One of the worst “infringements” ive heard of was when my dad told me about a week that he sub-contracted for a certain Co. Antrim refrigerated haulier. Apparently he only got 22 HOURS of sleep that week (6 days work):shock: 
. Unsuprisingly he only done one more week and then packed it in (thank god). How the hell he didnt fall of the road heaven only knows.
Another time he also BLACKED OUT TWICE on the A75. Now that is not the sort of thing to be doing on a road like that.
A1 Closed all today after a Foreign Truck believed to be Italian wandered over the central barrier at Catterick and hit a Truck travelling the opposite way, the Italian Driver Died at the Scene, the other driver was described as walking Wounded but very lucky after the cargo of chemicals spilt onto the road, what made this accident even worse was the fact the chemicals became Caustic when reacted with water, now as it was raining…
Catterick is closer to home for you Terry than it is for me, now lets just consider the possibility here, the Italian MAY have fallen asleep at the wheel, the Truck Carrying Chemicals MAY have just been a School Bus carrying Children from Woodhouse Primary School in Newton Aycliffe to a school outing, the Chemical Truck May have been overtaking the School Bus 
I know where your coming from on this, BUT although no school bus was involved, if there had been it could have been devastating for your community had it come from your village. 
quite true davey qiute true…i dont want to be sounding like a mean son of a ■■■■■ on this… we could throw all sorts of connotations/theory,s on this subject…
at the end of the day i,m no stool pigeon m8.if as you say, you know where i,m coming from.(and i strongly suspect you do), then its as simple as that m8.
i heard about the crash at catterick today on radio2. did not know someone had died or what caused it. another fellow driver has passed away doing this job,my sympathies goes out to his family. god rest his soul. 
i also heard of a few artics being blowen over today down south, i only hope that the drivers are ok and came out of it unmarked.we had one of our drivers blowen over last year in a place called crombie which is a few miles from rosyth, he had to have 5 metal pins in his neck,sadly he had to stop driving due to this accident, he no longer works with us,he did not want to work in the office as a replacement job. i suppose he was like us on this site driving is in the blood.
I would have to say that the way I was brought up you don’t “grass”
and I would never contemplate it either.
I understand where you are coming from when you say that you saw/knew sombody was running bent then later you see them involved in an accident and “maybe I could have prevented it if…” but then to follow that logic you would be on the phone all day reporting the muppets in their cars driving dangerously ie
A car cuts you up coming on at a slip road then carves their way across all three lanes of traffic cutting up other road users in the process then proceeds at excessive speed.
do you ring up and report them?
suppose you dont then you see the same car has caused a multiple pile up killing 4 people?
but this happens numerous times a day every day (the cutting up part) sure you may feel guilty for not ringing it in but at the end of the day YOU DID NOT CAUSE THE ACCIDENT
As for running “bent” as far as i’m concerned they are all mugs because at the end of the day if they cant make money doing it legally they either in the wrong job/on wrong contract in which case LEAVE or they are incompetent in which case they will very likley be caught anyway and have nothing in the end.
I don’t run bent, but there are loads of times I am tempted to for safety’s sake, an example being where I have had to travel large distances over a number of days and have run out of driving time (IE 10 hr or 9 hr drive) early in the evening, but felt perfectly fresh and able to carry on…However regs say I must park up and take a minimum of 9 hrs break… Now the problem I have is because I have a JIT load, it must be there on time…Options :- drive over my hours while still fresh or get up at 2 or 3 in the morning and continue legally with my trip having taken the statutory break as required by our drivers hours regs. taking the second option I am then put under pressure to drive when I would be much happier in bed asleep. I always end up taking the second option, but am not happy about it…I would report anyone I felt was running “bent” if it affected safety, but if not I would definitly NOT phone it in. I would always report “bent drivers or companys” if the rules were more workable and took into account the safety and well being of those they were meant to protect.
2 examples
1st driver…drive 1 hr rest 30 mins then drive 3 hrs rest 15 mins drive 4 hrs park up for night…This is legal
2nd driver…drive 1 hr rest 30 mins then drive 2 hrs rest 15 mins drive 1 hr rest 15 mins drive 4 hrs park up for night…This is illegal
the only difference between these two examples is that on the second example the driver had an extra 15 min break near the start of the shift
would you all phone in and report the second driver for running bent?
