hi all newbie here so please excuse me if i sound a little dumb and stupid ( i’m an ex squaddie with ptsd dumb and stupid prob descibes me to a t ) anyhows things just dont sink in to my head like they used to so my question is the company i work for are now started to deliver and collect welfare units which means me towing with a ford ranger the issues i am struggling with is the tacho and its entries ( i have a didi card issued ) i will only be towing as and when required the majority of the time i will be office based and i have the ranger for personal use so i will be using it on an eve and weekends so am i correct in assuming i can leave the tacho in out of scope ( but still req to input manual entries ) and put it into scope when i have a job that req me to tow apologies if this is a daft question and poss covered before but as i said i am struggling a bit to get my head around it all
one other question i have is do i need to do a full cpc course 35hrs i have completed a 7hr one ( digital tachograph/drivers hours and road regs
Assuming the vehicle and trailer is over 3.5T MAM (MAM is the gross allowable weight of the vehicle and trailer.) it is a goods vehicle and is fully under O-Licence and Tachograph rules.
(If you go into EU then it applies from 2.5T)
You need a full DCPC card so need to do the full 35hrs.
You need to keep tachograph records for every week that you drive the vehicle with the trailer and keep to EU hours for all of that week.
I am assuming that you are not exempt from EU rules and under GB Domestic rules.
When you have no trailer on the back it is not a 3.5T goods vehicle, so is Out Of Scope.
But if you do any trailer work, even to move it empty, that is within scope when the trailer is on, so records need to be kept, and laws obeyed for the whole week.
When driving with trailer the driving is driving time under the law. When driving without trailer that is either other work, or is not work at all.
Looks like a rats nest of rules and exceptions, but that is how I see it.
I’ll suggest you get some help from your O-Licence holder at work if you need help.
You are definitely not dumb or stupid,it’s better to ask rather than pay a fine to DVSA enforcement at the roadside.
sounds a nightmare of a thing.,
general question to the wider community would this be a case of were the ? mode is used for when he has to put his card in to cover the weeks he isnt in scope rather than rest till now when he isnt resting or having to put x amounts of weeks of other work and breaks?
the op: Unfortunately any paid work of this kind requires the full cpc. Any work that is in scope the whole fixed week has to be accounted for. That means if you know you are going to be towing something on wednesday you have to account for your time at work from the previous monday to the following sunday. easy enough when your backdating a few days but a pita for the rest of the week. You will either have to remember to put your card in each day and remember to switch it to break at the appropriate times and back to other work. or remember to do a manual entry when youre next in scope and enter it in then.
make sure about the weights too. Nowadays enforcement seems far more active checking for overweight vehicles.
With WIMS on some motorway networks they don’t need to pull a lorry over as will know the weight from the sensors in the carriageway.