Would anyone else like to see tachograph rules simplified to set hours and breaks a day. There would still have to be a fortnight rule so you couldn’t drive 6 days every week.
why cant they just have a 12 hour day regardless if you have been driving or sat waiting to load or tip and in that 12 hour day you must at least have an 1hour rest break and a 12 hour rest break , weekly rest should be 48 hours at home and 24 away from home.
I think a 12 hour rest is a bit extensive. Driving time should maybe be 9 hours with a 1 hour break after 4.5 and thats that. none of this extending to 10 and a 15 minute break and 30 minute break. Just make it easy for everyone rather than complicate things.
Kerbdog:
I think a 12 hour rest is a bit extensive. Driving time should maybe be 9 hours with a 1 hour break after 4.5 and thats that. none of this extending to 10 and a 15 minute break and 30 minute break. Just make it easy for everyone rather than complicate things.
That would make the regulations far too rigid, they are designed to have a degree of flexibility because in this industry there is no way one size fits all.
There is nothing to stop you running the way you have suggested, it would be perfectly legal, while leaving others free to use the regulations in the way which suits their work best.
this is what i think puts off a lot of wanna be drivers is the tacho rules, this is coming from a non hgv driver.
i’d like to see a simplified rules as well, one idea i have had is’
for every 1hrs driving a 10 minute break but you can drive up to 4.5 hrs.
e.g. 2hrs driving=20mins break is requried, 4.5hrs driving=45mins break.
you can also gain rest during the day as well.
must have a 9hrs rest every in every 24hrs, (that can be any 24hrs period) although drivers can also combine breaks with a 9hr rest
eg driver has driven from 15.15 to 17.00 (45 is due) also his 9hr rest is due. so he takes 8.15 of rest and a 45 at the same time so he has had 9hrs rest. he starts driving again at 02.00 and is due a 45 at 06.45 but he takes an 1hrs break and starts driving at 07.45 (15 mins extra) so he can take that off the 9hrs rest at the end of the day, so at the end of the day he only needs a legal 8.45 rest.
this may be a compleatly rubbish idea or a brillaint idea, so what do you think you the driver who would be working to these rules.
philip
philgor:
this is what i think puts off a lot of wanna be drivers is the tacho rules, this is coming from a non hgv driver.
i’d like to see a simplified rules as well, one idea i have had is’for every 1hrs driving a 10 minute break but you can drive up to 4.5 hrs.
e.g. 2hrs driving=20mins break is requried, 4.5hrs driving=45mins break.
you can also gain rest during the day as well.must have a 9hrs rest every in every 24hrs, (that can be any 24hrs period) although drivers can also combine breaks with a 9hr rest
eg driver has driven from 15.15 to 17.00 (45 is due) also his 9hr rest is due. so he takes 8.15 of rest and a 45 at the same time so he has had 9hrs rest. he starts driving again at 02.00 and is due a 45 at 06.45 but he takes an 1hrs break and starts driving at 07.45 (15 mins extra) so he can take that off the 9hrs rest at the end of the day, so at the end of the day he only needs a legal 8.45 rest.this may be a compleatly rubbish idea or a brillaint idea, so what do you think you the driver who would be working to these rules.
philip
And you think that is simpler than the current regs? 
philgor:
(45 is due) also his 9hr rest is due. so he takes 8.15 of rest and a 45 at the same time so he has had 9hrs rest.
That is already in the current rules.
Kerbdog:
Would anyone else like to see tachograph rules simplified to set hours and breaks a day. There would still have to be a fortnight rule so you couldn’t drive 6 days every week.
I would like it that way:
10 hours driving limit, 1,5 hours of break. You have to take it in two or three bits - each half an hour minimum.
You can do it when you wish as long as you don’t drive more than 5 hours in the row.
orys:
Kerbdog:
Would anyone else like to see tachograph rules simplified to set hours and breaks a day. There would still have to be a fortnight rule so you couldn’t drive 6 days every week.I would like it that way:
10 hours driving limit, 1,5 hours of break. You have to take it in two or three bits - each half an hour minimum.
Your might to have to change the WTD rules as well then, because at the moment the WTD and Tacho rules work together on breaks, your way it wouldn’t.
Coffeeholic:
orys:
Kerbdog:
Would anyone else like to see tachograph rules simplified to set hours and breaks a day. There would still have to be a fortnight rule so you couldn’t drive 6 days every week.I would like it that way:
10 hours driving limit, 1,5 hours of break. You have to take it in two or three bits - each half an hour minimum.
Your might to have to change the WTD rules as well then, because at the moment the WTD and Tacho rules work together on breaks, your way it wouldn’t.
i don’t understand that coffee the WTD break is six hours before a break is required, taking 30 mins split in three bits would cover the WTD easily and would be better than the current WTD
Speeding truckie gobbles up evidence 08:03 AEST Wed Feb 17
A trucker who ate evidence of breaking Swiss speed limits has paid the price - a stomach ache from swallowing the discs which recorded his driving, police said on Tuesday.
The 34-year-old trucker from the Balkans was stopped for speeding on a highway in the southern canton of Tessin and was found to have driven more than 1,000 kilometres in 18 hours without stop, local police said.
Hunkered down in his cab, the man reportedly gobbled up the paper discs of his truck’s tachograph, which records speed and the time driven. He was hospitalised after suffering stomach pains.
The incident posed no serious health consequences, police said, and the driver was fined for the infraction.
