Need a bit of advice

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Sorry if this a bit long gents/ladies but I am after a bit of advice.

Here’s the brief, a driver is approaching 13 hrs ring the transport office to inform them of his predicament and is advised to carry on and see how you get on. Now I should at this point make you aware because of the type of work we do, we don’t do nights out and before the “well you’re not a proper driver” brigade comment because we do not normally do nights out I’d ask them just to hold that thought and see if they know the answer to the question I am about to ask.

Anyway sorry for digressing, the driver ends up at a point where he his rapidly approaching 15hrs and looks like a night out is inevitable. So he rings the office again and informs them, they then say, “we desperately need both the unit and the trailer so we’re sending someone to collect you and the unit/trailer”. The driver protests and points out the current tacho regs, not allowed to be carried in company vehicle after 15hrs etc. They subsequently send someone to collect him and another driver to collect unit/trailer.

Now my question is, when you reach 15hrs I know that means you having a night out, but after 9hrs rest do you have to start work from the same place you finished or could you make your way home and then start work at your depot after your daily rest? :question:

2

mafry64:
Sorry if this a bit long gents/ladies but I am after a bit of advice.

Here’s the brief, a driver is approaching 13 hrs ring the transport office to inform them of his predicament and is advised to carry on and see how you get on. Now I should at this point make you aware because of the type of work we do, we don’t do nights out and before the “well you’re not a proper driver” brigade comment because we do not normally do nights out I’d ask them just to hold that thought and see if they know the answer to the question I am about to ask.

Anyway sorry for digressing, the driver ends up at a point where he his rapidly approaching 15hrs and looks like a night out is inevitable. So he rings the office again and informs them, they then say, “we desperately need both the unit and the trailer so we’re sending someone to collect you and the unit/trailer”. The driver protests and points out the current tacho regs, not allowed to be carried in company vehicle after 15hrs etc. They subsequently send someone to collect him and another driver to collect unit/trailer.

Now my question is, when you reach 15hrs I know that means you having a night out, but after 9hrs rest do you have to start work from the same place you finished or could you make your way home and then start work at your depot after your daily rest? :question:

Digi tacho only stores start / end country, not start / end location.

It’s upto you / the driver, officially you should be parking up and doing a night out, unofficially with no gear in the truck, just get drove back, have your time off and don’t worry about it - do not record more than a 15hr duty on either your tacho or time sheet, but if the boss can see you right - maybe add it onto another day for example, that’s all good :wink:

3

I’ve done this before, got to 15 hrs while on a loading bay they sent another driver up to drive it back to the depot and I was taken back to depot. Started work the next day at depot. The container that had been loaded was a boat chaser, so it had to be driven to the depot and the night driver took it down to Felixstowe to be put on the boat in the early morning.

4

mafry64:
Now my question is, when you reach 15hrs I know that means you having a night out, but after 9hrs rest do you have to start work from the same place you finished or could you make your way home and then start work at your depot after your daily rest? :question:

Short answer is no but, from your example, how could you any way as the vehicle which you were driving the day before has been used by another driver? So the supplementary question is where would you be expected to sleep?

5

mafry64:
after 9hrs rest do you have to start work from the same place you finished

YES if not at base or home

6

ROG:

mafry64:
after 9hrs rest do you have to start work from the same place you finished

YES if not at base or home

I could do a 15 spread at one depot, have a 9hr rest and then go and start in another lorry in another depot.

7

I’ve always understood it to be that you could take your rest wherever you wish. While at ASDA you were never expected to night out but, on occasion we had to, mainly due to traffic hold ups. Depending on where you could get to, and what you were carrying, they would send someone to pick you up and another driver to collect the truck. They were hot on Tacho rules so it must have been ok.
Contrast that with a company I worked for last year. They had a double man job that after 20 hrs driving ended up near Cambridge. The company sent a van down to meet up with the truck, van driver brought the truck back and the truckers, now out of driving hours, had to drive the van back to the yard in Washington. Three sets of doubles still go out per week.

