Running on log books was the best, just never put anything in at all if running bent as the fine for failing to make an entry was a lot less than making a false entry. Had a switch for putting the tacho permanently on rest after passing Frankfurt de Oder when running into Belarus and no speed limiter on that old truck either as it was that old.
raymundo:
Running on log books was the best, just never put anything in at all if running bent as the fine for failing to make an entry was a lot less than making a false entry.
The important bit was that there was no penalty at all for booking a late start and/or early finish on tramping,and/or extra breaks,as duty or driving. 
Harry Monk:
switchlogic:
Not just the eighties, endemic in the ninties and noughties too. Up till about 6 years ago and believe it or not I still know of the odd one still doing itIt seemed that at some point in the early 1990s, the French Police started taking it far more seriously and “Voulez vous un cafe Monsieur?” became a lot less likely to work?
That’s true yes if you get caught in France it is very expensive. Spain even more so (I know of companies landed with a five figure fine in Spain) but Italy still up for a few quid in the hand
Carryfast:
With stupid continental speed limits and daily rest periods and breaks all under the spy in the cab it’s probably just as,if not more,likely that a truck would run off the road,because of its driver falling asleep through running legal,as running bent.On that note we were probably safer here in the 1970’s running with log books and a let’s say flexibly applied 60 mph limit.IE start later finish earlier more breaks and still get there quicker and the guvnor none the wiser.
Most bosses running trucks into Europe aren’t that easy to fool!
I knew a few who ran on fuses or wires as paid trip money for one hitters .
Odd thing was, all of a sudden, I never saw them again, due to nervous breakdown and burnt out .
It was normal to one hit it from the French ports to Lisbon,Gibraltar or Malaga .
The rule of paying back reduced rest after three weeks never made sense ,running bent was safer, if did it by the book, you were parked up by a field in the middle of nowhere with no facilities .
Run bent, weekend parked up with your mates in a secure place .
I wrote on the analogue tacho that I carried on to find a hot meal and shower, in France, food is important to their culture, never got a fine but as long as you did not take the mickey .
One lad used to get to Lisbon in a day and a half, legally it would take four days due to bad roads back then and steep mountains .
He only stopped for a loo break and 20 minute sleeps known as microwave naps.
I never really bothered with the wire much, I just filled up a tacho to the legal maximum and then put another one in and carried on going. I had a rather expensive episode one night involving a wire and excessive speed which cost a bloody fortune and resulted in me being parked at a Gendarmerie for two days. So I found it better to just break the one law than breaking numerous laws to do the same thing.
I wasn’t as generous as Harry or dieseldog999 either, they got the equivalent of a fiver out of me unless I was taking the complete ■■■■ and then I might throw in a few kit kats to sweeten the deal.
I found the Germans fairly easy to deal with, I just used to repeat a phrase I learned in school, which was “Bitte kahn ich meine Jacke ausziehen” or please can i take my coat off in English, no matter what they said I would repeat this over and over until they got sick of me and told me to go away, it didn’t always work and I’ve been sat in the back of a car a couple of times and told to calm down or they would be taking me to somebody that would tell them if I was mental or not, the German copper is not blessed with a particularly good sense of humour in my experience!
In the early 2000s I was never running straight.
If I’d studied at college as much as I did getting round a tacho I wouldn’t be a driver now.
The lengths I used to go to were extreme and I was handsomely paid for it too.
Not proud of myself but I never seemed as tired doing that as sticking to the rules now,don’t know if it’s because I was young but I just seemed to be able to keep on going and I never touched those energy drinks just coffee and ■■■■ at the time…
I was always good in my little puddle jumper, vans - well does anyone follow either domestic or EU rules in a van?
But the late Mr Albion was a ‘character’ 
I don’t think there were any laws he knowingly followed! Or a situation he couldn’t extract himself from. He ran on red, someone else’s O license, broke every hours regulation going and the minor detail of not actually having a Class 1 license. He also had an encyclopaedic knowledge of traffic law and the ability to talk himself out of any situation. Jammy git 
Just to add, I went to the RHA compliance convention the other week and one of the speakers was the new head of the DVSA. He was saying that at the roadside last year, they’d pull foreign trucks and find an extra circuit board in the digi about once a month, now it’s running at about two a day.
In the Q&A, he got a LOT of questions about how they (don’t) police the foreign trucks. Part of the problem is the wholly inadequate fines - until they are stepped up and vehicles impounded, then the deterrent is simply not there.
in the nighties doing euro work, i had a wire and use to put a blow fuse happy days crack on 
algeciras to hull only stop was the ferry and fuel stop / toilet
Harry Monk:
. It seemed that this was endemic in the 1980s on continental work. Running on the wire, winding the tacho clock forwards and backwards, writing the wrong date on the card, I knew people who had ingenious systems built into the dashboard to disable the tacho.:
Don’t think it was unique to continental work Harry. For most of the 90’s and into the early 2000’s, I did unaccompanied tilts, and rolling breaks were an essential tool for getting the job done, especially in the early 90’s on 21%. Then it just becomes habit forming til you end up filling in to time sheets, official hourly pay, bonus hourly pay
I had several F10’s & 12’s none had the centre fuse tray secured, IIRC the top right hand block connecter containing 9 pins, unclip ease out the middle pin so that its loose then replace, reconnect, then you could remove at will by just pulling the wire, stopped the speed and mileometer, but left the time ticking. A Renault I had, all you had to do was turn back the key to disable the tacho, though this did disable the brake lights too 
Happy days
geuss that was dewhurst in hull si always bit of a pest when u copped the peterlee hull was gd 4me back npton that night ship pompy next aft/evening back down to cassa straight as a dye working 4 mr bradfield
I never used to bother with tricks or magnets, just change the card every four hours. When working for a certain Dutch company the drivers thought I was insane because I’d drive from Dover to Holyhead without a break, despite the fact they had all just run a day and a night. No point half adhering to the law
When I was cutting my teeth after the turn of the century, I was working for a well known fridge firm. I was king ■■■■. 21 with a brand new v8 topline, good work but poor wages. A lot of the drivers used to tip off the card, run a couple of hours with the fuse out etc, for a bit of extra dough. All the motors used to do 60+, and at 40 ton that was up hill too. I used to do Waltham abbey to Stockton and back twice a week on my tens. Hard work but young enough not to know better.
eddie snax:
A Renault I had, all you had to do was turn back the key to disable the tacho,
Daf 3300s were the same.
Always used to crack me up seeing 3 series or Volvo fl drivers doing 70, hand down the side of the column holding the key on the starter
St Omer Peage.
Got a touch of anxiety now just thinking about it .
use a name:
St Omer Peage.Got a touch of anxiety now just thinking about it .
Gosh, yes, St Omer peage. My bum would be going like a cod’s mouth as I came up to that one on a Friday evening. 
Had an F reg F12 the tacho was wired through the dash dimmer switch. Instead of dimming dash lights turn it down and speed would drop to nothing. Have a break and slowly bring back up to speed. Handy on and off of boats and stuck in queues.
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Why is it that breaking the law today is considered stupid and bad, but breaking the law then is looked upon with fond memories?? 