Probably a pretty straight forward question for a lot of you on here!
I understand the concept of driving hours, i.e having a minimum of a 45 minute break after every 4.5 hours of driving (or broken down into a 30 minute break and a 15 minute one), but where does other work and POA fall into the mix? Are they categorised the same as time behind the wheel, for example, would a 3 hour drive to a depot and 1.5 hours handballing a load into a warehouse bring me up to 4.5 hours, and mean I would have to start my 45 minute break there and then? It’s a lot to get your head around at first!
Anytime you aren’t driving the tacho unit should default to Other Work. All loading, unloading and other work related activities should be done with the unit on this mode. It’s symbol is a set of crossed Hammers.
POA is borked. Badly implemented system that resets the tacho drive time but doesn’t. Confused? Let me explain. Let’s you drive for 2 hours, arrive on site only to be told “it’s not ready yet drive, give us an hour”. No problem, you bung it on POA as you are ready at your station when the work arrives. 45 minutes ticks by, the head unit now shows drive time as 0 hours and 0 minutes. Now you’ve loaded and ready to leave. You then drive for another 3 hours because the unit has reset to 0 but wait, it hasn’t. When you get back to the office and download your card you get presented with an infringement for driving 5 hours with a break!
Basically POA lies, don’t use POA unless you can keep a real good eye on your drive time. As a new driver learning the regs, if you aren’t working or driving, put it on break!
Other work is when you are working but not driving.
POA is a Period Of Availability, you’re waiting to start work but not actually working (until you’re used to it POA is best avoided if possible).
You can drive for up-to 4.5 hours then must have a 45 minute break, this break can be taken in 2 separate parts, the first part must be at-least 15 minutes break and the second part must be at-least 30 minutes break, and they must be taken in that order (15 minutes then 30 minutes).
Other work does not count towards the 4.5 hours, for instance you could do 2 hours driving then 1.5 hours other work (maybe loading/unloading) then do another 2.5 hours driving, but then you would have to have the 45 minute break.
Radar19:
POA is …Badly implemented system that resets the tacho drive time…
I made that mistake twice when I first started driving before I realised what was happening, I was using a Stoneridge unit at the time - reading the replies on this post has got me wondering if the Siemens units also count POA as rest? I thought that all the tacho’s where set up that way due to the variation in some of the European rules but don’t know for sure as I have never put it to the test.
tachograph:
All digital tachographs count POA as break.
Is this due to some Euro rules being different to our own?
The rules are supposed to be the same in all EU countries, but for some reason when the specifications for the digital tachograph were written they specified that POA would reset the driving time on the tachograph display.
I seem to remember reading that it was to allow for different interpretations of the EU rules in different member states, but the regulations state very clearly what break is and what POA is so I’ve no idea why there would be diferent interpretations.
tachograph:
All digital tachographs count POA as break.
Is this due to some Euro rules being different to our own?
The rules are supposed to be the same in all EU countries, but for some reason when the specifications for the digital tachograph were written they specified that POA would reset the driving time on the tachograph display.
I seem to remember reading that it was to allow for different interpretations of the EU rules in different member states, but the regulations state very clearly what break is and what POA is so I’ve no idea why there would be diferent interpretations.
clarky3013:
I’ve yet to have any cpc training, or my first driving shift for that matter, so yeah, I’m still in the process of learning
In that case my sincere apologies, assumed you’d done CPC. (Should know better than to assume! Oops )
Answers you’ve had will hold you in good stead whether your doing Mods 2/4 or Periodic. Don’t overthink the rules or you’ll get yourself in a tizz! And avoid POA unless it’s company policy or you are very good at keeping track of all the other mode timings
