A transport planner can plan a driver to have a reduced rest if it is legal for the driver to do so
A driver has the last word on any safety issues such as - not enough time to get a decent sleep
I will agree that the way the rules are written makes for possible conflict between the two parties but a simple way to solve that would be to add the word ‘driver’ into the wording of many regs such as -
This rest period shall be 11 hours but may be reduced BY THE DRIVER to a minimum of 9 hours no more than three times between any weekly rest periods.
If you’re parking your truck in the yard and going home, and only having 9hrs off, there’s no way you’re getting 8hrs (the recommended amount) sleep, therefore, unless the driver is 1 of those that doesn’t have 8hrs sleep, it’d be a stupid idea.
Only time I’ve done it is if I get back to base, 9hrs off, ■■■■ it I’ll sleep in the truck. Other than that, I was willing to reduce to 10hrs, but no lower.
If you’re parking your truck in the yard and going home, and only having 9hrs off, there’s no way you’re getting 8hrs (the recommended amount) sleep, therefore, unless the driver is 1 of those that doesn’t have 8hrs sleep, it’d be a stupid idea.
Only time I’ve done it is if I get back to base, 9hrs off, [zb] it I’ll sleep in the truck. Other than that, I was willing to reduce to 10hrs, but no lower.
But that argument doesn’t hold any water, a driver can have an 11 hour break and sit watching a ■■■■ film, talking to his mate in the pub for 5 hours or entertaining a laydee. They can sit in their cab for 7 hours on trucknet too. None of those activities will guarantee a proper rest
If you’re parking your truck in the yard and going home, and only having 9hrs off, there’s no way you’re getting 8hrs (the recommended amount) sleep, therefore, unless the driver is 1 of those that doesn’t have 8hrs sleep, it’d be a stupid idea.
Only time I’ve done it is if I get back to base, 9hrs off, [zb] it I’ll sleep in the truck. Other than that, I was willing to reduce to 10hrs, but no lower.
But that argument doesn’t hold any water, a driver can have an 11 hour break and sit watching a ■■■■ film, talking to his mate in the pub for 5 hours or entertaining a laydee. They can sit in their cab for 7 hours on trucknet too. None of those activities will guarantee a proper rest
Yeah, but that’s out of the companies hands, but physically restricting them from having proper rest is within their hands thanks to the regs allowing them to plan our rests to be reduced.
Like I said, if I was on a reducer, I’d sleep in the truck, if the truck was going out with a night man, then I wasn’t doing a reducer (well, was but 10 not 9hrs).
TTX boy:
How about 11hrs off when at home base and 9hrs when ur doing a night out,simple!
So now you want to add an extra level of complication to the daily rest rules? Instead of simply 11 hours or 9 hours three times between weekly rests, location would also have to be factored in. That’s open to abuse, especially with digi tachos where start and finish location is no more specific than UK.
The main complaint of this thread is about having not enough rest but if your suggestion was the rule, 11 at base and 9 away, you could then have 6 reductions on the trot between weekly rest periods, so actually less rest legally required than we have at the moment.
No more than 4.5 hours driving without a break of at least 45 minutes. If it makes it easier you can split that into at least 15 minutes followed by at least 30 minutes.
Maximum of 9 hours driving per day. Twice a week, for flexibility for both the driver and the company, you can increase that by up to 1 hour if you need to be somewhere or want to make it home.
No more than 56 hours driving per week or 90 hours in any two weeks.
Rest
Daily Rest Within 24 hours of starting work you must have completed a period of at least 11 hours rest. Three times between your weekly rest periods, for flexibility for both the driver and the company, you can have a minimum of 9 hours instead of 11.
On any occasion when you have a period of at least 3 hours rest during your shift you can have 9 hours rest instead of 11 following the shift and it will not count as one of your allowed reductions.
Weekly Rest You must have a period of 45 hours rest per week but every other week you can, for flexibility for both the driver and the company, reduce that to a minimum of 24 hours. If you do reduce you must make up that time by adding the number of hours you reduced to another rest period within the following three weeks.
The period between the end of one weekly rest and the start of the next must not exceed 144 hours.
That seems fairly simple to me. You could add in a couple of things for certain types of operation such as when using a ferry but it should cover most drivers as it is.
I dont agree !
I thought that we all want to work less hrs.
We already work more hrs than any other workers i can think of.
Our industry should be aiming for a 9 hrs max driving ,12hrs max duty per shift.
40 hrs min weekly rest,and i would scrap reductions!
Obviously wages would have to rise to pay for the reduced hrs but £10 per hr would give a living wage.
Drivers are working up to 70hrs per week,thats just crazy! Thats double a 35 hr working week most people work.
Does anyone think that starting work at 06.00 and finishing at 21.00 is acceptable ■■? well i certainly dont!
I know this wont happen overnight but it’s something all of us drivers must push for.
No more than 4.5 hours driving without a break of at least 45 minutes. If it makes it easier you can split that into at least 15 minutes followed by at least 30 minutes.
Maximum of 9 hours driving per day. Twice a week, for flexibility for both the driver and the company, you can increase that by up to 1 hour if you need to be somewhere or want to make it home.
No more than 56 hours driving per week or 90 hours in any two weeks.
