The draft directive has been published today
It will stay as a draft until 12 Dec 2004.
the whole directive is here in TruckNets News room
Warning this is a very large thread.
I don’t suppose there is an abridged version in english ■■ 
Lee, get the pdf file from the dft site, it aint abridged and it aint english as we use it, but at least theres chapters and pages with headings ect to break it up a bit!
I did look at breaking it up, but it is a big document, as is the other one.
But I do think the other one in the news room is easier to read.
A very interesting document…oi read this as follows:
Working time: not to exceed 60 hours a week…with an average working time of 48 hours over a 17 week period…can be extended to 26 weeks with an agreement from the workforce.
Working time does not include breaks…rests…sickness…holidays.
must not work more than 6 hours without a break…and if this is exceeded but not more than 9 hours working…must take at least a 30 minute break…
(does this mean the 4.5 hour rule is finished?)
night work is restricted to 10 hours in any 24 hour period
thats about all for now i can decipher
Sorry, I just hate trying to read any document produced by th egovernment or related body as it is inevitably full of jargon, acronyms, and does not follow any of the basic rules of the english language, as they generally seem hell bent on trying their best to confuse everyone !!!
truckyboy:
(does this mean the 4.5 hour rule is finished?)
The 4.5hr rule will still be in place until the New Drivers Hours Legislation comes into place, then it is cut to 3hrs driving with a minimum 30 min break followed by a further 15 mins after no more than 1.5 hrs later, unless you take your 45 mins after 3 hrs in which case you can then drive a further 3hrs.
The New Hours will be introduced when the EU finish using that ball of string they have.
So in effect, Dont ask when, coz nobody knows how long the piece of string is, personally I dont think they will come in 
i agree with davey i dont think they will come in either
It all depends! IMHO
If we want it to come in …it wont!
If we dont want it…it will!
Simple really! 
Yes Davey, I don’t think it’ll be in for long either. If it does it’ll only be this country trying to go by it. Most of the other EU countries will no doubt ignore it all together, making it a farce. It will probably be even more complicated than what we have now. 30 min break every 3 hours ■■ where’s all this extra parking being built then ? Pah Humbug. 
TC:
It all depends! IMHOIf we want it to come in …it wont!
If we dont want it…it will!Simple really!
Well if it came in that would be 56,000 Hour Guards requiring new software, obviously we will be able to do that cheaply, but my dilemma is,
A) Do I now have the software rewritten to take in the WTD regs?
B) Wait until the Hours regs change and then combine both together?
At a cost of £18,000 a time I just wish they’d make their ruddy minds up
There is also a bit in there that goes on about ‘pay’d time’ been different from working time. From this i gather that.
Becasue i work on an agency and am paid a minimum of 8 hours per day that it will still be possible for me to EARN over 60 hours PAy in a week.?
Ie work 9 hours get paid 9
work 15 hours get paid 15
work 6 hours get paid 8
work 8 hours get paid 8
work 13 hours get paid 13
work 4 hours get paid 8 (sat)
Total working hours 55 (Need to deduct breaks etc.)
total paid hours 61
Or any combination like this. Am i correct?
Average 48 hours…
And unless pay goes up to over ten quid an hour I can’t afford to do it for that few hours. Overtime pay was what made my life fun.
Ok…more “Euro-babble”…
Give me a week or 2 and I’ll do the “TruckNet Translation”, same as we had for the earlier stuff on the subject (which can still be found in the FAQs, btw… )…
I tell you now, if that lot comes into force, then I’m off to sunnier climes .
LucyR:
Ok…more “Euro-babble”…Give me a week or 2 and I’ll do the “TruckNet Translation”, same as we had for the earlier stuff on the subject (which can still be found in the FAQs, btw…
Well I for one am thankful that someone has the bottle to attempt to decipher it 
Thank you
Liberace:
I tell you now, if that lot comes into force, then I’m off to sunnier climes
save me a seat lib im with you mate
jon
So when your parked up at the services on a night out or wherever, your still counted as being in charge of your load. Do we include this in the working hours?
‘working time’ means the time from the beginning to the end of work during which the mobile worker is at his workstation,
No because waiting time is not included in your 48 hour week.
When you are parked up for the night, you are off duty, so obviously it isnt going to count towards your 48 hour week
To be honest after reading through it it will make very little difference to my work, and that is ignoring the fact that it won’t affect me until 2009 as I’m self employed.
Average working week of 48 hours with a maximum of 60. As I do very little unloading or loading of the trailer, it is all done by others and that time won’t count towards the 48 hours. My working week consists of driving and a little bit of other work, the odd occasion where I do assist in loading/unloading, getting fuel, checking the vehicle etc which would average out to around 1 hour a day. Now as we can only drive a maximum of 90 hours in a fortnight and even if I did that with an hour per day of other work that falls into the scope of the WTD it would only be, at most, over two weeks 102 hours. Can’t remember the last time I did a 90 hour fortnight, never mind doing it every two weeks over a 17 week period, so as far as I can see it’s no change.
As for the new drivers hours regulations and having to take a break after 3 hours very few drivers I know drive for the full 4.5 then take a break, most would have a break after 2.5 - 3 hours then another at the 4.5 hours mark so I don’t see that causing a lot of problems either.
As has been pointed out on other threads as companies restructure for the WTD hourly rates are going up. When it was first mentioned I was dead against it but now I have come around and changed my mind, changed it to the point where I couldn’t really care less about it, and in the long run I think it will bring more benefits than anything else.