I did trunking for a week as my first shifts for an agency. I picked up 8 infringements during said week. Missed the cut off for lynn services and went into 4 hrs 33 driving time before I could get off the M56,went over my 9hrs 3 times etc. Not serious stuff,but enough to cause sweaty palms and increased heart rate when I see a vosa van parked on a slip road. This was all my own fault for not keeping proper notes,im not blaming anyone else. I do work for a company that insists on downloading your card before AND after every shift for them. This is how I found out about my infringements and last night I worked for them again and I have no new ones. So my note keeping and studying of all driving rules is paying off.
I have a few questions though
1 - How long do these infringements stay on my card?
2 - Someone mentioned on here about infringements “write on the print out and hope you dont get stopped in the next 28 days”. Why 28 days? Mine are still showing over 30 days after
3 - Do vosa not bother about any older than 28 days?
Yeah you may not think that exceeding your driving hours is serious but it is. A one off is forgivable but 8 times in a week shows a serious disregard for the law.
It isn’t rocket science to keep track of your 4.5hrs. Press any button on the tacho as you’re driving down the road and it’ll show how many hours you’ve driven. At 4h 15m it flashes up a warning to tell you you need to take a break. You could have taken a break at the services before Lymm.
In answer to your question:
Until they get overwritten but a minimum 28 days. Could be a year or more, depends on what you drive. Tacho heads store them for longer. Employers are required to store records for 12 months.
VOSA bother up to at least 12 months. They have 6 years to decide to be bothered about it.
Depends on how bad your infringements are. 5 minutes over drive time with a printout explaining why and where you were at the time would most likely get over looked but if its a repeated infringement then they will start to go digging. Of course if your driving for 9 hours straight without a break then they will have you off the road and maybe straight to the TC.
Conor:
Yeah you may not think that exceeding your driving hours is serious but it is. A one off is forgivable but 8 times in a week shows a serious disregard for the law.
It isn’t rocket science to keep track of your 4.5hrs. Press any button on the tacho as you’re driving down the road and it’ll show how many hours you’ve driven. At 4h 15m it flashes up a warning to tell you you need to take a break. You could have taken a break at the services before Lymm.
In answer to your question:
Until they get overwritten but a minimum 28 days. Could be a year or more, depends on what you drive. Tacho heads store them for longer. Employers are required to store records for 12 months.
VOSA bother up to at least 12 months. They have 6 years to decide to be bothered about it.
Ok,a little more judgemental than I was hoping for.
I didnt mean it was not serious as such,only that it wasnt way,way over. I have heard of guys doing 11 hrs driving 5 days a week,doing 5-6 hours without a break,removing their tacho cards etc. I had plenty of driving time left to stop at lynn services. Yes,I could have stopped at charnock richards(and I always do now) but at 3hr 59,I thought Lynn would be a better bet. But I missed the cut off which put me over the 4.5 hours. An honest mistake. And I said I picked up 8 infringements.,not 8 for exceeding driving hours. Over my driving hours was for,at most,3 minutes. Im well aware that ANY infringement is bad,but it was not a blatant disregard for the law
if your wetting your pants,then take a Stanley to the chip, send it back for a replacement,and cowboy it for a month till your new one comes back…then buy an alarm clock.
dieseldog999:
if your wetting your pants,then take a Stanley to the chip, send it back for a replacement,and cowboy it for a month till your new one comes back…then buy an alarm clock.
dieseldog999:
if your wetting your pants,then take a Stanley to the chip, send it back for a replacement,and cowboy it for a month till your new one comes back…then buy an alarm clock.
I love your posts man
that’s what happens when people post inane questions.nobody asks pish like this when your talking to them ,so how hard can it be??
Ok,a little more judgemental than I was hoping for.
Its because your attitude in your post was one of “its only a couple of minutes, doesn’t matter a toss.” You can guarantee if you have a shunt it will matter. It’ll be used to prove you have a bad attitude.
theiceman1978:
I have heard of guys doing 11 hrs driving 5 days a week,doing 5-6 hours without a break,removing their tacho cards etc.
And they’re all idiots who seem completely unaware that the tacho still records without a card in.
I had plenty of driving time left to stop at lynn services. Yes,I could have stopped at charnock richards(and I always do now) but at 3hr 59,I thought Lynn would be a better bet.
I was going to Runcorn from Preston last Saturday morning, had about the same amount of time left when I got to Charnock. Was a no brainer to stop at Charnock because there’s usually a problem between the two services.
