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ASK THE EXPERTS SAFETY, LAW AND WORKING TIME DIRECTIVE FORUM (INTE
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Example of the aforementioned letter.

Once again I rather worryingly find myself agreeing with Rob. :blush: :wink: :smiley: In the UK as long as you have tachos with you for every day you have used a tacho equipped vehicle during all of the current week and the 15 calender days prior to the current week, you have carried out your obligation as to the regulations. If VOSA are concerned there are discs missing then it is up to them to investigate further. They have to prove you have more charts than you are showing them, or you have had insufficient rest, you have carried out your obligations by handing over the correct number of charts. Innocent until proven guilty, so the onus is on them to prove guilt rather than you to prove innocence.

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just to throw more coal on the fire. Could anyone actually quote the legislation; Act and Section which says you have to carry letters of Attestation (OK spelling maybe dodgy there). They are not covered by; 3820/85, 3821/85 (the EEC legislation governing drivers hours and recording equipment) nor are they covered by Transport Act 1968 (our domestic legislation). The new drivers hours; 561/2006 doesn’t mention them either. Yes they can be useful to explain gaps in charts, but many enforcement officers regard them as being worth less than the 80 gsm paper they’re printed on :open_mouth:. However, it would appear that they are not a legal requirement. In over 10 years of fridge driving around Europe I have never had a problem with not producing one, and, yes I carried a shed load of blanks for those times that we won’t discuss here :smiley:
A final point on the legal niceties. It is up to VOSA / Police to prove that you have broken the rules regarding drivers hours, not sure about the system in the rest of Europe. Don’t forget though, if you upset the nice man (or woman) in the yellow jacket, they can detain you / vehicle at the checksite whilst they complete their enquiries - trust me, that can be quite a long time :open_mouth:

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geebee45:
just to throw more coal on the fire. Could anyone actually quote the legislation; Act and Section which says you have to carry letters of Attestation (OK spelling maybe dodgy there). They are not covered by; 3820/85, 3821/85 (the EEC legislation governing drivers hours and recording equipment) nor are they covered by Transport Act 1968 (our domestic legislation). The new drivers hours; 561/2006 doesn’t mention them either.

As far as I know there isn’t any regulation requiring them. Some foreign authorities started demanding them, in much the same way as they invent a lot of regulations to suit them self, but they couldn’t prosecute you for not carrying one. That didn’t stop them issuing fines though, but you were on a winner if you chose to fight it. On one occasion several years ago, in France, I was stopped in a control and they decided they were going to fine meas I didn’t have a letter of attestation. I argued the point, asked to see the regulation in black and white and when they couldn’t do that asked them to take me to see the big boss. A couple of minutes later, after a little discussion among themselves, they decided I didn’t need one after all and therefore wouldn’t be fined. :wink: :smiley: :smiley: Mind you they did work very hard after that to try to get me for any small thing that would have been genuine, but they failed. :stuck_out_tongue: :smiley: They were really only useful in minimising any delays if you were stopped in a control