The Biker:
Use the extra cash for…taking the wife out to nice places.
Why put in all the extra effort if your just gonna waste it? 
peirre,
they say its send you blind,must also affect your memory
not to keen on the beer,kippers ok every now and then,all days ending in Y.
Willy Gofar:
MrFlibble:
Thames trader:
How can people who have worked Mon/Fri. do it without breaking tacho laws.Easily, as long as you’re careful with the hours.
Up until April, you could theoretically work 1 day every weekend, depending on your start and finish times.
e.g. Work 9-5 Mon-Fri, then 6am-6pm Sat. 6pm Sat->9am Mon is the weekly rest (39 hours), which means that you had to compensate for the 6-hour reduction. The compensation could usually be taken during the following week, e.g. 5pm Monday-9am Tuesday is a 16-hour rest, which you can take as a 10-hour reduced daily rest plus the 6-hour compensation for the weekend The 1-hour daily rest reduction is then compensated for on Tuesday night.
However, if the weekly rest was reduced to the minimum 36 hours, it was usually difficult to compensate for during the week, and eventually required a whole weekend to be taken off.
You also couldn’t work Sunday one weekend and Saturday the following weekend. However, I managed 5 weekends in a row at one point.
However, since the rule changes on in April, you can only work alternate weekends (unless you can still fit in a full 45-hour rest, which under the above example means limiting the shift to either 2am-11am Saturday or 3pm-midnight Sunday, which isn’t realistic).
But, the rule changes do mean that a Saturday night trunk run is possible, whereas it wasn’t under the old rules.
You’re also still limited to a maximum of one shift per weekend.
But surely under the new rules ( as stated already ) you have to fill out a manual tacho for every day you worked even if you didn’t drive.
So? Yes, and I do. It’s a royal PITA, as every time I work a weekend I spend half an hour the night before manually filling out two to three weeks’ worth of tachos. What a waste of money. 
It’s still legal, hours-wise (unless you can tell me otherwise)
Willy Gofar:
Also ( another posting ) the ministery may not work weekends but if you have a serious accident even at the weekend I think there is every possibility that they could be involved.
If you’re working both days of the weekend, and either VOSA or the police stop you and ask for your tacho charts, they’re going to wonder why you only seem to have charts for the weekends - after all, how many people are able to survive on two days’ worth of drivers’ pay per week? Any VOSA/police person worth their salt would do a bit more investigation to find out if you were actually working during the week.
Therefore, IMHO, it’s best to stay legal. Although I’ve never had my tachos checked by anyone official (yet).
I prefer to stay legal. I’ll admit that under the old rules I’d sometimes work a Saturday night but still go to the office on Monday morning but there was no need to keep records to incriminate myself. I’m not too bothered about being only able to work alternate weekends as I have a family and the reduction to 24 hours minimum means I can legally work my favourite shift of about 15:00 Saturday, finishing in the early hours.
I did initially think that the need to keep manual charts would cause me a problem as I was worried that it might not be acceptable to take 10 charts out of the box, then sit there for ages filling them in. Bad enough at the “self service” places but what would I do at those who only give you two per shift and log the serial numbers? The answer is that while we have to keep records and treat them in the same way as a tacho chart there is freedom to use whatever media we want. My solution is a simple spreadsheet for the week, filled out with EDR, SDR etc. for each day with my name and the dates covered at the top and a declaration at the bottom. On Friday afternoon I print a copy, sign the declaration and stick it in my tacho wallet. When the time comes I hand it in to the agency along with the chart for that week.
Yes, it’s a pain but I suggest that any weekenders who don’t keep records think up an answer for the “where are the rest of your charts, drive?” they may be asked after handing in the 2 or 3 they have on them!
I think there are still a lot of part timers who think they only have to count the days they drive - I know someone who works every Saturday but has a Mon-Fri job, I’ve met a few who work 4 on 4 off shifts in other jobs so drive on all their 4 days off. Recently, someone told me that he drove every Saturday and worked as a shunter Mon-Fri at the same place!
So what we seem to have is a government saying to those who want to work hard & more hours, to earn more money & subsequently pay them more tax (as you earn it and as you spend it) Sorry, we don’t want it.
People who are willing & able to work hard should be encouraged.
Meanwhile, if you’re not willing to work… we’ll give you almost free housing & lots of other help/freebies/handouts/beer tokens to lye on your couch and do sweet FA all day!
What a ridiculous state of affairs. No wonder over 10% of the population have left over the past 4 or 5 years!
Would the last person to leave please turn off the lights.
edited for typos (why can’t we have a “quick edit” facility like some other forums?)
I drive full time five nights a week. But, if I were to change career I have always said that I would keep my hand in at the weekends. Why? Because I’m sure a lot of people here will agree, lorry driving is sort of in the blood. It is something I never want to lose contact with as I love it for the most part.
8wheels:
I’ve noticed that there’s a number of people with real jobs who only drive at weekends. Just being nosey really, what do you do Monday - Friday and how come you’re driving at weekends.
yea,know some as well,driving during the week for £450.- and doing Overtime Sat and Sun at Distributions Centres. 
OR,
getting 60 Hours Mon to Fri at one Distributions Centre and Sat/Sun on other
OR BETTER
8 hour by one,and another 8 Hour by another for a Couple of days,and during weekendbreak by a Distributions Centre some xtra
don’t worry “It is Legal”!
