hi guys
had my first cpc modual today and as seems to be the norm the instructor dwelled a fare bit on tachos, sinse being back home i got thinking about one part he spoke about, manual entrys, q, how long is a reasonable amount of time to work before you take charge of the truck and put in a manual entry… eg, i start my shift at 21.00 do some paper work for 10 min the jump in to the cab at 21.10-15 would you do the manual entry thing or not bother unless its an hour of other work. 
I would put my card in as soon as I got in the truck, then make a manual entry to show a start time of 2100, and other work until my card went in. This covers you for the time spent collecting keys and paperwork etc, and time spent doing your daily checks.
I do a manual entry every shift to cover the time from getting into work and getting the truck, I’m making one for the end of the previous shift anyway so it doesn’t take much more effort to do one for the start of the shift as well. That can be anything from a couple of minutes to an hour or so. it only takes a few seconds and covers your arse should VOSA ever visit and your start time on your time sheet matches your tacho.
Mr C Holic, you had PM - yesterday.
heliguy10:
hi guys
had my first cpc modual today and as seems to be the norm the instructor dwelled a fare bit on tachos, sinse being back home i got thinking about one part he spoke about, manual entrys, q, how long is a reasonable amount of time to work before you take charge of the truck and put in a manual entry… eg, i start my shift at 21.00 do some paper work for 10 min the jump in to the cab at 21.10-15 would you do the manual entry thing or not bother unless its an hour of other work.
Technically there is no reasonable amount of time to work that doesn’t get either recorded automatically or entered manually, legally it should all be recorded on the card and I can’t really see any good reason not to manually enter the time
It can be anything from 5 minutes to an hour or more before I get a vehicle but depending on what I’m doing the time always gets manually entered either as other work or break as does the time from when I take the card out to when I actually finish work.
All working time must be recorded so just do a manual entry once you get into the truck, no rush to get the tacho in so long as when you do insert it youenter a manual entry from your start time.
Driveroneuk:
Mr C Holic, you had PM - yesterday.
Did I? I don’t think I have looked at my PM’s for a day or two. I’ll have a look now.