8

seems like another pointless rule to me ,plenty of times i have been bailed out when i run out of driving time ,as long as the gaffer doesn’t have spend more than £30 he is happy to send a van down so i can swap with another driver take 9+ hours off and then back in the truck the next day from base.I can’t see anything wrong with that

9

martyh:
seems like another pointless rule to me ,plenty of times i have been bailed out when i run out of driving time ,as long as the gaffer doesn’t have spend more than £30 he is happy to send a van down so i can swap with another driver take 9+ hours off and then back in the truck the next day from base.I can’t see anything wrong with that

I’d personally not have 9hrs off - especially if that’s counted from taking tacho out, I’d get the van back to base then have 10 off, then continue.
I know everyone is different, but I need my sleep

10

Gents, thank you for all your replys and that does help enormously… Looks like the driver has learnt an expensive lesson because I know that he won’t get paid for anything above the 15hrs… :frowning:

And I always thought that it was a backward step when digitachs were introduced and you put your finish point as UK instead of SE16 London or some other such far flung and exotic destination.

11

its a major flaw with the law on this one. you run out of time but the law says you are not allowed in a company vehicle to be transported back to base but i am not aware of any law saying that the truck cant be recovered. i would like to know what you are meant to do if the company collect the truck when you are in a layby. public or private transport is ok but a lift back in a company vehicle (effectively the same thing as long as you are a passenger) is not permitted? :unamused:

12

mafry64:
Sorry if this a bit long gents/ladies but I am after a bit of advice.

Here’s the brief, a driver is approaching 13 hrs ring the transport office to inform them of his predicament and is advised to carry on and see how you get on. Now I should at this point make you aware because of the type of work we do, we don’t do nights out and before the “well you’re not a proper driver” brigade comment because we do not normally do nights out I’d ask them just to hold that thought and see if they know the answer to the question I am about to ask.

Anyway sorry for digressing, the driver ends up at a point where he his rapidly approaching 15hrs and looks like a night out is inevitable. So he rings the office again and informs them, they then say, “we desperately need both the unit and the trailer so we’re sending someone to collect you and the unit/trailer”. The driver protests and points out the current tacho regs, not allowed to be carried in company vehicle after 15hrs etc. They subsequently send someone to collect him and another driver to collect unit/trailer.

Now my question is, when you reach 15hrs I know that means you having a night out, but after 9hrs rest do you have to start work from the same place you finished or could you make your way home and then start work at your depot after your daily rest? :question:

Legally the driver cannot be told to return to base if doing so means he will not be able to comply with the daily rest requirement, as is the case in your scenario.

In this case the driver protested that legally he must have a night out but was overruled by the employer, I would say that in those circumstances it’s the employer who is liable as he instructed/forced the driver to break the rules.

I would say that the company are putting their operators licence at risk by instructing the driver to break the rules, obviously the driver has failed to comply with the regulations but only under protest and instruction from the employer.

Normally if a driver chooses to return home in his/her own time they should return to the vehicle to start the next shift from the same place as the last shift ended.
However in this case, as the driver was instructed to return to base/home and therefore not have the correct amount of daily rest, I don’t believe that he could do anything that would make the situation legal either for him or for the employer, so there’s probably no point in returning to the same location to start the next shift.

Once the law has been broken it cannot be unbroken :wink:

Having said that, personally I’d prefer to spend the night in my own bed rather than a metal box so …

13

I thought it was ok for the driver to be transported back in a company vehicle as long as he’s not driving it after 15 hours.

14

Silver_Surfer:
I thought it was ok for the driver to be transported back in a company vehicle as long as he’s not driving it after 15 hours.

Legally any time travelling to or from a vehicle that’s not at the operating centre or the drivers home cannot be regarded as break or rest, therefore it has to other work or POA.

Article 9 - (EC) 561/2006

  1. Any time spent travelling to a location to take charge of a
    vehicle falling within the scope of this Regulation, or to return
    from that location, when the vehicle is neither at the driver’s
    home nor at the employer’s operational centre where the
    driver is normally based, shall not be counted as a rest or
    break unless the driver is on a ferry or train and has access to a
    bunk or couchette.
15

Just make sure he gets paid the night out money whatever the rules are

16

trouble is with some gaffers they will try and pull a fast one and not pay the driver the extra hours on top of the 15 hours he has done. Me personally if i had the night out gear which i have i would stay where i was and claim the night out, I understand the op has different cercumstances. I would never drive a works van back to base if i was out of driving hours either as if god forbid you was involved in a rta on the way back and the old bill found out you was a trucker which they would do they would get VOSA down there sharpish check you’re digi card see you are out of driving hours and then you are up ■■■■ creek without a paddle! and does anyone on here think that the company will accept responsibility■■? :unamused: Not a chance you would be on you’re own in court.