I work in a Control Office on shift over a 5 week roster. Every 5 weeks I get a long weekend off (5 days - Friday to Tuesday). I usually drive for an agency on the Friday & Monday. Am I really supposed to fill out manual charts for all the shifts I work in my main job for the intervening 5 weeks? What nonsense!
I drive because I enjoy getting out on the road for a change. I took my Class 1 in 1996 when things looked dodgy in the job I was doing after the industry was privatised.
Neil Cole:
I work in a Control Office on shift over a 5 week roster. Every 5 weeks I get a long weekend off (5 days - Friday to Tuesday). I usually drive for an agency on the Friday & Monday. Am I really supposed to fill out manual charts for all the shifts I work in my main job for the intervening 5 weeks? What nonsense!
No, just the weeks that you drive in, so based on working Friday one week and Monday in another then tachos would need to be filled in for just 2 weeks.
As I’ve stated above I work alternate Saturdays, partly because this proves the right balance between maintaining skills, earling extra money and spending time with my family but since April because I have to take a 45 hour break every fortnight.
Now, I don’t want to work every week but sometimes it’d be handy to be able to work two consecutive weeks, for example if I have plans for the weekend I’d normally work and want to bring it forward. In this case I’d only be working two consecutive weekends, not three so I wonder if theres a way of using the facility to attach rest crossing Sunday midnight to either week.
Can anyone think of a way to do this…legally?
I wouldnt worry about it…earn it while you can …what with Blair signing us up to this new treaty will mean a Maximum weekly working limit of only 48 hrs…and no more…cant wait for it …at least it will be cut and dried…but …we all know that the transport industry will be exempt…thanks to the supermarket bosses who sit on the transport select committee…nice thought though…
I don’t really have a problem with WTD stuff, I only do 35 hours Mon-Fri so would have to exceed 13 hours every Saturday to have a problem!
My only concern is the RTD requirement to have a 45 hour break every fortnight. Because office work counts as “other work” not “break” If I finish my driving shift at 02:00 Sunday and start in the office at 09:00 Monday I’ve only managed 29 Hours so can’t work the next Saturday.
Tony1968:
I wonder if theres a way of using the facility to attach rest crossing Sunday midnight to either week.
A weekly rest period that begins in one week and continues into the next week can be attached to either week, but not both.
Tony1968:
I don’t really have a problem with WTD stuff, I only do 35 hours Mon-Fri so would have to exceed 13 hours every Saturday to have a problem
The 35 hours you do during the week do not count toward the 48 hour average for the WTD as it applies to transport. The only relevance they have is with regard to the tacho rules and the daily and weekly rest requirements
Coffeeholic:
Neil Cole:
I work in a Control Office on shift over a 5 week roster. Every 5 weeks I get a long weekend off (5 days - Friday to Tuesday). I usually drive for an agency on the Friday & Monday. Am I really supposed to fill out manual charts for all the shifts I work in my main job for the intervening 5 weeks? What nonsense!No, just the weeks that you drive in, so based on working Friday one week and Monday in another then tachos would need to be filled in for just 2 weeks.
I was about to post a reply correcting that, saying that you needed three weeks (the current week plus the previous 15 days), but I did some research first to make sure I didn’t make a complete [zb] of myself, and it turns out you’re right 
At least I can now save writing out 3 weeks’ worth of tachos whenever I do a shift on a weekend… 
No, just the weeks that you drive in, so based on working Friday one week and Monday in another then tachos would need to be filled in for just 2 weeks.
Would a completed timesheet for the week do?
Neil Cole:
Would a completed timesheet for the week do?
I’m not 100% sure but my best guess would be no. The regulations say -
This record shall be entered either manually on a record sheet, a printout or by use of manual input facilities on recording equipment.
Which seems to limit the choices to writing the details on a chart or charts, writing the details on a print out from a digi tacho or using the digi tacho to input all the details.
Best thing would be to check with VOSA as to what they would deem to be acceptable.
As I may have mentioned before I have yet to have a chance to use my Digi card but have wondered how non driving days can be filled in with one.
As I understand it, when inserting the card at the start of my shift I’ll have the option to make manual entries, such as the end of my previous shift but is it possible to enter details for several days? I’d rather do this and have everything on the card than mess about with driving on the card and everything else scribbled on printouts.
Yeah, I’d like to know this too.
I have a weekday job, so carrying 2 weeks full of blank tacho discs except for OW filled in seems a bit of a waste.
Incidentally, HELLO, have been a lurker for a while and have decided to pluck up the courage to post up. Have recently passed my C+E with Wallace and am looking for occasional weekends. (I’ve got a very rewarding full time job as a dentist so really its only to keep my hand in.) I’ve signed up to their affiliated agency but tbh although they weren’t too fussy about references cos I was a Wallace Trainee I’m not sure they’ll find anything, even on Class 2. Does anybody have any suggestions as to how to improve my chances? Lots of agencies seem to need firm references, at least according to their websites anyway.
I have Thursdays off and I reckon that if I can find the work I’m eligible to drive every other weekend to fulfil my weekly rest requirements. BTW, its slightly worrying when you seem to know the regs better than the agency guy 
jj72:
Sockpuppet:
I’m a logistics consultant.but you’ve only just taken your CPCs? that’ll be about right these days
Missed that one
Yes I have only just taken my CPCs. What you are forgetting is Logistics IS NOT driving. Drivers are only part of the food chain.
Edited for personal attack