ezydriver:
As far as I understand the tacho rules, if you don’t go straight to your house from the lorry, then it’s illegal to be picked up. You’re breaking the law going back to the yard to debrief and pick your car up.
Your understanding is incorrect. Time spent travelling to (or from) a vehicle which is not at its normal operating base or the driver’s home cannot be counted as Rest. This was exactly what got Skills Coaches into trouble all those years ago (drivers going to/returning from coaches in their own vehicles). If you’ve reached 15 hours (or 13 hours when no Reduced Rest is available) then the only legal thing you can do is stay with the truck (or in a hotel or lodgings at that location) until you’ve had your 9 (or 11) hours of Rest.
I stand corrected.
Personally I’d just stay with the lorry anyway, but always thought calling the wife to pick me up was legal.
Not legal - but pretty much undetectable (unless as you alluded to earlier, something untoward happened during the “recovery” journey).
Be so? It would be legal for a taxi to take me to an hotel and back again, therefore, it must surely be legit for the wife to take me home and back again? Neither destinations are places of work. I agree it’s almost undetectable but I’m confused by the fact it appears to against the law.
It was snowing and there was an accident on the A2 just before Dover where a lorry lost it and left the road. The driver died but also due to the conditions and the time it took to get sorted with the snow falling we then needed the road we were all stuck on cleared before anyone could move.
So eventually made it onto the ferry 12 hours later than scheduled, arrived in Calais and obviously the French side has backed up too because of weather so the original plan of getting my relief driver to meet me in Calais couldn’t happen as he was stuck in a taxi in the delays that side.
So in the end I drove the two hours to the hotel in Gent where another driver took me off.
It was fairly well publicised at the time and I got given some press articles from UK and France to back up my story in case of any issues. I did get stopped for a control too shortly afterwards but nothing was mentioned about it.
Drivers are sometimes required to travel to a goods vehicle they are required to drive, or from a vehicle they have driven.
Where a vehicle which is in scope of the EU rules is neither at the driver’s home nor at the employer’s operational centre where the driver is normally based, but is at a separate location, time spent travelling to or from that location to take charge of the vehicle, regardless of the mode of transport, cannot be counted as a rest or break, unless the driver is on a ferry or train and has access to a sleeper cabin (if interrupting a regular weekly rest period), or a sleeper cabin, bunk or couchette (if interrupting a regular daily rest period or a reduced weekly rest period). Even if the driver is not paid or makes the decision themselves to travel to or from home/base the travel time cannot be counted as rest or break.
For example: If a driver had to travel for 1 hour by car, on public transport or as a passenger, to pick up a vehicle from a location that was not their home or normal operating base then this time would count as other work. Similarly, if they had to travel back by car, on public transport or as a passenger, from a location that was not their normal operating base, this would count as other work.
I’ve come within 10 minutes of going over that 15 hour limit.
That was a long ■■■ day. It was for one of those companies where every run they sent you out on would magically end at 11 hours and 58 minutes long.
I didnt realise at the time but i should’ve got the hell out of there. messed up my back and knee thanks to the over loaded cages.
you just have a mentality just get through this day you’re providing for your family…
got my class 1 now and looking to get taken on somewhere. some agencies openly advertising for new drivers however getting them to respond back is another question lol
I’ve gone as far back as I can on Tachomaster and can say that in the last 6 years I’ve only ever had two Reduced Daily Rests (and neither of those involved being On Duty for more than 13 hours in one shift). I’ve also had 10 Reduced Weekly Rests due to either “Training Days” or voluntary extra shifts on a weekend.
Be so? It would be legal for a taxi to take me to an hotel and back again, therefore, it must surely be legit for the wife to take me home and back again? Neither destinations are places of work. I agree it’s almost undetectable but I’m confused by the fact it appears to against the law.
Put it this way:
You must start your daily rest at the end of your 15 hrs.
If you are not in an hotel with your bed, nor in your depot with your car, you are not yet on your daily rest.
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If a taxi is taking you to an hotel at 15hrs-10mins you are bent.
Dont matter if its a company vehicle, or a taxi, or your missus in your own car, thats it. No bed, not on rest. . If you are in an hotel, or in the yard you are free to drive around all night, go to a disco with your (or someone elses) missus whatever, it`s irrelevant (more or less). You are on your daily rest.
Mani:
I’ve come within 10 minutes of going over that 15 hour limit.
That was a long ■■■ day. It was for one of those companies where every run they sent you out on would magically end at 11 hours and 58 minutes long.
I didnt realise at the time but i should’ve got the hell out of there. messed up my back and knee thanks to the over loaded cages.
you just have a mentality just get through this day you’re providing for your family…
got my class 1 now and looking to get taken on somewhere. some agencies openly advertising for new drivers however getting them to respond back is another question lol
Get yourself on the easy Euro work.
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Shhh! No-one mention split rest ferry moves!
jakethesnake:
Only in my early years on log books when it suited me went well over 15. Sometimes people forgot to fill it in for a few days then the hours became a little hazy.
I remember Friday afternoons in a smoke filled tea room, as various heads were being scratched, and various lies being, sorry various lines being written…
Be so? It would be legal for a taxi to take me to an hotel and back again, therefore, it must surely be legit for the wife to take me home and back again? Neither destinations are places of work. I agree it’s almost undetectable but I’m confused by the fact it appears to against the law.
Thinking again…(if only)
If you park up at the end of your shift, and have a sleeper cab. You are now on daily rest.
If your missus picks you up, takes you home, and returns you next morning?
Then I reckon all is good.
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If the vehicle is driven somewhere else, ie recovered to base. You`re in the wrong.
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First case there is a bed available. Your choice to use it or not.
Second case the vehicle is being driven to base. Moving: so no acceptable bed.
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Is that true?
With us being on road surfacing work etc it happened a few times when pavers etc broke down on site, we either wrote on the back of the tacho chart the reason that we were held up or the quarry sent a van out with a fitter and he drove the truck and we drove the van back. Never had any problems.
As long as you don’t go over the 15 it’s nobody’s business what you do fact
The way some are posting they must have a digital tachograph in their car to record everything , hard to believe some of the posts, puts the definition of rest in no mans land
I must have missed that on the dcpc, what you can and cannot do on your time off, what course was that
I don’t do nights out any more, don’t carry anything to work beyond a packed lunch so if my truck was to break down and getting a lift back to the yard in the company van meant going over 15 hours then that’s what I would do regardless of anything the law has to say about it.
Harry Monk:
I don’t do nights out any more, don’t carry anything to work beyond a packed lunch so if my truck was to break down and getting a lift back to the yard in the company van meant going over 15 hours then that’s what I would do regardless of anything the law has to say about it.
Got to agree Harry., if I was a day man sat in a lay by with a pot noodle on an unexpected night out as some of em do, if there was chance of a lift home I wouldn’t give it a second thought.