I recently left a company because they were asking us drivers to work on farms, loading our trailers, after our daily hours were up. Basically we drove our 9 or 10 hours and worked up to the limit in terms of other work (ie maximum total working time to allow for enough daily rest) then take out our tacho at night and work on loading ourselves (which now and again meant driving between adjacent farms). Some nights I finished at midnight and was on the road again at 5 or 6 the next morning. I lasted just over a week before I jacked it in. By the end of the first week I was exhausted. On the Friday I was driving back down to Edinburgh from Fraserburgh and I knew I shouldn’t have been driving. I was lucky I got a puncture so I was forced to stop.
I have thought, ever since I left, about making the call, but it’s hard when a mate works there. My conscience says phone it in, but my loyalty says don’t land your mate in it. Not an easy decision. 
I have heard since, that they have been checked two or three times lately by the ministry - it’s only a matter of time before they get caught out.
Lostpup:
I have thought, ever since I left, about making the call, but it’s hard when a mate works there.
what you have to think about is the safety here, when your “mate” has a crash after falling asleep behind the wheel, won’t it be your inaction that has landed him in it? will he thank you for allowing this company to continue exploiting him
jimti:
2 examples
1st driver…drive 1 hr rest 30 mins then drive 3 hrs rest 15 mins drive 4 hrs park up for night…This is legal2nd driver…drive 1 hr rest 30 mins then drive 2 hrs rest 15 mins drive 1 hr rest 15 mins drive 4 hrs park up for night…This is illegal
the only difference between these two examples is that on the second example the driver had an extra 15 min break near the start of the shift
would you all phone in and report the second driver for running bent?
It’s not reporting a driver for running bent it’s reporting a driver whose isn’t fit to drive. As you say sometimes you can feel fresh enough to drive for longer than allowed by law, but if you met a driver who had been well over the limit and was obviouly dog tired, but was going to get to his destination or fall asleep trying then what. What about a driver who was drunk or high? Or the driver driving such a bag of nails with bald tyres and no brakes? It’s difficult to say I’ll report any driver breaking the rules, but there must be circumstances when you must feel that driver needs to be stopped for his, mine and everybody elses sake.
muckles:
It’s not reporting a driver for running bent it’s reporting a driver whose isn’t fit to drive. but there must be circumstances when you must feel that driver needs to be stopped for his, mine and everybody Else’s sake.
the point I was making is that the rules don’t always make you safer, and in some cases even adds to fatigue. You can’t phone Vosa and say I saw a driver running within hrs rules law and this has caused danger, but you can phone and say the driver was prepared to run bent so that he/she didn’t suffer from fatigue, even though he/she felt it improved safety. The problem is the safer one would be prosecuted where the one who was within the law would be allowed to carry on (until the carnage)
As I said in a previous post, it is sometimes more dangerous to run within the law than to run “bent”
jimti said it could sometimes be more dangerous driving within the law.
I agree with that, Take double manning on a 3 week trip. 2 blokes driving maximum hours with 8 hours off in 30. By the time we have parked up and showered, eaten and chillled out, we get maybe 6 hours sleep if your mate doesnt move, cough or f@rt. But that is legal, who makes the rules? Certainly not someone who has driven like this.
It’s dangerous and stupid
i also agree. theres been times when i`ve had a stress free 10 hour drive up from milan for example. cruise on, admiring the scenery, regular breaks for coffee and to stretch the legs, and i felt fine and able to do more. however at other times(especially double-manning!) when i was knackered when starting my stint coming off the boat in calais. the laws are far to rigid in my humble opinion but then i suppose there meant to protect us…
jimti:
the point I was making is that the rules don’t always make you safer, and in some cases even adds to fatigue.
I agree with your point, A day on multi drop in an inner city will be more tireing than a steady drive across the continent, but the rules are there to stop us running round the clock and had to be set somewhere. If we were all super responsible and there weren’t bosses who’d run you round the clock for that extra few quid then we wouldn’t need the rules. I personally wouldn’t shop a driver just for going over the hours, but I might if he was so knackered that he was incapable of staying awake. Although this might be thorectical as I doubt VOSA or the Police would do anything until there was an accident.
Wheel Nut:
jimti said it could sometimes be more dangerous driving within the law.I agree with that, Take double manning on a 3 week trip. 2 blokes driving maximum hours with 8 hours off in 30. By the time we have parked up and showered, eaten and chillled out, we get maybe 6 hours sleep if your mate doesnt move, cough or f@rt. But that is legal, who makes the rules? Certainly not someone who has driven like this.
It’s dangerous and stupid
agreed Malc, I add the split shift to that, legal, and can be done all week! Lets see how long the law makers might last doing that crap all week. At least on log books we stopped anytime we wanted, and 12 hours is enough for anone really, but they made it 15, where safety in that?
Mal.
i must agree with terry on this one, by keeping mum.