What happens if I get pulled by vosa, they look at my card and they see all sorts of overspeeds on it right up to say 70mph?
I tend to let the exhaust brake do the work and it always has me at a max of about 62 ish when the cruise is set to 56 and going down a hill.
What can they do to you seeing as they didn’t actually see you speed like that?
The overspeed records I think after a minute above 60mph. As for what will happen that is up to vosa. There is an offence called “Exceeding the limits of the vehicle” which is harsher than just speeding. 70 is excessive to say the least.
When you use the exhaust brake are you changing down half a gear or so, so that the revs increase and the exhauster retards the engine better? I used to go down the hill around Brighouse (M62 between 24 &25) loaded to 44t and drop one full gear. The reve were around 2000 and the vehicle held all the way down at 54mph.
The overspeed will go off running at 91k for over a minute .
Vosa should probably ignore any that are 56-60mph .
They will probably look closely if you exceed that .
But it’s not a new thing , overspeed still registered on tacho charts.
Steve-o:
What happens if I get pulled by vosa, they look at my card and they see all sorts of overspeeds on it right up to say 70mph?I tend to let the exhaust brake do the work and it always has me at a max of about 62 ish when the cruise is set to 56 and going down a hill.
What can they do to you seeing as they didn’t actually see you speed like that?
I got pulled 2 weeks ago by the Police,who pulled me in at Sutton Scotney cause I was carrying Hazardous.
they were waiting on the A34 southbound just by the A303 junction…Id had about 5 overspeeds that day one about 5 minutes before by Whitchurch.
I came down the hill by the A303 at 60,with No seatbelt on.
knew I was gonna get pulled and I did…they checked the wagon,all the HAZ paperwork,defect sheets,ADR kit and then the Tacho…I thought I was gonna get done…but no!
I was nice,polite to them…and they were fine with me…which helps and I went away after 40 minutes with NO prosecutions. 
I did’nt crack the line “why are’nt you out catching REAL criminals”
I think a lot goes on your attitude towards the authorites to whether you get done or not,and if your running legitimate in all other areas…I cant honestly see that the OVERSPEEDS are gonna cause a problem unless your actually caught red handed speeding at the time!!
I’ve never had them bother or even mention overspeeds unless the overspeeds goes on for miles and its obvious the speed limiter is disabled or not working.
In terms of speed on a tachograph only time its really been mentioned is when i had driven 100miles of single carriageway and had been going flat out.
The policeman said look i aint having ago for the sake of it, but that road is pretty twisty and we are constantly attending accidents with wagons on that road, slow it down a bit for your own sake.
Most seem ok if your ok, and your not running bent. I got pulled a few years ago and i had made a massive boo boo, which looked really bad. Got stoped by VOSA and literally saw my licence flash before my eyes. I explained what happend and he was fine accepted it and never did anything about it.
Guess its like traffic wardens when i was a courier in Central London i was always really nice to them and pleasent even when they were being arsey, i maybe get 5 tickets a year. Other guys would go mental at traffic wardens and averaging at least one or two tickets a week.
VOSA/Police can’t use the speed trace on either a tacho disc or card for speeding offenses on their own.
They would have to pull you at the time for any speeding offenses, can’t be done retrospectively using data from a tacho.
smcaul:
VOSA/Police can’t use the speed trace on either a tacho disc or card for speeding offenses on their own.They would have to pull you at the time for any speeding offenses, can’t be done retrospectively using data from a tacho.
I agree .
I got a pull recently on the A85 at Dalmally on route from Hamilton to Oban, i was in a bit of a hurry and had been on the limiter wherever the road allowed.
Everthing was ok but he did give me a right swearing about my speed,but he did say after his rant that he could’nt have booked me on the tacho evidence anyway .
As the ageement was when tachographs were brought in. A driver can not be prosecuted for speeding on the tacho evidence alone. A court can not use tacho charts as primary evidence.
So don’t worry about your overspeed.
I was always under the impression that you could be prosecuted for Digi Tacho evidence,NOT analogue. 
bikemonkey:
I was always under the impression that you could be prosecuted for Digi Tacho evidence,NOT analogue.
No as there must be a specific time and date for the prosecution.
If you are on the a34. its a 50mph speed limit. If you have an overspeed at say 61mph how can your tacho make the difference between motorway and dual carriageway. are you 1 mph over or 11 mph over? It can’t do it.
