Just had pint with old driver mate and we got onto poa. He,s been told if he gets held up and books say 2 hours poa and has not got enough driving time to get back without a break he can carry on because the poa counts as break. Never had to book poa so couldn,t tell him a lot really.I know you supposed to know start and finish times but we work in the real world!! Any help guys??
tootman318:
Any help guys??
Yeah, stop talking about work at the pub.
SmashedCrabFace:
tootman318:
Any help guys??Yeah, stop talking about work at the pub.
Derr, in the club, not pub. Clever Crab 
As far as I know your mate is wrong, POA is not a brake and after every 6 hours of driving, other work or POA you have to have a break of at least 30 mins.
POA does not count as break in regards to driving time, depends what sort of company he works for and their rules but he may aswell book those 2 hours as rest.
A driver came up to me the other day asking about POA he has just had a baby and wants to put in some serious hours i felt like bursting my head against a brick wall explaining it. Note to our driver trainers on our next DCPC how about training the drivers about POA instead of how to use a pallet truck ya dafties!
tootman318:
Just had pint with old driver mate and we got onto poa. He,s been told if he gets held up and books say 2 hours poa and has not got enough driving time to get back without a break he can carry on because the poa counts as break. Never had to book poa so couldn,t tell him a lot really.I know you supposed to know start and finish times but we work in the real world!! Any help guys??
How come you never have to book POA? Even if you don’t you should use it every so often to make it look like your trying to use it properly, couple of our lads got done for not showing POA on there cards
tootman318:
Just had pint with old driver mate and we got onto poa. He,s been told if he gets held up and books say 2 hours poa and has not got enough driving time to get back without a break he can carry on because the poa counts as break. Never had to book poa so couldn,t tell him a lot really.I know you supposed to know start and finish times but we work in the real world!! Any help guys??
Not quite true, as for Break, the mode switch should be on Bed, not the square box, however if you wrote on a printout that the Availability was actually meant to be Break but you forgot to alter your mode, you can probably get away with it.
As you say, we work in the real world!
If you were double manning, you can count the first 45 minutes of POA as break
tootman318:
Just had pint with old driver mate and we got onto poa. He,s been told if he gets held up and books say 2 hours poa and has not got enough driving time to get back without a break he can carry on because the poa counts as break. Never had to book poa so couldn,t tell him a lot really.I know you supposed to know start and finish times but we work in the real world!! Any help guys??
Well your mate has been given a bum steer. Maybe you both have had too much. 
sammy:
tootman318:
Just had pint with old driver mate and we got onto poa. He,s been told if he gets held up and books say 2 hours poa and has not got enough driving time to get back without a break he can carry on because the poa counts as break. Never had to book poa so couldn,t tell him a lot really.I know you supposed to know start and finish times but we work in the real world!! Any help guys??How come you never have to book POA? Even if you don’t you should use it every so often to make it look like your trying to use it properly, couple of our lads got done for not showing POA on there cards
How much was the fine?
sammy:
tootman318:
Just had pint with old driver mate and we got onto poa. He,s been told if he gets held up and books say 2 hours poa and has not got enough driving time to get back without a break he can carry on because the poa counts as break. Never had to book poa so couldn,t tell him a lot really.I know you supposed to know start and finish times but we work in the real world!! Any help guys??How come you never have to book POA? Even if you don’t you should use it every so often to make it look like your trying to use it properly, couple of our lads got done for not showing POA on there cards
got done?
By whom?
tootman318:
Just had pint with old driver mate and we got onto poa. He,s been told if he gets held up and books say 2 hours poa and has not got enough driving time to get back without a break he can carry on because the poa counts as break. Never had to book poa so couldn,t tell him a lot really.I know you supposed to know start and finish times but we work in the real world!! Any help guys??
POA does not count as break and your friend is wrong to think it does
However it should be noted that a digital tachograph will wrongly count POA as break and reset the driving time when you’ve accumulated 45 minutes of break or POA.
The only time POA counts as break is when it is the first 45 minutes for the card in slot 2 during multi-manned operations. Apart from that POA is not break.
That’s the legal answer. For other options see Wheel Nut’s post.
Thanks guys, they do supermarket milk dels to stores not rdcs. So can get held up at the back gate. We do same but swap over roro packers(waste) in these places and you do get ■■■■■■ about a bit. Not sure bout his company rules though.
sammy:
How come you never have to book POA? Even if you don’t you should use it every so often to make it look like your trying to use it properly, couple of our lads got done for not showing POA on there cards
How can I put this delicately? Oh, I know.
They certainly didn’t get done by anyone who matters. There is no legal requirement to use POA at all.
sammy:
As far as I know your mate is wrong, POA is not a brake and after every 6 hours of driving, other work or POA you have to have a break of at least 30 mins.
At least 15 minutes. Also, it is only 6 hours of driving and other work, not POA. POA like break does not count toward the 6 hours. Apart from that you were pretty much correct.
sammy:
tootman318:
Just had pint with old driver mate and we got onto poa. He,s been told if he gets held up and books say 2 hours poa and has not got enough driving time to get back without a break he can carry on because the poa counts as break. Never had to book poa so couldn,t tell him a lot really.I know you supposed to know start and finish times but we work in the real world!! Any help guys??How come you never have to book POA? Even if you don’t you should use it every so often to make it look like your trying to use it properly, couple of our lads got done for not showing POA on there cards
There’s no obligation to use POA and if some of your colleagues say they got done for not showing POA they were either winding you up or just talking nonsense.
sammy:
tootman318:
Just had pint with old driver mate and we got onto poa. He,s been told if he gets held up and books say 2 hours poa and has not got enough driving time to get back without a break he can carry on because the poa counts as break. Never had to book poa so couldn,t tell him a lot really.I know you supposed to know start and finish times but we work in the real world!! Any help guys??
How come you never have to book POA? Even if you don’t you should use it every so often to make it look like your trying to use it properly, couple of our lads got done for not showing POA on there cards
[/quote]
What a load of ru 
bbish I never book poa and have never been done by anyone.
Wheel Nut:
As you say, we work in the real world!
Speak for yourself.
I live and work in a psychedelic world of wonderment with talking badgers and helpful owls that show me the way.
The real world sounds crap.
What i reckon has happened is that some of this guys colleagues have went over 60 hours got a wtd infringement, the transport clerk has told them POA would have prevented it - it has then filtered down to the rank and file and turned into a ‘‘driver myth’’
SmashedCrabFace:
Wheel Nut:
As you say, we work in the real world!Speak for yourself.
I live and work in a psychedelic world of wonderment with talking badgers and helpful owls that show me the way.
The real world sounds crap.
Wow, thought it was just me here!
SmashedCrabFace:
Wheel Nut:
As you say, we work in the real world!Speak for yourself.
I live and work in a psychedelic world of wonderment with talking badgers and helpful owls that show me the way.
The real world sounds crap.
You make me laugh crabman, keep it up 