My workmate went over his drive hours last friday by 30 minutes cos he didn’t want to do a night out on friday.
What are the penalties for this if he got caught?
Is there a fixed penalty for <1 hour over <2 hours over etc and do you get points on your licence as well?
just tell him to make sure he does a print out and write an explaination on the back and sign it, then keep it for 28 days, some thing like getting to a place of saftey ect, so long as he doesn’t make it a regular thing vosa won’t say a thing. the only time they get up set is if you try to hide the fact, if they see you know you have done wrong they normally let it go as long as its not to serious might just get a bollicking if they do catch up with him, which is highly unlightly 
I would do a printout writing on back why and not make a habit of it as for penalties - don’t know? oops see above post
EU rules make a dispensation for getting to a place of safety only, However in the VOSA Sanctions Policy I’m sure they allow up to an hour as long as it’s once a blue moon and to get back to base for a weekly rest. As others have said do the printout and fill in the back including an explanation & signature.
Squiddy:
My workmate went over his drive hours last friday by 30 minutes cos he didn’t want to do a night out on friday.What are the penalties for this if he got caught?
Is there a fixed penalty for <1 hour over <2 hours over etc and do you get points on your licence as well?
Assuming that it’s not a regular occurrence, If he does a printout and writes an explanation on the back he may get away with it as it was Friday and he wasn’t too far from base, otherwise he can expect a £60 fine.
There are no points put on the licence for tachograph related fixed penalties.
If daily rest period insufficient by more
than 15 minutes and offence is current
unless a reasonable justification is
given, ie finish of duty and is very close
to base:-Over 15 minutes - up to 1 hour = £60
Over 1 hour - up to 2 hours = £120
Over 2 hours = £200
I agree with the above, I’ve run over my driving time by a similar amount before to get to base, and been given a VOSA control shortly after, and VOSA’s attitude was “Don’t make a habit of it”, but no fine or anything. Whether that has changed now that VOSA are self-funding I don’t know but I’d say it was reasonable to exceed driving time by this amount to reach safe parking.
I’ve got VOSA paying me a visit at the end of February and they want to go through everything, including my tacho records. I think I’ve clocked up about 20 infringements over seven months, all very minor so I’ll let you know what the bloke says.
I find that with VOSA, a lot depends on the first ten seconds of the encounter where they undertake the “attitude test”.
Harry Monk:
I agree with the above, I’ve run over my driving time by a similar amount before to get to base, and been given a VOSA control shortly after, and VOSA’s attitude was “Don’t make a habit of it”, but no fine or anything. Whether that has changed now that VOSA are self-funding I don’t know but I’d say it was reasonable to exceed driving time by this amount to reach safe parking.I’ve got VOSA paying me a visit at the end of February and they want to go through everything, including my tacho records. I think I’ve clocked up about 20 infringements over seven months, all very minor so I’ll let you know what the bloke says.
I find that with VOSA, a lot depends on the first ten seconds of the encounter where they undertake the “attitude test”.
as harry says a lot of drivers get screwed because they come on with "you and them! attitude when stopped, i have found the pleasant “good day” or “hello chap how’s things” goes hell of a longway to breaking the ice and getting on your way quickly
I’ve never been stopped by VOSA yet. When I said my mate went over his hours I clearly meant it was me who went over my hours. I’ve been very strict with my regs however this fridays infringment was on a digi card so i cant hide it. If I upload it to the TM’s computer does it clear the card or do i have to wait 28 days till it’s cleared from my card?
Squiddy:
I’ve never been stopped by VOSA yet. When I said my mate went over his hours I clearly meant it was me who went over my hours. I’ve been very strict with my regs however this fridays infringment was on a digi card so i cant hide it. If I upload it to the TM’s computer does it clear the card or do i have to wait 28 days till it’s cleared from my card?
It’ll be on your card for quite some time, uploading doesn’t clear/wipe/erase the card, last time I looked I could go back at least 12 months on the card. I wouldn’t worry too much, if it’s a one off, for historic offenses IIRC they can only take them into account as part of a wider/serious investigation.
Squiddy:
I’ve never been stopped by VOSA yet. When I said my mate went over his hours I clearly meant it was me who went over my hours. I’ve been very strict with my regs however this fridays infringment was on a digi card so i cant hide it. If I upload it to the TM’s computer does it clear the card or do i have to wait 28 days till it’s cleared from my card?
It won’t be cleared off your card until the memory chip becomes full and then it gets overwritten, it will usually take several months for the data to be overwritten on a driver card.
Squiddy:
I’ve never been stopped by VOSA yet. When I said my mate went over his hours I clearly meant it was me who went over my hours. I’ve been very strict with my regs however this fridays infringment was on a digi card so i cant hide it. If I upload it to the TM’s computer does it clear the card or do i have to wait 28 days till it’s cleared from my card?
it will stay on your card for 13 months if i remember rightly until it will be over written, i just think the legal requirement for keeping the written evidence is 28 day’s, but i stand to be corrected on that 
Yep, when I’m pulled in, I make sure the window is already down, I give them a cheery “Morning gents, if you can just give me 30 seconds to run some oil through the turbo then I’ll shut the engine off and we can have some peace and quiet”, when they ask if I mind if they look over the truck I say “Course I don’t, if anything goes wrong with the truck I’m the first person who’s going to get his neck snapped, I just look on it as being given a free MOT test” and they generally lose interest very quickly.
