I have posted a question in the working time directive forum
We have recently started using a digi tacho and noticed that whenever you are stopped at lights or in a traffic jam then the tacho records other work rather than driving.
so while driving for an hour, if there are lots of stops for lights then it would look like
drive 12m
work 2m
drive 3m
work 2m
drive14m
work 1m
drive 8m
work 3m
drive 15m
would this be classed as 52minutes driving and 8 minutes work? This is what is shown when downloaded, but just didn’t want to get caught out…
but have not received any answers to this.
if anyone can help can you reply in the post
trucknetuk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=33469
Thanks
Hmm.
In terms of whether it will be picked up by an automatic check, yes, it will be interpreted as 52 minutes driving and 8 minutes other work.
However…
If you had a VOSA person manually checking your tacho record (e.g. in the aftermath of a collision), then I think I’m right in saying that time spent waiting at lights, etc. is classed as “driving”, just that the tacho is recording it “wrong”.
Put it this way - if you had the same trace on an an analogue tacho, I suspect that VOSA would consider it to be 1 hour of driving, unless you can give reasonable justification for why the time recorded as “other work” really is other work.
So… tread carefully.
MrFlibble:
Hmm.
In terms of whether it will be picked up by an automatic check, yes, it will be interpreted as 52 minutes driving and 8 minutes other work.
However…
If you had a VOSA person manually checking your tacho record (e.g. in the aftermath of a collision), then I think I’m right in saying that time spent waiting at lights, etc. is classed as “driving”, just that the tacho is recording it “wrong”.
Put it this way - if you had the same trace on an an analogue tacho, I suspect that VOSA would consider it to be 1 hour of driving, unless you can give reasonable justification for why the time recorded as “other work” really is other work.
So… tread carefully.
You’ll also find that the definition of ‘driving’ has changed legally. VOSA can consider what they like and so can anyone else but driving time is now legally defined as (my wording might be slighly incorrect here as i’m not going to check right now) ‘what the recording equiptment records as driving’…So its no good anyone taking wild guesses or assumptions its all there in black and white exactly what constitutes driving and there is no way ‘other work’ can ever be driving. No matter what anyone thinks. 
Owner Drivers:
I would this be classed as 52minutes driving and 8 minutes work? This is what is shown when downloaded, but just didn’t want to get caught out…
Yes thats what it would be counted as. An examination of the ‘raw data’ may show a slight difference of those figures above, but for all practical purposes you cab use the above data ‘as is’.
The ‘raw data’ would probably only be neccesary for example if you wanted to defend yourself for being one or two minutes over and having to defend yourself in court with the facts, or some such similar discrepancy, which is realistically highly unlikely.
Hi all, first time posting so take it easy on me.
I was lead to believe that driving time was time spent behind the wheel of the vehicle (obviously not when ur on a break or on a bay). But say your stuck in traffic for 30mins, your gonna have periods of other work when ur stationary, but won’t those periods be counted as driving time?
No.
There you go short and sweet answer 
- I read this info on another post about 2 months ago 