Hi, just started at a place that uses POA To keep their drivers on standby… Does it extend their 15/13 hr duty time?
No
What do you gain over your 17wk ref period?
It’s to keep your weekly hours down, so i believe.
OWLDRIVER:
What do you gain over your 17wk ref period?
Dunno, don’t use it, don’t care…
HTH 
I haven’t used it for years… I don’t why these drivers have been told too??
OWLDRIVER:
Hi, just started at a place that uses POA To keep their drivers on standby… Does it extend their 15/13 hr duty time?
The 13/15 rules are tachograph rules they always “trump” working time directive rules. POA (like tacho breaks) dont count towards your wtd weekly total (60 hours in a fixed Sunday to Sunday week).This means they can get you to work more,whilst still complying with the wtd.
OWLDRIVER:
What do you gain over your 17wk ref period?
your maximum average working time hours over the ref period is 48, with a maximum of 60 in a week. these are not the same as paid / timesheet hours. only driving and other work count.
so by using break / poa when possible, which don’t count towards your working time hours, you can be at work and getting paid for 65 hours week in, week out, for arguments sake, but never have your working time hours go over the max of 60 and average less than 48
OWLDRIVER:
Hi, just started at a place that uses POA To keep their drivers on standby…
When you’re on stand by waiting for a job to come do you know exactly how long the wait is going to be ?
Nope
Terry T:
OWLDRIVER:
Hi, just started at a place that uses POA To keep their drivers on standby…When you’re on stand by waiting for a job to come do you know exactly how long the wait is going to be ?
precisely! 
illegal abuse 
stobrats are kings! 
The Sarge:
OWLDRIVER:
What do you gain over your 17wk ref period?Dunno, don’t use it, don’t care…
HTH
Same here
If you all know that firms ‘abuse’ this POA, why don’t you pass the ‘evidence’ on to DVSA? You can do it anon.
Or are the DVSA and the rich kids (Cameron & Clegg et al) and their supporters operating a scam?
I wonder what the answer could be?! 
Oh! And I don’t care either!
No it doesn’t extend daily EU hours shift time. You still are restricted to 13 hours clock-on to clock-off (or 15 hours if reduced daily rests are available). If you spend 4 hours on POA during that 13/15 hour spreadover then you can still only work 13/15 hours max. including the 4 hours.
OWLDRIVER:
Nope
Shouldn’t be using POA then.
It’s really simple, if you want more hours at work then use poa / break when you’re sat waiting, if you want less hours at work, don’t
stevieboy308:
It’s really simple, if you want more hours at work then use poa / break when you’re sat waiting, if you want less hours at work, don’t
■■? please explain how that works■■?
wildfire:
stevieboy308:
It’s really simple, if you want more hours at work then use poa / break when you’re sat waiting, if you want less hours at work, don’t■■? please explain how that works■■?
i’m sure you know exactly what i mean, but anyway.
like i said, if you want to plenty of hours at work, then put it on break / poa whilst waiting, if it bothers you, go and ask somebody to tell you you’ll be waiting half an hour before you dare to use poa therefore not running out of wtd hours before you need to.
if you want to do less hours than the boss wants you to do, then say sorry boss, they didn’t tell me how long the wait was going to be etc, had to keep it on other work. sorry boss i can’t do the extra run you want me to do, i’m out of wtd hours.
I cant remember the company but its local to me there drivers got a bonus to use poa as it brought hours down and they didnt need to repay hrs owed…shockin
You are allowed to work 90 hrs per fortnight so average it out to 45 hrs per week. (This is for working time directive not tachograph rules)
so lets say you start at 06-00hrs and drive to your first job which takes an hour, then you sit on a bay for 4 hours, you could put it on break if you’ve been told that you will be there for 4 hours and your free to wander off and do what you want. you could put it on other work and sit there doing nothing or you could put it on POA, period of availability.
so if you use other work, then buy 11-00 am you have technically done 5 hrs work towards your WTD 45 hrs. average per week.
If you use break or POA then you have only done 1 hrs work towards your 45 hrs WTD.
now average out what you do in a week and you will see that if you don’t use POA you can quickly run out of your 45 hrs WTD time.
another example is, last week I booked 81 hrs for pay purposes however with using POA I kept my WTD (driving and other work) down to 52 hrs and this weeks hrs booked were 61 hrs but with POA WTD hrs where booked at 26 hrs, so my fortnightly WTD hours where 78 which is below the 90 hrs average yet I booked total of 142 payable hrs.
Im sure someone will come along and disagree with this but this is how I was taught and it works for me and I never get in trouble for it.
Hope this helps.
Madguy 