Was driving a truck yesterday and today that kept flashing up “Internal Fault 14”. I’ve reported it to the office and its been noted down but the company in question don’t really seem to care. Can I refuse to take said truck out next week (I’m supposed to be driving all next week for them).
With respect of recording driver activities when the recording equipment is unserviceable or malfunctioning, drivers may continue to use the vehicle, but must ensure that they make a temporary record which contains data enabling the driver to be identified (driver’s card number and/or name and/or driving licence number) including the driver’s signature, all information for the various periods of time which can no longer be recorded or printed out correctly by the recording equipment.
NB. Whilst this is the position under the EC rules, it is not advisable to start or continue an international journey with a defective tachograph (even if manual records are kept). This is because many countries will not permit entry to such vehicles since their own domestic laws require a proper working system. UK legislation also provides that a person will not be liable to be convicted if they can prove to the Court that the vehicle was on its way to a place where the recording equipment could be repaired or that it was not immediately practicable for the equipment to be repaired and the driver was keeping a manual record or, where a seal is broken, the breaking of the seal was unavoidable and could not be immediately repaired and all other aspects of the EC rules were being complied with
Personally as long as the activities are being recorded on both the driver card and the VU and I could do printouts, and as long as there’s no obvious signs of interference with the tachograph I would continue using the vehicle.
It’s been recorded that you’ve notified the transport office so it’s their problem.