Tachographs are intended to ensure that truck drivers do not work overly long hours as part of overall road safety requirements.
Maybe they should make Tachos in cheese and onion flavour.
delboytwo:
Coffeeholic:
orys:
Kerbdog:
Would anyone else like to see tachograph rules simplified to set hours and breaks a day. There would still have to be a fortnight rule so you couldn’t drive 6 days every week.I would like it that way:
10 hours driving limit, 1,5 hours of break. You have to take it in two or three bits - each half an hour minimum.
Your might to have to change the WTD rules as well then, because at the moment the WTD and Tacho rules work together on breaks, your way it wouldn’t.
i don’t understand that coffee the WTD break is six hours before a break is required, taking 30 mins split in three bits would cover the WTD easily and would be better than the current WTD
Currently before exceeding the 6 hours of work point for the WTD you require a 15 minute break and at the moment that will also double up as the first part of a split break for the tacho rules if you haven’t reached 4.5 hours driving at that time. Under Orys’s method it wouldn’t be any use as a tacho break because his minimum is 30 minutes. So, at the moment the two sets or regulations work together in this respect, under Orys’s regulations they wouldn’t. You would either have to take a 30 minute break at that WTD point, which may not be convenient, or take 15 for the WTD and then 30 later for the tacho rules, thereby possibly wasting 15 minutes of your daily duty time.
i read orys full post
orys:
You can do it when you wish as long as you don’t drive more than 5 hours in the row.
that’s why i said it, 10 hour driver 3 x30mins you could do 30 mins every 3 hours driving and meet both of them
delboytwo:
i read orys full post
So did I!!
delboytwo:
orys:
You can do it when you wish as long as you don’t drive more than 5 hours in the row.that’s why i said it, 10 hour driver 3 x30mins you could do 30 mins every 3 hours driving and meet both of them
Which would be fine if your day was mainly driving as in you example. But if you had a day which started with mainly other work your WTD break would come long before any driving break would be required, especially as you could go to 5 hours driving, and it might not be convenient or desirable to take 30 minutes at that point.
well i see your point well put
now this would be my idea of the easy rules
a driver drives no more that 10 hour a day or 60 per week if working time permits
a driving break required a not more than 4 hour drive and a minimum break of 30 mins if driving for the full ten hours in the day then another 30 mins break require before end of shift
the daily rest as to be a minimum of 10 hour a day
and no split restt( that’s you stuffed coffee on your trips to Dublin)
weekly rest as to be a minimum of 36 hours no mater were you are, and no compensation required
no two week spreads
delboytwo:
the daily rest as to be a minimum of 10 hour a dayand no split restt( that’s you stuffed coffee on your trips to Dublin)
Actually it wouldn’t, we usually get 10 hours or just over as the longest part of our split rest. But as we get that on each of 6 days we currently need the split rest option.
delboytwo:
weekly rest as to be a minimum of 36 hours no mater were you are
You do realise with your new rules you have just kept people who have not made it home out for longer before they can get home? Why would you want to penalise drivers home time like that? Also the drivers who are at home have had their weekly rest cut, potentially making them more tired, and unsafe, and reducing their family life.
Most of the suggestions on this thread are options that you could quite easily, and legally, work to under the current regulations if you so desire, which just shows how flexible they are. But by making them hard and fast rules as oppose to options, which might be fine for you, you would be restricting other drivers to a far greater extent than they are at the moment.
The rules are not that complicated at the moment, most drivers have never actually read them and that coupled with listening to some of the ■■■■■■■■ spouted about the rules in RDC waiting rooms, makes them seem far more complicated than they actually are.
I’ll give this simple rules thing a go, here’s my idea.
Coffeeholic:
I have a strange feeling those simple rules look familiar for some reason.
as you say there do look familiar, i suppose the fact is no mater what the regs were, there always be wrong in some eye’s
i would say if we did not have theses Regs in place there be an out cry by the drivers cos if you had no Regs what’s stopping the employer of running you to the ground for 300 per week or even less
delboytwo:
i would say if we did not have theses Regs in place there be an out cry by the drivers cos if you had no Regs what’s stopping the employer of running you to the ground for 300 per week or even less
Which is one of the three main reasons for the regulations, along with safety and competition.
Simplified tacho rules
AKA - Tacho rules by ROG 
Coffeeholic:
Which would be fine if your day was mainly driving as in you example. But if you had a day which started with mainly other work your WTD break would come long before any driving break would be required, especially as you could go to 5 hours driving, and it might not be convenient or desirable to take 30 minutes at that point.
But if after 5,5 hours you was driving onlu 15 minutes, it’s not a problem. You will take your 30 minutes, it will come towards your WTD and Driving breaks, and then you still can drive nearly 8 hours, as daily rest would stay as it is today, so you are still able to take two breaks with no more than 5 hours of driving between them.
In my opinion the rules are way to complicated most companies make sure that they get every “hour” possible from drivers . there are many tv documentries about truck drivers falling asleep at the wheel but none seem to recognise the amount of hours drivers are expected to do 
surely in this day & age a driver shouldnt be expected to work a 15 hour day & just have 9 hours daily rest 
most drivers also lie about there POA so they can work more hours 
The whole lot needs simplifying . A 12hour day is long enough for anyone especially as away from home you are literally sleeping in your own workplace . All these excuses that it wont be flexible to work is always from the greedy operator & like anything they’d have to work round any changes if it happens 