This may seem like a simple question, but it’s one I’ve not come across before so I have to ask.
a) What is the maximum duty time per day with regards to the tachograph ?
b) Am I correct in assuming that any one tachograph disc must show at least 9 hours rest ?
c) If (b) is true, this must mean that a daily rest must be contained within a 24 hour period.
d) Is it correct to say that if I took an 11 hour daily rest, changed the tacho disc, then worked (not all driving) for 17 hours, then took a 9 hour rest, I would be seriously breaking the law ? 
Answers on a postcard please…
a) There is no maximum duty time specified in the regulations, it’s all based on rest requirements.
b) No, the disc doesn’t have to show the rest, you just have to take the rest
c) Yes, the 24 hour period that begins when you resume work after a daily or weekly rest period.
d) Yes.
Ok, thanks for that, I may be in for some stick then.
I was stuck in Felixstowe docks thursday night, the queue for trinity dock stretched back to gate 2, and then my pickup hadn’t been booked to my reg, so I had to go around twice, so when I got out of the docks I was way over the 15 hours I presume are the maximum you can have showing on the disc between rest periods.
Unfortunately there wasn’t much I could do about it while stuck inside the docks waiting for straddlers to “notice” me.
It may be that the rules have changed but if smoker showed 8 hours on the tacho and 4 full other hours of breaks would he then be legal as it was away from home base?
As I rarely did nights out, I have not used the 8 hour rule - if it still exists
ROG:
As I rarely did nights out, I have not used the 8 hour rule - if it still exists
It doesn’t, that’s why i never mentioned it. 
Even when it did exist he would still have been illegal as he said he went to 17 hours ‘spreadover’.