BIG LEBOWSKI:
repton:
BIG LEBOWSKI:
I work a 39 hour week. 4 x 8 hours 1 x 7 hours. How many hours would I be allowed to do a weekend?
Well, there are two things to take into account here. I’m going to assume you’ll only be working every other Saturday.
First there’s driver hours regulations, which state you need at least a 36h break each week. You also need at least a 9h daily rest after finishing work on a Friday so assuming you finish at 4pm on Friday and start again at 9am on Monday then you can work any shift that starts after 1am on Saturday and ends before 9pm on a Saturday to get these minumum breaks in. They are reduced breaks which means you need to make up the missing hours (as you’re supposed to have 45h each week and 11h daily rest) but as long as you only work every other weekend then you’ll be making it up the next weekend and staying nicely within the law.
Secondly there’s the Working Time Directive. This states your total working time must only average 48h over a 17week period. If your day job is 37h each week that means you have another 11h of working time each week on average so as long as you only do one shift every other weekend then you can forget about the WTD as you can’t legally do more than a 15h shift anyway and that would still only mean an average of 44.5h at most.
I hope that makes some sense…
Paul
I came across this Drivers Hours & Tachograph Rules from VOSA.
45 hours reducible to 36 hours if taken at
driver’s base or 24 hours if taken
elsewhere (reductions must be
compensated by an equivalent period of
rest taken before the end of the third
week concerned and attached to a
weekly or daily rest period)
Please explain 24 hour reduction? Could or would it apply to me?
No it wouldn’t apply to you.
BIG LEBOWSKI:
I came across this Drivers Hours & Tachograph Rules from VOSA.
45 hours reducible to 36 hours if taken at
driver’s base or 24 hours if taken
elsewhere (reductions must be
compensated by an equivalent period of
rest taken before the end of the third
week concerned and attached to a
weekly or daily rest period)
Please explain 24 hour reduction? Could or would it apply to me?
The 24 hour break can only be taken away from base, base being either the vehicle or drivers base. You would presumably only be working a shift then going home so it would not apply to you. Even if it did, it would still really only leave you one day to work each weekend and with more compensation needed you would have less weekend working time available than you do now. I know that seems weird as it is a shorter rest period but it is the case.
Willy Gofar:
Sound advice Repton ( I think, haven’t worked the hours out myself but sounds about right ).
Best to set a new driver on the straight and narrow and not turn him into the kind of driver most people on here would complain about.
The thing to remember Lebowski, as has already been pointed out here by some drivers, is that when the ■■■ hits the fan it’s no use trying to put your umbrella up as all the blame will lie fairly and squarely on your shoulders and the fact is the authorities are quite prepared to see drivers banged up for quite a considerable time and when you get out you wont have any job and no sane company boss will give you a driving job.
That is what I am trying to avoid. I rather do it by the book and be safe on the road and legal.
If I had a couple of days off in the week from my job then would I be right that it would go towards my rest days and so therefore could do a two day weekend driving job?
Willy Gofar:
TheBear:
Lebowski, if you work in an Office during the week, and you want to do driving at weekends, why the hell don’t you just keep quiet and not tell anyone. Assuming you are not driving for the same company.
I am now waiting for all the dogooders to say ‘you cannot do that, its against the law’ … crap, the guy wants some experience before ‘hitting the high road’
Hypothetical situation, Lebowski is driving down the road in his weekend truck, he has worked all week for the last 3 weeks and driven for the last 2 weekends and this is his 3rd week without a break. He hasn’t told the agency that he is working during the week and his weekday employers know nothing of his weekend moonlighting. His head drops cos he’s tired and just at that moment, the moment he loses control of the truck, your wife/son/daughter/mother/father whatever drives around the corner and is wiped out by a guy who shouldn’t be driving in the first place.
How would you feel about your advice then ■■?
Willy, this old scenario comes up every time!!! I was waiting for someone to use it!
Tis crap, mate, they could get killed by that cow in the field outside my window taking a dislike to them but I ain’t gonna stop them walking in the field
BIG LEBOWSKI:
That is what I am trying to avoid. I rather do it by the book and be safe on the road and legal.
If I had a couple of days off in the week from my job then would I be right that it would go towards my rest days and so therefore could do a two day weekend driving job?
Yes it would count toward your rest days, In fact given the amount of hours you work each day one day off would be enough, depending what time you start and finish work. If for instance you finished work at 16:00 before a day off and started back at 08:00 after, that would be a rest period of 40 hours meaning you could drive on both weekend days.
TheBear:
Willy Gofar:
TheBear:
Lebowski, if you work in an Office during the week, and you want to do driving at weekends, why the hell don’t you just keep quiet and not tell anyone. Assuming you are not driving for the same company.
I am now waiting for all the dogooders to say ‘you cannot do that, its against the law’ … crap, the guy wants some experience before ‘hitting the high road’
Hypothetical situation, Lebowski is driving down the road in his weekend truck, he has worked all week for the last 3 weeks and driven for the last 2 weekends and this is his 3rd week without a break. He hasn’t told the agency that he is working during the week and his weekday employers know nothing of his weekend moonlighting. His head drops cos he’s tired and just at that moment, the moment he loses control of the truck, your wife/son/daughter/mother/father whatever drives around the corner and is wiped out by a guy who shouldn’t be driving in the first place.
