Have read a few posts where drivers are at work and not getting paid, the culprit is the POA garbage.
Are folks really silly enough to use this mode just to extend their day and for zero reward?
H.
Nope, no one on here works for free, at most its 45 minutes deducted per day for break although some companies just pay straight through.
If your not paid breaks or POA then POA is not used and break is only used when needed legally, in fact no one should use POA at all in my opinion as its a useless tacho mode only given a purpose because its cheaper than redesigning tachos to remove it entirely.
Basically what I’m saying is anyone who uses POA is an idiot.
Said this before but treat it as meaning ‘Press Once Again’ rather than ‘Period of Availability’ as it appears between break/rest and other work on a digi tachos.
dave is quite right. I never ever used it. If I wasn’t working, I was on a break or resting.
Honked:
Have read a few posts where drivers are at work and not getting paid, the culprit is the POA garbage.Are folks really silly enough to use this mode just to extend their day and for zero reward?
H.
No of course not. Think about it, would you ever consider working for free? Not bloody likely.
The only people that use POA are working for firms that don’t pay breaks. Usually they also have to keep their hours down because they work sooooooo many in a week too.
I should add that if your firm doesn’t pay breaks and they pay POA then this is the only reason to use it but still its a useless mode allocated a pupose by folk who don’t live in the real world.
It does have a use. To save clearing a break when you don’t want to clear a break. If you don’t understand that then I doubt you have done a days driving.
happysack:
It does have a use. To save clearing a break when you don’t want to clear a break. If you don’t understand that then I doubt you have done a days driving.
I know what it does thanks.
I don’t do a days driving anymore, usually around 5 hours on a busy day 
but after 24 years of driving history I feel entitled to take it easy, leaving the graft for the silly sods.
H.
Well done. I’m proud of you.
I very rarely use poa though when I do its for my own ends (like getting home) but regardless I get paid by what I put on my time sheet not what my tacho says .
happysack:
It does have a use. To save clearing a break when you don’t want to clear a break. If you don’t understand that then I doubt you have done a days driving.
Even worse it will clear a break on the tacho head but not in the real world!
dont like all this POA noncense- i’m on domestic regs so no tacho
just fill in the log book-reg no,place where vehicle usually based,start time,hrs driven,duty time.
thats it .no mileage or anything.just like the good old days!! i love it 
Dipper_Dave:
Basically what I’m saying is anyone who uses POA is an idiot.
… I’m a idiot
I get paid for POA and only get 30mins deducted per shift for breaks. I use it to keep my WTD hours down, so I can do a extra shift at the end of the week. Bit Greedy - Yes… 
So if I do a 15 hour shift, during that shift I use an hour of POA, does that mean I can finish my shift at 10pm if I started at 6am?
Radar19:
So if I do a 15 hour shift, during that shift I use an hour of POA, does that mean I can finish my shift at 10pm if I started at 6am?
No, If you clock on at 6am, 9pm would be your finish time regardless of how much POA you showed. POA can’t extend your “working day” if you catch my drift 
Radar19:
So if I do a 15 hour shift, during that shift I use an hour of POA, does that mean I can finish my shift at 10pm if I started at 6am?
eh if you start at 0600 you must finish by 2100 you know you have to fit a daily rest period on a min 9 consecutive hours
9 + 15 = 24
9 + 16 = ?
you still have to count poa as duty time 
the same as you count breaks
happysack:
It does have a use. To save clearing a break when you don’t want to clear a break. If you don’t understand that then I doubt you have done a days driving.
I see what you mean, say you dont want to reset your driving yet by taking a 30 minute break (a 15 was taken earlier), use POA and then take a 30 a bit later on which may leave enough driving time left to park up / get home in one hit on a fresh 4 and half hour.
So your saving 15 minutes in reality as you could reset your driving with a full 45 anyway.
I can think of a few times I have wanted to park up somewhere planned but with a full 45 break needed this would put me over a 15 hour day, when a 30 minute would just about allow me to do it.
Course if I’m running this tight for time I am letting myself down a bit, but for some it can be the difference between getting home or not.
I should at this point backtrack on my earlier ‘idiot’ comment (yep I was ■■■■■■ last night) and change it to ‘mildly confused’.
Dipper_Dave:
happysack:
It does have a use. To save clearing a break when you don’t want to clear a break. If you don’t understand that then I doubt you have done a days driving.I see what you mean, say you dont want to reset your driving yet by taking a 30 minute break (a 15 was taken earlier), use POA and then take a 30 a bit later on which may leave enough driving time left to park up / get home in one hit on a fresh 4 and half hour.
So your saving 15 minutes in reality as you could reset your driving with a full 45 anyway.I can think of a few times I have wanted to park up somewhere planned but with a full 45 break needed this would put me over a 15 hour day, when a 30 minute would just about allow me to do it.
Course if I’m running this tight for time I am letting myself down a bit, but for some it can be the difference between getting home or not.I should at this point backtrack on my earlier ‘idiot’ comment (yep I was ■■■■■■ last night) and change it to ‘mildly confused’.
Yay. Well done. It can often make the difference between getting tipped or loaded that day, or like you say getting home.
Don’t use it myself. Max 11 hour day. 43 hours per week. Don’t need it.
The place I used to work at started deducting poa from your working day.
This was on double manned home delivery vehicles, which yes, default to poa when on the move for driver 2.
However, if the driver forgot to switch the tacho when pulling up to a delivery, more poa to be deducted.
So, for a 15 hour day, you’d get around half that towards your WTD hours.
Salaried too, so starting at 6am, by around 3pm you’d be working for free.
They even started getting the Class 1 drivers to work a 6th day as our working hours were around 40 ish (paid for 48).
No extra money either.
Dipper_Dave:
Nope, no one on here works for free, at most its 45 minutes deducted per day for break although some companies just pay straight through.If your not paid breaks or POA then POA is not used and break is only used when needed legally, in fact no one should use POA at all in my opinion as its a useless tacho mode only given a purpose because its cheaper than redesigning tachos to remove it entirely.
Basically what I’m saying is anyone who uses POA is an idiot.
Said this before but treat it as meaning ‘Press Once Again’ rather than ‘Period of Availability’ as it appears between break/rest and other work on a digi tachos.
Re: Are agencies really that bad?
Postby carryfast-yeti » Fri Feb 20, 2015 8:32 am
at our DHL site,the agency lads laugh at us company drivers for doing the same work as them for far less earnings than them.they get the chance of saturday o/t work where-as we are restricted by the 48hr rule 
we don’t get paid for POA either.loads of our drivers left last year,and we have been given a big pay rise now to stem the flow…but they still can’t temp any of the agy lads to come on-board.
There’s this driver who doesn’t get paid for POA!