Today i started my shift,did some other work and poa,then drove for 3 hours,then took a 45 break.
I then drove to my delivery,another i 1/2 hours, and did 20mins poa then 30mins breakwhile unloading
The journey home was 4 hours,so as i had already had 30 mins at my drop, i then drove for 2 hours and took another 30 mins,which should of reset my 4 1/2 hours,
but nearing home,the tacho flashed up,that i needed a break,what am i doing wrong,or did the poa make the tacho think it was a break.what if i hadnt of already made it back with minutes to sppare,would i of got an infringement?
amy help tp clear this up would be greatly appreciated
regards
tonyb
from what you have described, you have done it correctly, unless i have misread it completely
i have heard of Tacho’s not recording it properly with the POA and the split breaks, most tacho head units still work on the 30 first then the 15 still being legal
you must have made a mistake on your calculations. poa? break? are you sure it wasn’t other work?
it’s easy done. do a printout to be sure. then write down your excuses, if you sort it now and don’t make a habit of it, then you’ll be fine.
Don’t use POA, just put it on break and remember if it’s good enough for POA its good enough for break.
The digi recording unit cannot distinguish between break and POA.
You did 20 mins poa and 30 mins break which resets it to zero.
You are legal,if you did a print out all breaks and poa would show up.
There’s a fault with digi tachos in that POA will reset your driving time on the head unit.
The 20 mins POA followed by 30 mins break has reset your time, so the unit would have been showing 0:00 driving time when you left your drop,
I think the tacho was correct. The fact that you took a 45minute break after 3 hours made no difference to your overall breaks, After 4.5 hours driving (when you were unloading and took another 30 minutes) that’s when the tacho registered your 4.5 hour driving with appropriate break(s) and so that was the point at which the clock reset. From then on you were into another 4.5 hour driving period so after 2 hours of driving, you took another 30 minute break, that means that you had another 2.5 hours driving available after which you would have to take another 30 minute break - that’s where the warning flashed up I’m guessing, 30 minutes before that time? I shall prepare to be shot down, but it makes sense to me.
the tacho is one of the latest ones that dosn;t round the minutes up 
I only used poa as i could get away with only needing 30 mins on the way home instead of having to have another 45,
I’m having to get used to this again,as iv’e been shunting for 5 years and not needed to worry about 15 hour days and fitting breaks in
tonyb70:
the tacho is one of the latest ones that dosn;t round the minutes up
I only used poa as i could get away with only needing 30 mins on the way home instead of having to have another 45,
I’m having to get used to this again,as iv’e been shunting for 5 years and not needed to worry about 15 hour days and fitting breaks in
There’s no problem using poa, just remember that it records as break time on the unit.
Gave me a fright when I first started using digi.
You would think they could write software that could separate breaks and poa by now.
Just been reading up on this for a thread on the old drivers site. A 45 min break wipes the record clean, in other words whatever driving time you done before a 45 min break you then have another 4.5 hrs driving before a break is required of 45mins. However this can be split and how you split it is the key. Below is taken from VOSA site.
Breaks
After a driving period of no more than 4.5 hours, a driver must immediately take a break of at least 45 minutes unless he takes a rest period. A break taken in this way must not be interrupted. For example: Driving 4.5 hours - Break 45 minutes - Driving 2.5 hours - Other work 1 hour - Driving 2 hours - Break 45 minutes
A break is any period during which a driver may not carry out any driving or any other work and which is used exclusively for recuperation. A break may be taken in a moving vehicle, provided no other work is undertaken.
Alternatively, a full 45-minute break can be replaced by one break of at least 15 minutes followed by another break of at least 30 minutes. These breaks must be distributed over the 4.5-hour period.
Breaks of less than 15 minutes will not contribute towards a qualifying break, but neither will they be counted as duty or driving time. The EU rules will only allow a split-break pattern that shows the second period of break being at least 30 minutes, such as in the following examples:
Driving 2 hours - Break 15 minutes - Driving 2.5 hours - Break 30 minutes - Driving 2 hours - Break 34 minutes - Driving 2.5 hours - Break 30 minutes
The following split-break pattern is illegal because the second break is less than 30 minutes.
Driving 2 hours - Break 30 minutes - Driving 2.5 hours - Break 15 minutes - Driving…
A driver ‘wipes the slate clean’ if he takes a 45-minute break (or qualifying breaks totalling 45 minutes before or at the end of a 4.5-hour driving period. This means that the next 4.5-hour driving period begins with the completion of that qualifying break, and in assessing break requirements for the new 4.5-hour period, no reference is to be made to driving time accumulated before this point. For example:
Driving 1.5 hours - Break 15 minutes - Driving 1.5 hours - Break 30 minutes - Driving 4.5 hours - Break 45 minutes.
Possibly it might be as you say or your second break (took in the second 4.5 drive time) wasn’t quite 30mins which the Tacho would not count as a break as shown in the illegal record above. If you definately took 30 mins or more on this break then you are ok as far as the above states.
Anybody else got any views on this? cheers Franky.
DieselDemon:
tonyb70:
the tacho is one of the latest ones that dosn;t round the minutes up
I only used poa as i could get away with only needing 30 mins on the way home instead of having to have another 45,
I’m having to get used to this again,as iv’e been shunting for 5 years and not needed to worry about 15 hour days and fitting breaks in
There’s no problem using poa, just remember that it records as break time on the unit.
Gave me a fright when I first started using digi.
You would think they could write software that could separate breaks and poa by now.
Legally POA does not count as a break from driving though, 4.5 hrs driving followed by 45 mins POA then another 4.5 hours driving would be an infringement, even though the head unit would have reset the driving time.
Having re-read your original post, why didn’t you just take 45 at the second break instead of 30, you had to have at least 30 anyway and another 15 mins wouldn’t of mattered and you did say the first 30 mins was while you were unloading so didn’t get a proper break, didn’t you want a proper scran break by the time you had the second break, I would have been getting hungry by then!
Frankydobo:
Having re-read your original post, why didn’t you just take 45 at the second break instead of 30, you had to have at least 30 anyway and another 15 mins wouldn’t of mattered and you did say the first 30 mins was while you were unloading so didn’t get a proper break, didn’t you want a proper scran break by the time you had the second break, I would have been getting hungry by then!
Time was a problem,it was a big day,and i wanted to get back to the yard,I did have a break while tipping,i was sat in the cab having a cuppa and some toast,as its fridge work,so don’t normally touch the load.
And if i am in the back. the tacho woiuld be on work,
I dont bother with POA its a waste of time.
Looks like the tacho has registered the POA as break, as it has a habbit of doing, you should’ve just left it on other work or took a 14mins POA/break if you are worried about WTD hours.
You won’t get an infringement because when the tacho downloads, it won’t register the POA as break, so you’ll hear nothing else from this