Hi everyone
I heard from a family memebr that someone they know is a HGV driver, and has not been using a tacho for months 
Because his company (don’t know who) will not pay to get it fixed,
What I would like to know is what could he expect to happen if caught, say at a roadside check,
Does anyone know fines etc for not using a tacho, Need ammunition for and arguement 
Thanks
Pete
was always led to believe that there was a maximum fine of £2500 for tacho offences for a driver.
but with companies thats a different matter.
btw, if the driver has defected the vehicle for a faulty tacho and has completed his charts manually he will probably be ok. but if the tacho has been defective for months then the company would probably get screwed.
Tachograph Failure
In the event of a breakdown or faulty operation of the tachograph, the operator MUST have it repaired by a DTLR approved tachograph centre as soon as possible. If the insrument becomes unservicable on a journey, manual records may be kept by marking activites on the front of the chart, using the manual grids on the reverse of the chart or even by writing work ativities down on a plain sheet of paper.
When a vehicle is unable to return to base within one week of the day of the breakdown or discovery of the fault, the repair MUST be carried out on route.
Any chart having partial recordings of a days work should be attached to any replacement chart or temporary record so that the two items show a complete record of the drivers working day.
Both operators and drivers can be convicted of offences relating to the keeping of hours of work records. Usually, the driver will be charged with failure to keep proper records and the operator with causing or permitting this to happen.
Fines for these offences can be as high as £2500, per offence!
IMHO, this driver should bail out now, before he is landed in the mire. Yes it’s the companies responsibility to fix the tacho head, but its him who’s driving it.
All this is of course assuming that the vehicle in question is actually required to be fitted with a tacho, there are some vehicles out there which although have them fitted, don’t need them.
Basically, what has been said previously is correct; if the recording instrument is faulty, a driver MUST make manual records of; driving, other work, duty and mid-shift breaks. The reverse of a tacho chart is probably the best and easiest place, most have a grid drawn on them for this purpose. The defective tachograph should be reported as soon as it becomes apparant, daily fault report sheets are useful for this. The tachograph should be repaired as soon as possible or on route if vehicle doesn’t retun to operating centre within 7 days.
The fine for having a defective tachograph / failing to keep records is actually a maximum of £ 5 000.