How would you feel about your advice then ■■?
Willy, this old scenario comes up every time!!! I was waiting for someone to use it!
Tis crap, mate, they could get killed by that cow in the field outside my window taking a dislike to them but I ain’t gonna stop them walking in the field
Trouble is there is always someone who just doesnt give a ■■■■. They’re normally the ones that cry the most when the ■■■■ finally does hit the fan…
Essentially the way i worked it out when i’ve done weekends is that if you work every other weekend and only work one or another of sat or sun and stick to day work you cant go far wrong.
Best to stick to the rules simply because if you bend them a little it wont be long before the boss expects you to bend them a bit further.
I’m not going to comment on the details of how you can (or can’t) work a weekend, since Coffeeholic can do a much better job than me; however…
TheBear:
Lebowski, if you work in an Office during the week, and you want to do driving at weekends, why the hell don’t you just keep quiet and not tell anyone. Assuming you are not driving for the same company.
I am now waiting for all the dogooders to say ‘you cannot do that, its against the law’ … crap, the guy wants some experience before ‘hitting the high road’
In addition to the previously-given hypothetical situation
Mr Fred Bloggs works 9-5 in an office during the week. He drives HGVs every Saturday, reducing his weekly rest down to 36 hours each time, but never takes compensation.
One day, Fred is stopped by VOSA at a random checkpoint, and they do a tacho check (or his tachos are checked for some other reason (accident, speeding, etc.)).
Mr VOSA notices that Fred only seems to work 1 day a week. Mr VOSA suspects that Fred is unlikely to be able to support himself on 1 day’s pay per week, so investigates a bit further, and discovers that Fred has actually been exceeding hours.
If Fred was driving 5 days per week and working in an office on the weekend, then I suspect that VOSA wouldn’t detect that, but only having tachos for 1 day of the week strongly suggests that Fred has some other employment as well.
Which mr VOSA will then notify HMRC (who might well be at the same random checkpoint) who can then see if he’s been paying tax on his other employment. The DWP can see if fred has been claiming benefits.
If Fred hasnt been claiming benefits and has been paying tax then it will be clear to all he has another job, which thrn only takes a phone call the see what hours he works.
Coffeeholic:
BIG LEBOWSKI:
I’m still confused. I’ll be having 16 hours a day away from my weekday job, 5 days a week. How does that count towards how many hours I can work the weekend?
If you want to do it legally and depending on what time you finish work on a Friday and start on a Monday you could work a Saturday or a Sunday, depending on start and finish times on those days. The main consideration is fitting in a continuous 36 hour weekly rest period during the weekend. If for instance you start work at 08:00 hours Monday you could work Saturday as long as you were finished by 20:00. You could work on the Sunday as long as you didn’t start work until 36 hours after you finish work on Friday, and finish 9 hours before you start work on Monday. If you only fit in a 36 hour break each weekend you couldn’t do it every week, as you will not be able to compensate for the reduction of 9 hours. If you can extend the weekly rest to 38 hours you could do it every weekend as you will have only 7 hours to pay back and you will do that on any of the days you work 8 hours during the week, 8 hours worked = 16 hours rest = 9 hour daily + 7 hours compensation. The 2 hours reduction on that daily rest from 11 to 9 hours is paid back on any other day of the week so doesn’t really come into it.
All that is based only on the tacho rules and not the WTD.
As scottbrown said lunchbreaks don’t count towords working hours, then I work a 36.5 hour week. So could I drive every weekend if i go by…
If you can extend the weekly rest to 38 hours you could do it every weekend as you will have only 7 hours to pay back and you will do that on any of the days you work 8 hours during the week, 8 hours worked = 16 hours rest = 9 hour daily + 7 hours compensation. The 2 hours reduction on that daily rest from 11 to 9 hours is paid back on any other day of the week so doesn’t really come into it.
… and now that Dennis has mentioned HMRC …
Make sure that if you do do some agency work at the weekends, they get your tax code right and don’t give you your tax relief twice i.e. in both pay-packets. Been there, done that!! 
A few years ago, whilst I was still in the army, I often used to do a bit of agency work. As far as I was concerned I was doing everything ligit and above board, through the books and paying tax etc etc. Imagine my suprise when one day out of the blue the taxman asked me for an interview. I went to the local tax office who told me that I owed them well over £1500 in unpaid tax!!! 
It transpired that I had been getting my tax relief both from the army and from the agency. Working it out, paying the ‘extra’ tax, it wasn’t really worth the effort. 
marcustandy:
… and now that Dennis has mentioned HMRC …
Make sure that if you do do some agency work at the weekends, they get your tax code right and don’t give you your tax relief twice i.e. in both pay-packets. Been there, done that!!
A few years ago, whilst I was still in the army, I often used to do a bit of agency work. As far as I was concerned I was doing everything ligit and above board, through the books and paying tax etc etc. Imagine my suprise when one day out of the blue the taxman asked me for an interview. I went to the local tax office who told me that I owed them well over £1500 in unpaid tax!!!
It transpired that I had been getting my tax relief both from the army and from the agency. Working it out, paying the ‘extra’ tax, it wasn’t really worth the effort.
I will do that, cheers. I only really want to do weekends at first to get experience then take the leap.