There is no minimum driving time required before a 15 min break counts towards a 45 tacho break?
Example:
Insert tacho & set to “other work”. Do daily checks & wash wagon. Total 20 mins.
Find out I won’t be loaded for around an hour so put tacho on break for 15 mins.
Does this 15 mn break count towards a 45 even though the truck hasn’t moved?
I’m sure it’s been asked before but I’ll be buggered if I can find it 
Melchett:
There is no minimum driving time required before a 15 min break counts towards a 45 tacho break?Example:
Insert tacho & set to “other work”. Do daily checks & wash wagon. Total 20 mins.
Find out I won’t be loaded for around an hour so put tacho on break for 15 mins.Does this 15 mn break count towards a 45 even though the truck hasn’t moved?
I’m sure it’s been asked before but I’ll be buggered if I can find it
I would say that it does not count towards a 45 minute driving break as it’s not distributed over the 4.5 hour driving time.
After a driving period of no more than 4.5 hours, a driver must immediately take a break of at least 45
minutes, unless he takes a rest period.
Alternatively, a full 45-minute break can be replaced by one break of at least 15 minutes followed by another break of at least 30 minutes. These breaks must be distributed over the 4.5-hour period.
Ok, not the thread I was looking for but I notice that Coffee has used the word WORK in his answer, not DRIVING. Maybe I’m reading it wrong 
Taken from a thread posted in 2005 so things might have changed?
Coffeeholic:
The reason why you have never heard of it before is that it’s rubbish and just another of the many tacho “Urban Myths” usually spouted by drivers who have never read the tacho rules and operate on another set of rules known as the MMTM Rules (My Mate Told Me)There is no minimum period specified in the regulations before you can take a break, or for a break to count. You can take a break after just one minute of work and it counts, as long as it is more than 15 minutes of course.
Melchett:
Ok, not the thread I was looking for but I notice that Coffee has used the word WORK in his answer, not DRIVING. Maybe I’m reading it wrongTaken from a thread posted in 2005 so things might have changed?
Coffeeholic:
The reason why you have never heard of it before is that it’s rubbish and just another of the many tacho “Urban Myths” usually spouted by drivers who have never read the tacho rules and operate on another set of rules known as the MMTM Rules (My Mate Told Me)There is no minimum period specified in the regulations before you can take a break, or for a break to count. You can take a break after just one minute of work and it counts, as long as it is more than 15 minutes of course.
Without seeing the thread I can’t really comment on that quote or the context in which the reply was made, but as Coffeeholic said it I have no doubt it was correct at the time of posting .
I can’t remember what the regulations stated in 2005 but the quotes in my previous post are from the EC regulations section of the Rules on Drivers’ Hours and Tachographs, so I would stand by my original post and say that the breaks must be distributed over the 4.5 hour driving period to count towards the driver break of 45 minutes.
A break before the driving time begins couldn’t really be said to be distributed over the 4.5 hours driving period.
The break of 15 minutes after 20 minutes of “other work” would of course count for the WTD break regulations
Thread here if it helps trucknetuk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=15022
It’s not the one I remember (dreamt?) but it’s on the same lines.
This is one of those occasions when I wish I’d kept a copy of the old regulations 
I can only assume that either the rules have changed in that point since that post was made or he said “work” rather than “driving” because the question was about a break after the driving period had begun.
Sorry I can’t be more specific on that point but without access to the 2005 regulations I prefer not to commit myself 
However today’s EC regulations definitely state that the breaks should be distributed over the 4.5 hour driving period.
Confirmation of this can be found in the document “(EC) No 561/2006”
Article 7
After a driving period of four and a half hours a driver shall
take an uninterrupted break of not less than 45 minutes,
unless he takes a rest period.
This break may be replaced by a break of at least 15 minutes
followed by a break of at least 30 minutes each distributed
over the period in such a way as to comply with the provisions
of the first paragraph.
I can’t really see how anyone could ague that a break taken before the 4.5 hour driving period begins is distributed over that period.
I will however take cover from flying bullets just in case. 
We know he’s looking for a new victim, and I don’t want it to be me 
tachograph:
I will however take cover from flying bullets just in case.
We know he’s looking for a new victim, and I don’t want it to be me
Yep, I’ll be the one hiding right behind you…
I shouldn’t have used ‘work’ in that reply, the word should have been driving.
Sometimes I know what I mean to say but when I type it it comes out differently. 
In your scenario it wouldn’t count as a break toward the required 45 minute tacho break because as Tachograph says it isn’t interrupting driving, if you did 20 minutes work then 1 minute driving before taking the 15 minutes it would. The 15 minutes in your scenario could count toward WTD breaks.
Thanks very much guys
You can take the Kevlar vest off now Tachograph.
tachograph:
This is one of those occasions when I wish I’d kept a copy of the old regulations
Hi tachograph, You now have a PM on that very subject.
dieseldave:
tachograph:
This is one of those occasions when I wish I’d kept a copy of the old regulations
Thanks Dave 
tachograph:
Thanks Dave
Maybe I’m a bit late,but I was under the impression that you could not tag a break onto the end or start of a daily rest. If you have had your 9 hours rest you can’t start the next shift with a break. However, you can do 1 minute of other work or driving and then take a 15 quite legally.
I stand to be corrected by them as knows better
gardun:
Maybe I’m a bit late,but I was under the impression that you could not tag a break onto the end or start of a daily rest. If you have had your 9 hours rest you can’t start the next shift with a break.
Well if you started with a 15 minute break at the end of a 9 hour rest period without doing anything else it would simply be a 9.25 hour daily rest period. Similarly if you took a 15 minute break at the end of the shift and did not go back to driving. POA or other work you would have in fact just have started your daily rest period 15 minutes earlier.
gardun:
However, you can do 1 minute of other work or driving and then take a 15 quite legally.
You could take a 15 minute break after 1 minute of other work if you wanted to, but it wouldn’t count toward the 45 minutes of break required before exceeding 4.5 hours driving as breaks required for that must interrupt periods of driving.
For example.
Example 1
Work 1 minute
15 minute break
Drive 4.5 hours
Break 30 minutes - driving time counter not reset. due to first 15 minutes being before driving commenced.
Drive 4.5 hours = not legal as 9 hours of driving with only 30 minute break.
Example 2
Drive 1 minute
15 minute break
Drive 4.5 hours
Break 30 minutes - driving time counter reset because 45 minutes of break have been accrued.
Drive 4.5 hours = legal as after 4.5 hours driving the timer was rest which allowed another full 4.5 hours of driving without a break being required.
It’s a crazy thing where one example has 9 hours driving with 30 minute break and is illegal while one has 8 hours 59 minutes with 30 minutes break and is legal.
gardun:
I stand to be corrected by them as knows better
See, you knew it was going to happen.
gardun:
Maybe I’m a bit late,but I was under the impression that you could not tag a break onto the end or start of a daily rest. If you have had your 9 hours rest you can’t start the next shift with a break. However, you can do 1 minute of other work or driving and then take a 15 quite legally.I stand to be corrected by them as knows better
For the driving break there would be no point in having a break at the beginning of a shift as it wouldn’t be spread over the driving time so wouldn’t count as part of a driving break.
Apart from the 6 hour rule break, WTD breaks have to interrupt the shift so no they couldn’t be taken at the start or end of a shift.
For the 6 hour rule break, again if it were taken at the beginning of a shift it wouldn’t achieve anything and wouldn’t count towards the daily breaks or the driving breaks.
So I would say that you’re right, you can’t take a break at the beginning or end of a shift, well not one that would count for anything anyway.