They always find something wrong, a couple of minutes over here or there but they do seem to differentiate between those who are trying their best but occasionally get things wrong, and those who just think the law doesn’t apply to them.
In the OPs case, I really wouldn’t lose too much sleep over this.
I think 30 mins is ok, but perhaps pushing it a bit? Always wondered where the line is drawn for “unacceptable” as regards to driving to get home. My company are in Stockport & I was once coming up the M6 on a Friday with about an hour to go near Stafford. Normally that’s about 1hr 20 from home so I pushed on but the traffic got slower & slower…I pulled off at j18 & parked up nr Northwich with 4.35 showing on the tacho. Complete bummer on a Friday, but I was guessing it would’ve been about 5.20 if I’d pushed on to Stockport. I wasn’t sure, so didn’t take the risk!
The line is drawn at your legal limit. But occasional mishaps are not going to get you in hot water if they are only occasional
wildfire:
Harry Monk:
I agree with the above, I’ve run over my driving time by a similar amount before to get to base, and been given a VOSA control shortly after, and VOSA’s attitude was “Don’t make a habit of it”, but no fine or anything. Whether that has changed now that VOSA are self-funding I don’t know but I’d say it was reasonable to exceed driving time by this amount to reach safe parking.I’ve got VOSA paying me a visit at the end of February and they want to go through everything, including my tacho records. I think I’ve clocked up about 20 infringements over seven months, all very minor so I’ll let you know what the bloke says.
I find that with VOSA, a lot depends on the first ten seconds of the encounter where they undertake the “attitude test”.
as harry says a lot of drivers get screwed because they come on with "you and them! attitude when stopped, i have found the pleasant “good day” or “hello chap how’s things” goes hell of a longway to breaking the ice and getting on your way quickly
i think that sums it up. I’m self employed bum on seat driver. Nothing more or less. Last year I covered a customer for 2 months as he had a driver off work. I was working out of Felixstowe and as sure as faeces stink, by the time I got back to Felix on a friday to drop a trailer I had about an hours driving left.
I live about an hour and a half on a good run home. So sod it, every week I ran home, done the printout gag, sometimes this came into over 2 hours over driving or working time.
I got a tug, and when I handed over my licence and well lubed ring piece, I made a point of saying that I had run over hours to get home as opposed to doing a night out for an hours drive on the Saturday for 6 weeks out of 8.
Not even a waggled finger.
These VOSA folk are not alien to human nature and common sense to be fair. I really do not understand why folk think they are out to remove their liberty and livelihood if they can not explain their reasons behind their actions.
I was always led to understand that going over a 10 hour drive without a really good reason was the one NOT to do, secondly the 4.5 hour max drive, most other things so long as you don’t take the P or make a habit of it are not so bad but should be avoided.
I too have found the VOSA people nothing but reasonable and fair, though i try to be like that with them.
As a rule if you have done something wrong the worst thing to do is try to cover it up, as said above do a print out or write on the back of the tacho card a brief truthful explanation, don’t for one second think you can pull a fast one they are far from stupid.
I don’t believe VOSA are trying to penalise those why try to do the job properly or those who make an honest mistake, they are after the couldn’t give a monkeys and the real cowboy operators and rightly so.
I have been pulled in a weight check the week following an 18 hour shift (on tacho) due to a motorway trailer blowout with a weird size tyre, sat for hours on the side of the road resulting in me driving for 45 mins or so trying to find somewhere to park at 11pm.
Wrote on back of tacho card the true explanation, explained there was a bad card when i handed them over, and sure enough they had no problem with me, they said it wasn’t my usual work pattern and i probably passed the attitude test by not being a hostile pillock, plus the motor was in good clean serviceable driveable condition.
If you treat them (or a police officer) with disprespect or hostility don’t be surprised if they don’t give you the benefit of the doubt.
30mins over?? Your going to jail!
30 mins over! Why didnt you just stop before ya time was up and explain to your transport office ya running out of time, wont be able to legally make it back but since im close to base can u send out a driver to fetch me back as my alloted hours are up and you dont want to have a night out.
At the end of they day your breaking tacho regs just to suit your needs , risking your own licence , risking ya gaffers o licence.
Tacho regs are their for a reason to protect your health and that of other road users. Fair enuff if your stuck on the motorway in stand still stop start traffic and run out of time in that scenario as theirs certain allowances for that, to reach a safe suitable place to park up, not drive 20 - 30 miles down the road to reach your next drop or finish back at base.
I wouldn’t worry about just don’t go abroad else they’ll take your liver & kidneys.
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