My 18 Hour Shift From Hell - 4 Trucks, 5 Pallets, 1 Mission

conorstephen · 12 December 2015 16:04

So I started my shift at 20:00. Filled in all the relevant paperwork, then went into the yard to do my vehicle checks. The route I was given was very light, I’d say 90% of all our routes are on a 26t Daf’s, mine was on a 7.5t Izuzu.

Upon getting to the offside front wheel, I noticed the tire was bulging like crazy, and after taking a look underneath, it was obviously severely over-loaded on the front axle. I told the office, and they said to just move the pallets over onto an 18t Renault. Pallets trans-shipped, me and the other driver set off for Salisbury (From Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire), the only route which is double-manned due to the distance (Salisbury, then to a small village near Taunton, finishing in Exeter)

So we jump on the M25 at Enfield, don’t even make it one junction when a warning light comes up on the dash reading Torque Level Limit Next Stop. After about 10 minutes, the warning changed to Engine Speed Limited, and the lorry lost all of it’s guts, it would struggle to get passed 40 xD Back to the depot for us then.

After the pallets are trans-shipped once again onto another 18t Renault, we hit the road, going back on the M25, making the tremendous progress of the Heathrow terminals, when all of a sudden, insert gasp here IMMEDIATE STOP comes up on the dash. So we pull over to the hard shoulder and make the call to the office, and after about 40 minutes of waiting, the mechanic calls and tells us to get it off the hard shoulder so he can attempt to fix it somewhere safer.

We were just before the Heathrow junctions, so we left at the first one, parked up in an industrial estate, and waited for the mechanic to arrive. After he arrived, and about 30 minutes of a diagnostics machine doing its work, he determined it was the EBS, and wasn’t something that could be fixed at the side of the road. Another call to the office, and about an hour wait, a 26t arrives to once again move the pallets onto.

Arrived back at the depot just after 2pm, and took my card out with my driving time at 4h 27m

Definitely a shift to remember that’s for sure. My story telling isn’t great, I just thought I’d share my day with you guys

mat · 12 December 2015 16:46

And you’re illegal by 3 hours.

blue_estate · 12 December 2015 16:48

MAT:
And you’re illegal by 3 hours.

and you can’t read "the only route which is double-manned due to the distance "
2 man route

neilp1982 · 12 December 2015 16:54

blue estate:

MAT:
And you’re illegal by 3 hours.

and you can’t read "the only route which is double-manned due to the distance "
2 man route

So where does he get his required 9 hours daily rest legally then in 6 hours?

mat · 12 December 2015 16:55

blue estate:

MAT:
And you’re illegal by 3 hours.

and you can’t read "the only route which is double-manned due to the distance "
2 man route

I stand corrected, obviously I can’t.

blue_estate · 12 December 2015 16:58

neilp1982:

blue estate:

MAT:
And you’re illegal by 3 hours.

and you can’t read "the only route which is double-manned due to the distance "
2 man route

So where does he get his required 9 hours daily rest legally then in 6 hours?

How Does Double Manning Affect things?

When involving a second driver the period for calculating daily rest becomes a 30 hour period instead of a 24 hour period. This means that the total duty cannot exceed 21 hours.

In order to qualify for double manning, both drivers have to be present for the entire duty. The one exception to this is the first hour for which first driver has the opportunity to prepare the vehicle or collect the second driver. Both drivers must commence their daily rest at the same time, which means the vehicle cannot be moving at this time.

It is possible for one driver to be on break while the other drives, unless the idle driver is doing any form of work such as navigation or paperwork.

Note – All of the rules for breaks are the same as in a single man operation.

mat · 12 December 2015 17:01

neilp1982:

blue estate:

MAT:
And you’re illegal by 3 hours.

and you can’t read "the only route which is double-manned due to the distance "
2 man route

So where does he get his required 9 hours daily rest legally then in 6 hours?

If he’s double manned, as long as they both start within an hour of each other then they can spread over 30 hours including a 9 hour rest i.e start 20.00 hours, commence daily rest of 9 hours at 17.00 hours (21 hours later max) the following day.

neilp1982 · 12 December 2015 17:07

I stand corrected, my apologies. Double manning wasn’t something I paid attention to, I went on the assumption that you still need your minimum daily rest in the 24 hour period, but it just increased the driving time available due to having 2 drivers.

conor · 12 December 2015 17:57

neilp1982:
So where does he get his required 9 hours daily rest legally then in 6 hours?

If you’re double manning its 9hrs rest out of every 30 hours.

Yet another “professional driver” who no doubt thinks the DCPC is a joke but who obviously needs to go do the tachograph module…

neilp1982 · 12 December 2015 18:27

Conor:

neilp1982:
So where does he get his required 9 hours daily rest legally then in 6 hours?

If you’re double manning its 9hrs rest out of every 30 hours.

