Hello one & all. I joined a few days ago, so here goes with my first post, a theroretical question…
If a company that ran driving hours exempt vehicles paid via hours shown on a tacho, is the driver working under tacho law ?.
I only ask as a theoretical company has offered a theoretical person a job paid in this manner, & if I …er …the theoretical driver was stopped & found to have exceeded driving hours with a tacho chart in the head, despite being hours exempt, would I…em…er… that driver be regarded as being under EU law as they were driving on a tacho?.
Also this theoretical company suggests pulling the chart if stopped as we are not legally required to use them & it saves problems if they don’t find a chart in the head.
The theoretical company in question is a responsible operator who also use these charts to keep an eye on rests taken & speeds driven at.
if you are doing work which is exempt from eu tachograph law, you should be supplied with a drivers log book which you would fill in instead, which you put your start and finish times, also how long driving (10hrs max per day) and duty time (11hrs max per day), not sure if you have to have a break from driving, but im sure you would be sensible and do so! if you get stopped by any authorities you will tell them that you are working on exemption and show them your log book. they shouldnt ask to see a card, but if they do, you can say you are using it to log your driving time so you know what you are doing, i personally wouldnt put a card in, but if you have been told to then thats different! your employer is telling you to take breaks, so assumingly they will know the break requirements for log book regulations!
cheers
paul
If the job your doing is exempt EC drivers hours you then fall into the domestic regulations. You can use a log book to record ‘domestic’ duties, or you can use a calibrated and sealed tachograph. I’d suggest that if the theoretical company is instructing drivers to use tachos they write ‘domestic hours’ or some such on the back of the chart (using a felt pen so it doesn’t mark the front of the chart). This should prevent Examiners/Police from regarding the record as EC driving. I have known of a TC requiring an Operator to instruct drivers to use tachos so that compliance with the domestic regulations could be checked.One oddity is that if you’re delivering letters/parcels in a vehicle over 3.5t you are working under domestic regs but you must use a tacho you cannot use a log book.
By the way, there is no requirement under domestic regs for you to have a break from driving during your shift. You could legally drive the whole 10 hours in one go. There again, common sense dictates that you have a break at some time. Imagine trying to tell a Judge that you driving for 9 hours 40 minutes didn’t have any bearing on you having an accident, even if it was totally down to another driver.
VOSA do a book (ref no. GV262) which is free, it gives all the info regarding EC and domestic driving. The number is in the phone book or you can download a copy from their website.
daxi
not Argos by any chance is it ? As far as i know once you put a card in then you have to abide by the regulations and as such can be prosocuted if you break them.
Thanks everyone.
Its recovery work. So hours will be long & difficult to fit inside UK regs when on stand by for a whole weekend.
if you had said that its recovery work at the beginning it might of helped!
i dont know the driving regulations for recovery drivers, are they the same as hire & reward drivers, anybody?
cheers
paul
Specialised breakdown vehicles are exempt EC regulations provided it is genuinely the collection of a temporary or permanently disabled vehicle from the roadside and transporting it to a place of repair/scrapping and comes within Domestic hours regulations. Essentially it will have been built or permanently adapted to lift and or tow a disabled vehicle eg. crane jib, beaver tail with hoist or sliding bed. But a flat bed with a Hiab is not counted as a recovery / breakdown vehicle under Vehicle & Excise Regulations Act.
Although there is an 11 hour daily duty limit and there is a 10 hour daily driving limit that’s the lot. There is no limit to weekly or fortnightly driving. Nor is there any requirement to have a weekly rest period.On Domestic, you can work 7 days a week for 52 weeks a year. If you drive for less than 4 hours on each day of the week (which may be the case in some recovery jobs) you are even exempt the daily duty limit.
Thanks, its one type of driving job that I’ve never really done before.
Only 10 hours driving per day, hmmm, I know of recovery drivers who regally go way over that.
If this comes off I have to say I am looking forward to it, I’ve done an odd run for another operator, just to help out, but that was all, & it was only cars & vans & all breakdowns & accidents, this new op runs a heavy wrecker, does some repo work & was talking about me moving some PSV about for them, so it looks like I could be getting plenty of variety, & work.
Our company is tacho & drivers hours exempt as well but we do keep logs. On our timesheets for jobs it lists “Start Time” “Arrive Site” “Depart Site” and “End Time”. I usually mark on the sheet what I take for breaks, minimum half hour, maximum whatever I take. For example, Friday I started at 2pm, arrived customers site for 9pm and had about 3 hours break in between (as well as an hour standing around waiting for details to be confirmed!) I worked on site until 6am and then departing site then got back to base at 1pm, and had 3 hours rest on the way back!
1400-2100 0600-1300 with 6 Hrs Rest and 9 Hrs onsite… I think that’s right…
The job was up near Yorkshire on the A1