours, but still have duty time left you can get back to base in whatever fashion you want as long as it doesn’t involve driving a vehicle with a tachograph and complete the journey within your duty time i.e. 13 or 15 hrs.
If you have no duty time left, you’re breaking the law however you return to base.
DonutUK:
If you have no duty time left, you’re breaking the law however you return to base.
That is true, but the best thing to do if you do run out of duty hours is to stop before going over the 13 or 15 hours, put the tacho on POA and for the company to send two drivers in a car or van to pick you up. Then do printouts when you take you card out, recording when you finished work when back to base and an explanation of why you went over.
That is still an infringement, but it at least manages the situation and doesn’t look like the ■■■■ is being taken if it’s a one-off.
Glen A9:
DonutUK:
If you have no duty time left, you’re breaking the law however you return to base.That is true, but the best thing to do if you do run out of duty hours is to stop before going over the 13 or 15 hours, put the tacho on POA and for the company to send two drivers in a car or van to pick you up. Then do printouts when you take you card out, recording when you finished work when back to base and an explanation of why you went over.
That is still an infringement, but it at least manages the situation and doesn’t look like the ■■■■ is being taken if it’s a one-off.
PoA still counts towards duty time. It doesn’t manage the situation. It is counted as not taking sufficient daily rest even if you take 9/11hrs off after finally clocking off because it works on a fixed 24hr period and not taking sufficient daily rest is taken as a serious offence. The best thing to do if you’re running out of duty time is to take a daily rest.
“But at least it manages the situation”? For whose benefit? Certainly not yours. Sod how much inconvenience it causes the company or how much it screws up their plans for your runs for the following day, that isn’t your problem because the reason it happened in the first place is because of their poor planning.
Yes, that’s what I said. But its the least worst option (assuming taking a daily rest where you are isn’t possible) to be driven back and write an explanation on a printout.
ROG:
Who said the driver had driven for 9 or 10 hours that dayIt could be they ran out of the 2 weekly driving hour limit of 90 hours on that day
If the van driving comes under domestic then the easy solution is to use a company car
And here a Link to the Domestic Rules from the Gov.uk
gov.uk/drivers-hours/gb-domestic-rules
I dont think you drive by EU Law till driving Time is done and keep going then by Domestic Rules
My 10 pence worth …If you have the duty time left to get back to base its fine ,if the van is not under tacho regs then even if you drive it after you reach your driving limit in your truck its fine as the driving of the van is out of scope but bear in mind if you have reached your duty limit even if you have a driver driving you back and you as a passenger its still other work as your on a company owned vehicle so it really is the duty time left and theres no need for 2 drivers as it wont make any odds