New Drivers Hours Regs (561/2006) were published yesterday. Most of this stuff comes into force on 11/04/2007. However, some comes into force on 1st May THIS YEAR. The following is a shortened version of what’s in the Regulation, sorry about the length of the post but the original document is 13 pages. Apologies to the Ladies out there but I’m not typing he/she everytime, just take ‘he’ to include ‘she’ in this lot. Comments in blue are mine
Enjoy the read;
Hopefully this will come out as a rough translation for the real world of what was brought into being by the EC yesterday, 11th April 2006. Most of this stuff doesn’t come into force until 11/04/2006. However, there are a few bits that will come into force on 1st May THIS YEAR, they are;
- Mandatory fitment of Digital Tachographs to all vehicles registered on or after 01/05/2006 where the maximum permitted mass exceeds 3500 kg or constructed or permanently adapted to carry more than 9 people including the driver.
- Member states must be able to issue driver smart cards by 01/05/2006
- If a drivers’ smart card isn’t; available (lost / stolen) damaged or malfunctions and he drives a digitally equipped vehicle he(she) must at the start of his shift obtain a printout from the vehicle unit and add his name, driver card or driver licence number and sign the printout. At the end of the shift take a full printout of his activities since the start of shift printout and add his name, driver card number or driving licence number and sign the printout. Both printouts to be retained and produced as required.
- Transport undertaking shall keep; record sheets and printouts (where required) in date order and legible for a period of at least 12 months following their use. Copies will be given to drivers, where requested. Undertakings will also provide copies of driver card downloaded data and printed copies of that data, where requested. Record sheets, downloaded data and printouts will be handed over to authorised inspecting officers.
- The Undertaking will be obliged to download both vehicle units and driver cards. The exact time periods for mandatory downloading will be given by individual Member States. Rumour suggests this will be 21 days for the card and up to 3 months for the vehicle unit, in the UK. Data must be stored for at least 12 months following recording.
- Drivers will record ‘other work’ under the  (crossed hammers) and ‘period of availability’ under the  (square box). Manual records are to be entered on the tachograph record sheet if using a vehicle with an analogue tacho. They are to be entered on the drivers card using the manual entry system where they use a vehicle fitted with a digital tacho. The old system where we could record both other work and period of availability under the ‘square box’ is gone.
- Drivers are to ensure they use the correct card slot when double manned in a digital vehicle; 1= Driver. 2= Co-driver.
- Drivers of analogue equipped vehicles are required to produce all the record sheets used during the current week and those used during the previous 15 days. Their driver card if they hold one and any printouts required to be taken eg. manual records of duty where the card was defective or lost. Be very careful, this comes into force on 1st May 2006, the current ‘all charts from this week and the last chart of the previous week’ will no longer exist. Yes I know that we are required to return charts within 21 days, but 561/2006 changes all that, could be an interesting time ahead.
- Drivers of digitally equipped vehicles need to produce; their driver smart cards, any tachograph record sheets or manual records made during the period described above i.e. this week and 15 days prior.
- The time periods mentioned in the last two paragraphs will change on 1st January 2008 to the current day and the previous 28 days
Now for the stuff that is coming into force on 11/04/2007, until this date, the regulations under 3820/85 still apply;
Daily rest;
- normally 11 continuous hours, now called a ‘Regular daily Rest Period.’ May be reduced up to 3 times in a week to 9 continuous hours, surprise surprise this is called a ‘Reduced daily Rest Period.’ You do not need to pay-back the reductions, like we should do at the moment.
- The Regular daily Rest Period may be split into TWO periods; the first will not be less than 3 uninterrupted hours. The second will be an uninterrupted period of not less than 9 hours.
Weekly Rest;
- Regular weekly Rest Period — a period of at least 45 hours
- Reduced weekly Rest Period — a period of less than 45 hours but no less than 24 hours.
- In any fortnight a driver must take either; a) two Regular weekly rest periods or b) a Regular weekly rest and a Reduced weekly rest. If option b) is chosen, any reduction must be compensated ‘en bloc’ (in one go) by taking an equivalent period of rest attached to another rest period of at least 9 hours, before the end of the third week following the week of reduction. This is pretty much what we have now, although the compensating rest could be added to a rest period of 8 hours at the moment. The requirement to take at least 36 hours ‘at home or vehicle base’ is gone.