Yet another “professional driver” who no doubt thinks the DCPC is a joke but who obviously needs to go do the tachograph module…

CPC is a joke, and I probably did see that when revising etc, but as I don’t do double manning, nor have any intention to, didn’t retain the information for further use

terry_t · 12 December 2015 18:31

blue estate:
It is possible for one driver to be on break while the other drives, unless the idle driver is doing any form of work such as navigation or paperwork.

Tell Siemens that, their units will default to POA when the truck starts moving and cannot be overridden.

Do other units do this ?

jay0 · 12 December 2015 18:35

That’s the trouble with 7.5 tonners, 1 or 2 heavy pallets and straight away your overloaded.

lashhgv · 12 December 2015 18:42

As far as I’m aware all tachos default to poa when moving. But when double manning the first 45 mins poa counts as break the rest as normal poa.

roymondo · 12 December 2015 19:09

Terry T:

blue estate:
It is possible for one driver to be on break while the other drives, unless the idle driver is doing any form of work such as navigation or paperwork.

Tell Siemens that, their units will default to POA when the truck starts moving and cannot be overridden.

Do other units do this ?

I think you will find that all digital tachographs do that. For this reason DVSA will allow you to count your first 45 mins of POA as break (assuming you are actually double-manning).

tachograph · 12 December 2015 19:12

Slot 2 changes to POA when the vehicle is moving on all digital tachographs.

As has been said, when multi-manning the first 45 minutes of POA when sat in the passenger seat with the card in slot 2 will be counted as break.

terry_t · 12 December 2015 19:29

tachograph:
As has been said, when multi-manning the first 45 minutes of POA when sat in the passenger seat with the card in slot 2 will be counted as break.

Assuming the 2nd driver isn’t performing other duties such as navigating etc. But, even if they are, not a fat lot you can do about it when the unit will only select POA.

Seems an odd function.

One more question though. Would analysis software give an infringement for no breaks during the shift if you didn’t book any actual break. Even though the first 45 mins of POA for the 2nd driver counts as a break ?

1968kg · 12 December 2015 19:50

Terry T:

tachograph:
As has been said, when multi-manning the first 45 minutes of POA when sat in the passenger seat with the card in slot 2 will be counted as break.

Assuming the 2nd driver isn’t performing other duties such as navigating etc. But, even if they are, not a fat lot you can do about it when the unit will only select POA.

Seems an odd function.

One more question though. Would analysis software give an infringement for no breaks during the shift if you didn’t book any actual break. Even though the first 45 mins of POA for the 2nd driver counts as a break ?

I thought the tacho will record other work if selected just not break?

roymondo · 12 December 2015 20:01

1968kg:

Terry T:

tachograph:
As has been said, when multi-manning the first 45 minutes of POA when sat in the passenger seat with the card in slot 2 will be counted as break.

Assuming the 2nd driver isn’t performing other duties such as navigating etc. But, even if they are, not a fat lot you can do about it when the unit will only select POA.

Seems an odd function.

One more question though. Would analysis software give an infringement for no breaks during the shift if you didn’t book any actual break. Even though the first 45 mins of POA for the 2nd driver counts as a break ?

I thought the tacho will record other work if selected just not break?

Haven’t tried it myself - But I think you’ll find that as soon as the wheels stop turning (e.g. at traffic lights, on waiting for the traffic to clear before pulling out of the yard etc) it will default back to POA.

tachograph · 12 December 2015 20:27

Terry T:
One more question though. Would analysis software give an infringement for no breaks during the shift if you didn’t book any actual break. Even though the first 45 mins of POA for the 2nd driver counts as a break ?

I have no personal experience of the analysis when multi-manning, but as the driver card is marked as multi-manning I would think that any decent analysis software would count the first 45 minutes of POA when the card is in slot 2 as break and not issue an infringement report.

But I don’t know for sure

1968kg:
I thought the tacho will record other work if selected just not break?

The activity for slot 2 will automatically change to POA when the vehicle moves and unless it’s changed in the newest tachographs it can’t be changed until the vehicle stops moving.

1968kg · 12 December 2015 20:43

tachograph:

Terry T:
One more question though. Would analysis software give an infringement for no breaks during the shift if you didn’t book any actual break. Even though the first 45 mins of POA for the 2nd driver counts as a break ?

I have no personal experience of the analysis when multi-manning, but as the driver card is marked as multi-manning I would think that any decent analysis software would count the first 45 minutes of POA when the card is in slot 2 as break and not issue an infringement report.

But I don’t know for sure

1968kg:
I thought the tacho will record other work if selected just not break?

The activity for slot 2 will automatically change to POA when the vehicle moves and unless it’s changed in the newest tachographs it can’t be changed until the vehicle stops moving.

So what if driver 2 is actually doing other work? Can it not be recorded?
Surely the tacho ought to stay on other work if it’s selected and only default to poa when moving if break was selected… In fact it should stay on break but that’s a separate issue!