But the law is very clear that a tachograph chart may only be used as secondary evidence. A digital tachograph is the same as an anologue but newer.
as far as I am aware, the digi tacho records overspeeds but soes not provide a trace the same as an analogue tacho as the amount of data required to cover all speeds at all times would probably overload the chip before the 28 days are up. According to the hanbook for the siemens unit, it records the length of time in a speed band so it would show say 10 minutes at a speed between 40 and 50 kph but not a second by second trace. the easy answer would be to ask yor employer to provide a printout, to which you are entitled then see for yhouself.
As a rule of thumb, I never let the wagon go over 60mph, ever. Even if there is some idiot an inch from my bumper, why take the chance. I think it only records as an offence if you go over 60 for more than a minute like has been said but wether it would record at 70 or 80 for 30 seconds, I don’t know, but wouldn’t like to find out. It shows overspeed if you go over 56 for more than a minute but as long as you keep it under 60, this is not an offence. I set the hill descent at 58 mph and the retarder and exhaust brake do the rest for me.
As an Ex Traffic Police officer and now a HGV driver i can tell you all that the police can request the traffic commissioner to start a prosecution against the driver.
Vosa has the same right to request the Traffic Commissioner to take a look.
I only had about 15 cases of this go to court and all were found guilty of speeding.
But remember the speed limit on motorway is 60 for HGV even if your limiter is set to as mine is to 52.
Hope this helps
As said earlier you cannot be issued a speeding offence for an incident of speeding on a tacho chart. If how ever you were involved in an accident and VOSA decided to get their fine tooth comb out and look for issues they may enter it into evidence as part of the case to give an overall picture as to your standard of driving. If you had a number of speeding issues and the accident you were in, in the opinion of VOSA, had speed as a factor they may introduce it as evidence of driving without due care and attention or even exceeding the limits of the vehicle.
Dont bet your house that Vosa cant do you from a chart, analogue or digital.
There have been numerous cases where operators and drivers have lost the licence. For instance if your yard is in the sticks near Blubberhouses or Burnham Deepdale and you are pulling out and reaching 56 mph within 5 minutes of the yard, then you could probably expect a call from the TC.
You may not get a speeding fine, but you could get banned for a month or so.
limeyphil:
As the ageement was when tachographs were brought in. A driver can not be prosecuted for speeding on the tacho evidence alone. A court can not use tacho charts as primary evidence.
So don’t worry about your overspeed.
So tell how all those driver’s on for a well known orange and white liveried company in Norfolk got nailed for speeding on tacho evidence alone then (ie. tachos showing 56mph when there isn’t a motorway within an hour of their base) ?
I believe that was also the downfall of Abbey Hill in Doncaster too
For what it’s worth;
for a successful speeding conviction in Court you need the following: date, time, speed and location. A chart will give the first three but not the last one. Although route tracing will give a very accurate location if the person doing it has an accurate start location and an idea of where you were headed.
In Public Inquiry / Driver Conduct hearing before the TC the ‘rules of evidence’ are different, they are ‘on the balance of probability’ as opposed to ‘beyond reasonable doubt,’ which is used in Court. As has already been said, if you have an operating centre 40 km in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by single carriageway roads don’t be surprised when the TC takes the licence 'cos your chart shows 90 km/h from a couple of moments after you set off. A quick look at a map will show, in this instance, there are no roads that an HGV can do that speed on until they reach the Motorway some 40 Km from the yard.
Digital tachos speed file can be used to show the same thing, although I wouldn’t get too worried about a short ‘overspeed’ that doesn’t exceed 96 km/h (60 mph). But 96 km/h for more than a few minutes would tend to suggest the speed limiter was faulty (interfered with) rather than you were going down hill.
trucker79:
As an Ex Traffic Police officer and now a HGV driver i can tell you all that the police can request the traffic commissioner to start a prosecution against the driver.
IIRC, I don’t think it quite works like that.
AFAIK, upon receiving information from the Police/VOSA, a TC can hold a Public Enquiry (PI,) and the suspension, revocation or curtailment of an ‘O’ licence AND/OR an LGV licence suspension can be considered.
I’m fairly sure that doesn’t count as a prosecution, and that no fines or penalty points can result from a PI.
A definitive answer would be good.
There is a simple answer to this one “you all know the limits or are supposed to” so why exceed them? 
As it is YOUR LICENCE AND LIVELIHOOD YOU ARE LOSING NOT THE BOSSES"
We all go down hills a little over the limit now and again but there is no need to persistently exceed the limit as one post says if you are involved in an accident then the speed on your tachograph becomes evidence of a contributory factor in the same way as if you weren,t speeding it will corroborate your evidence as we all know that when there is an accident the “witness” becomes an expert witness for the prosecution attesting to the “Excessive Speed of the vehicle concerned” in the accident!