My very first shift was at the beginning of August driving for the Co-op using a vehicle with an analogue tacho, I kept the tacho with me for the 28 day legal requirement after which I handed it back into the Co-op office, whilst I was there I used their machine to download my digital tacho card. Last week I received an email from the agency asking me to sign and return a ‘tacho infringement report’, which they had received from the Co-op. I did make a few mistakes with the tacho when I first started driving so I am not disputing any of the infringements but I only did the one shift for the Co-op and the infringements happened when I was driving for other firms - so what has that got to do with the Co-op? Especially when no infringements happened during the Co-op shift!
For the record the mistakes I made were twice inadvertently counting POA as breaks (timer reset so thought I was OK to drive) and I also made an incorrect manual entry putting myself on other work from mid-night instead of setting it for rest - I have kept the printouts and recorded the reasons for the errors on the back.
I have learned from the mistakes I made without the need for the Co-op to draw my attention to them and I am not overly concerned about them as I am sure should they come to light VOSA will see the infringements for the genuine mistakes that they obviously are.
So should I sign and return the report?
I assume you mean that when you handed your chart in to the Co-Op 28 days or more after working for them you downloaded your driver card onto their system, but why ? did they ask you to or was it your idea ?
Anyway, the infringements occurred after you worked at the Co-Op so they should not be giving you infringements for the regulation infractions, if the company you worked at when the infringes occurred send you infringemt reports to sign you’ll be signing for the same offences twice, so I’d point out to the agency that it’s not the Co-Ops place to send out infringement reports for offences that took place after you stopped working for them.
The tachometer reader at the place I was working at the time was not working and I knew that you should download before 28 days had elapsed - I noticed their reader and thought it would be a good idea to do so just to ensure I didn’t go over the 28 days.
MickyB666:
The tachometer reader at the place I was working at the time was not working and I knew that you should download before 28 days had elapsed - I noticed their reader and thought it would be a good idea to do so just to ensure I didn’t go over the 28 days.
A complete waste of time I’m afraid mate, the regulations require the operator who you’re working for to download the card data no later than every 28 days, any other operator downloading the data counts for nothing because the company you was working for would not have access to that data.
Apart from that, your only legal obligation is to ensure your card is made available for download, as long as you make the card available, which you have just by working there, it’s up-to the company to make arrangements for it to be downloaded, your responsibility ends with making the card available.
By the way, the reason you’ve had an infringement report from the Co-Op is because when the data from your card was automatically uploaded to their analysis company it would be recorded by the analysis companies software as a Co-Op drivers card data, the software would have no way of knowing that you hadn’t worked for the Co-Op since before the infringements so would have automatically generated an infringement report, I imagine someone in the Co-Ops transport office got the infringement report and just passed it on-to the agency as they usually would.
tachograph:
MickyB666:
The tachometer reader at the place I was working at the time was not working and I knew that you should download before 28 days had elapsed - I noticed their reader and thought it would be a good idea to do so just to ensure I didn’t go over the 28 days.
A complete waste of time I’m afraid mate, the regulations require the operator who you’re working for to download the card data no later than every 28 days, any other operator downloading the data counts for nothing because the company you was working for would not have access to that data.
Apart from that, your only legal obligation is to ensure your card is made available for download, as long as you make the card available, which you have just by working there, it’s up-to the company to make arrangements for it to be downloaded, your responsibility ends with making the card available.
I was thinking that all the readers were connected via the internet to some vast central server which stores everyone’s driving records in cyber space and if the authorities wanted to view someone’s driving records they would just have to log on and enter the drivers details in order to do so. 
Drivers tend to get a bit worked up/anxious about signing these infringement reports, as if doing so indicates their guilt. It does no such thing - all you are doing is acknowledging that the alleged infringement has been brought to your attention. Refusing to sign achieves sqrt(FA) other than annoying whoever has asked you to sign, and will have no bearing whatsoever on any prosecution or sanction should TPTB become involved.