Rest
Daily Rest Within 24 hours of starting work you must have completed a period of at least 11 hours rest. Three times between your weekly rest periods, for flexibility for both the driver and the company, you can have a minimum of 9 hours instead of 11.
On any occasion when you have a period of at least 3 hours rest during your shift you can have 9 hours rest instead of 11 following the shift and it will not count as one of your allowed reductions.
Weekly Rest You must have a period of 45 hours rest per week but every other week you can, for flexibility for both the driver and the company, reduce that to a minimum of 24 hours. If you do reduce you must make up that time by adding the number of hours you reduced to another rest period within the following three weeks.
The period between the end of one weekly rest and the start of the next must not exceed 144 hours.
That seems fairly simple to me. You could add in a couple of things for certain types of operation such as when using a ferry but it should cover most drivers as it is.
Hmm, that sounds good. How come nobodies thought of it…
TTX boy:
I dont agree !
I thought that we all want to work less hrs.
I’m more than happy with the hours I am at work, booked 77 on my timesheet last week, with 3 nights out, but just over 34 hours of that was break so getting on for half of it I was paid for doing nothing. If I wasn’t happy I wouldn’t do it and would do something else. No one is holding a gun to my head, or any other driver’s head I know. We have loads of guys at our place who do at most 8 or 9 hours a day and no nights out.
My opinion and this is only my opinion and not my interpretation of the law…
Put up with it whilst finding a job with employers that don’t want to screw you for every hour they can.
Some people here are happy working stupid hours and reducing rests, not me …Not my cup of tea any more,gladly not in a job that demands this.
If you want 11 , then take it and say you are tired…It’s also an employers responsibility to ensure you are rested, if 9 is not enough then say so.Nothing they can do about it tbh…They might be arse holes about it but so what find a way to be one back. Remember you can also make things difficult for them if they play this game… (Hence start looking for a decent employer)
I can understand reducing on stop outs , but back at base is a bit stupid … The hours need kicking into the 21st century imo kicking or screaming.
yorkshiredave:
At work today we were told that the eleven hour rest period between shifts has ended and now we can be made to come back after nine hours.
In the past if we finished late after a bad shift and we were due on early the next day we would tell them to shove it and have an eleven hour break.
Have things changed or are we being told a pack of lies?
im quite happy to reduce ,dont like different start times,+ i like to be as helpfull as possible[cant do enough for a good boss],but our more militant ones just tell them [t.o] to shove it up there ■■■[reducing rest] and theyll be in in 11 hrs,if theres any kind of pressure put on them they just tell them to put it in writing what there forcing them to do,they wont.
Im glad some people are seeing my point of view.
I know it’s not going to happen in the near future but we once sent kids down pits.
I realise that people will have to do nights out that cant get home but we do that now, but good planning would help and you will always have driver that likes being away.
All i’m trying to get over is why cant we work a 40-50 hr working week for a desent wage instead of have to work 70+ hrs.
In reality we are working 2 weeks for 1 weeks wage !
Some of us have familys and wanna see our kids !
You can bet all these people that make these drivers laws dont work 70+hrs for £700
TTX boy:
Our industry should be aiming for a 9 hrs max driving ,12hrs max duty per shift.
So would you would be happy to be out most nights or it just other drivers that shouldn’t be allowed to get home after a shift ?
Why should that happen?
Planners would need to get solutions to that in the same way that they have to work within the current rules
You are aware that there are unexpected things such as traffic jams, delays to ferries or trains, and breakdowns that can mean those extra hours can get you home instead of leaving you stuck out?
Then there are container drivers who can often spend long periods getting loaded/unloaded, maximum of 12 hours duty will really bugger it up for them yet they have spent plenty of time on break.
Why do people need the rest periods increasing to allow them to work the hours they want to? No one is forcing them to do 15 hour days, they can say no and do something else. There are plenty of drivers whose days barely reach double figures never mind maximum hours, the vast majority of the UK drivers where I work never get anywhere near maximum hours.
I have noticed that often the ones on here who complain the most about long hours, poor pay and having to rush about to get things done, tend to be the same ones who slag of the supermarket drivers. Yet as we know supermarket drivers don’t tend to rush anywhere or work 15 hour days and are usually on pretty good money. So, they want to put restrictions in place so they can do the same as drivers who they regularly have a pop at, you couldn’t make it up.
Between the EU Driver’s Hours Regulations our flavour of the WTD and H&S ■■■■■■■■ the advantage is definitely with the driver and you can use them to pretty much work how you want, whether that is doing more or less.
TTX boy:
Im glad some people are seeing my point of view.
I know it’s not going to happen in the near future but we once sent kids down pits.
I realise that people will have to do nights out that cant get home but we do that now, but good planning would help and you will always have driver that likes being away.
All i’m trying to get over is why cant we work a 40-50 hr working week for a desent wage instead of have to work 70+ hrs.
In reality we are working 2 weeks for 1 weeks wage !
Some of us have familys and wanna see our kids !
You can bet all these people that make these drivers laws dont work 70+hrs for £700
im totally against this,40 hrs a week is no good what so ever,all it will mean is the extra 40 hrs p.w pay i get now will be going in some agency bods pocket,stuff that,im quite happy to do 80 hrs a week[a fair bit,in actual fact a lot is in the bunk,not working anyway].
if folks want to do 40 hrs p.w fair enough,but the same goes if your happy do 80 hrs you should be left to do what you want