- Where a driver chooses to do so, the daily rest period and a Reduced weekly rest period, taken away from base, may be taken in a vehicle fitted with a bunk (for each crew member) and the vehicle is stationary. Note, nothing is said about stopping in vehicles at base for a Reduced weekly rest or for a Regular weekly rest period, wherever the vehicle is parked.
Driving;
- Maximum continuous driving period is 4.5 hours, then a break of at least 45 minutes must be taken, same as now.
- This may be altered to a break of at least 15 minutes followed by a break of at least 30 minutes, distributed throughout the driving period so that the 4.5 hours isn’t exceeded. This changes what we are used to where you could have up to 3 breaks of at least 15 minutes spread throughout the driving period so that you don’t exceed 4.5 hours. The new system will stop the possibility of 8 hours 59 driving with only 15 minutes break in the middle;
Drive 1 minute
Break 30 minutes
Drive 4 hours 29 minutes
Break 15 minutes
Drive 4 hours 30 minutes
Quite legal, but difficult to justify - Maximum daily driving period (between two daily rest periods or a daily and weekly rest period) 9 hours. Same as now.
- Can be extended up to 10 hours twice in a week same as now.
- Maximum weekly driving total 56 hours. This is new, at present, it is possible to legally drive up to 74 hours in one week, provided no other work is done and minimum rests are taken.
- Maximum Fortnightly driving 90 hours. Same as now.
Double Manning;
- Daily rest requirement is now 9 hours within 30 hours of end of previous daily or weekly rest period. This has increased by one hour from what we currently have.
- The presence of a second driver is now optional during the first hour of a double manned journey, however, they must be present in the vehicle for the remainder of the period. So you could set off from the yard and collect your mate from the motorway services, provided it was within one hour. By the sound of it this would not apply to the return journey as the ‘solo’ period must be the first hour. Currently both drivers must be on the vehicle at all times for it to count as double manned.
Ferry / Train rest;
- Where a Regular daily rest period is taken on board a ferry or train, the period can be interrupted not more than twice. The total interruption can be no more than one hour. A bunk or couchette must be available. This is changed from the current one interruption of no more than 1 hour. The rest requirement is for a Regular daily rest i.e. 11 hours, so that is unchanged from the current situation where we have a reduced rest of 9 hours plus 2 hours extra.
Travelling to collect a vehicle;
- If you drive another vehicle (even an out of scope vehicle like your car) to collect your truck or bus from a place other than home or the usual vehicle will count as other work. Previously this was a bit of a grey area, until the Skills ruling, which concerned coach drivers travelling to their vehicle. Most truck drivers thought it didn’t apply to them — it did. Now if you travel to or from your vehicle when it’s parked at a place other than the usual op centre or your home then it counts as other work and will be recorded. You cannot record this period as rest or break unless on a ferry and have access to a bunk or couchette.
Other things;
There are loads of other bits in the 13 pages of Regs, hopefully I’ve included them here;
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If you depart from the rest / driving limits to reach a suitable stopping place eg; you get delayed on the motorway due to a crash and continue to the first available parking area, you must record the reason why you departed from the limits on the record sheet / printout, when you reach the parking area.
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Any infringement of the rest or driving hours requirements can be prosecuted wherever it is discovered. This is the concept of ’Extraterritoriality’ (I really love that word). If you get done in another Member State, they are obliged to give you a notice to that effect and you are required to carry it and show it to an authorised officer in another Member State, if requested to do so. This isn’t much different from currently happens in many countries at present. If the Gendarme finds a problem with your chart you get a deposit notice on your Court case and a receipt for the however many Euros he’s just taken off you. The system is being introduced here in the UK by the Road Safety Bill and should help level the playing field with Foreign operated vehicles. The production of the Penalty Notice is to ensure that you don’t get done for the same offence twice; double jeopardy.
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If offences are detected where there is a clear danger to road safety eg. considerably reduced daily rest then the Enforcement Body will be empowered to immobilise the vehicle until the safety threat is removed. Not really a lot different from now. VOSA (and certain Police officers) already have the powers to Prohibit vehicles, both UK and foreign from further movement where drivers hours offences have been committed eg. fail to produce records, exceed 4.5 hours etc, until either the records are produced or the ‘missing’ rest is made-up
So there you go. Now what do you think? If I can find out how to do it I’ll post the link to the EC pages that give the full Regs…