I work for agencies, I do days, nights, shop deliveries, trunking, all kinds of runs. Number of infringements of any kind in the last 2 months since I came back driving? Zero, none, nada, nil. And I don’t write anything down. What I don’t do is run so tight that I’m ■■■■■■■■ myself over a 5 minute hold up and that I must drive every last minute possible before I have a break or I can’t make the delivery time. 18 minutes clear run to Lymm from Charnock Richard plus a few minutes pratting about when you’re there parking up when you’ve only 30 minutes on the clock then you stop at Charnock even though you’ve got 30 minutes left. 4.5hrs, 9hrs, 10hrs are limits, not targets. You don’t have to drive right up to 4.5hrs before you take a break and if I had a job where they expected me to, I’d go find somewhere else to work. Likewise with delivery times. They’re an ideal time they’d like you to be there but don’t kill yourself trying to meet them. Worst that happens is they reject the load and you take it back. The world won’t end, the sky won’t fall down. I don’t know how long you’ve been driving trucks but the sooner you learn these lessons the less stressful the job will be and you won’t need to have sweaty palms driving past VOSA.
dieseldog999:
if your wetting your pants,then take a Stanley to the chip, send it back for a replacement,and cowboy it for a month till your new one comes back…then buy an alarm clock.
I love your posts man
that’s what happens when fannies post inane questions.nobody asks pish like this when your talking to them ,so how hard can it be??
Fanny posting inane question? Who are you talking about exactly?
I asked a perfectly legitimate question. I know full well all infrigements on a tacho card are serious. That’s why im worried about them. However,never once have I moaned about them. Never once have I asked or even looked for ways to get them removed,legally or otherwise. I accept 100% blame for them. Ive got them and I need to accept the consequences. All I wanted to know was how long they stayed on and what I could expect if stopped at a roadside.
I expected some advice from guys with experience. Instead all Ive got is the usual mr know-it-alls who have nothing better to do than surf forums all day and post their arrogant,condescending remarks. Forums are supposed to be a place where you can ask questions and get replies from people in the know. It is because of replies like ive had that put people off posting on forums because the self proclaimed experts who never put a foot wrong and think they know everything do nothing but insult and put people down.
The driving time regulations are a minefield so excuse me all over the place for making a mistake.
I am done replying on this thread. I will deal with what happens if or when.
However,in future if I post anything and you cant answer properly and helpfully then jog on to another post. If I can help or answer someone then I will. But ill do it without insults or patronizing them. I expect the same in return.
Do not worry,just do a printout and write the explanation for the infringments.
By pressing the menu on the tacho , you can go back in the dates to find the day of the infringment.
That Lymn exit is easy to go past or overshooting the runway i call it.
Arrows on the signs are misleading.
The same for the M42 to exit J 6 and to exit to join the M6 to Rugby.
You get in lane as directed then it is not right.
Same for the M6 to exit towards Liverpool .Signs are badly designed.
The main you have learnt from it , I was the same when I started on general haulage as a newbie used to run it down to the wire etc .
In 3 years I’ve been stopped by vosa twice but they haven’t checked my tacho during those checks , at least if you can keep your card cleanish from now on hopefully they will overlook that bad week on your card
Cheers MIke
Iceman, your expectations are your own but they are not shared by everyone. Now you know what to expect, have a giggle at your own expense and take seriously the genuine comments. As a total noob who only started driving 7.5t myself in May this year, I’ve had some fun with replies, but there are some gems of info in posts out there. Like the mirror-setting-up reply in a post I read a couple of weeks ago which changed the way I did things. Can’t for the life of me say where it was but it was brilliant.
If you were worrying before, then you must be boiling now, don’t let it ruin your life.
theiceman1978:
Instead all Ive got is the usual mr know-it-alls who have nothing better to do than surf forums all day and post their arrogant,condescending remarks.
I always used to get a 15 in fairly early on if I could - maybe waiting to tip, or (don’t shoot me) while being tipped. This allows a bit more flexibility and I only needed to find a 30 minute break later on.
Santa:
I always used to get a 15 in fairly early on if I could - maybe waiting to tip, or (don’t shoot me) while being tipped. This allows a bit more flexibility and I only needed to find a 30 minute break later on.
Santa:
I always used to get a 15 in fairly early on if I could - maybe waiting to tip, or (don’t shoot me) while being tipped. This allows a bit more flexibility and I only needed to find a 30 minute break later on.
Perfectlt legal to take a break whilst being tipped in some places. I used to take a tanker of condensed milk to a food factory. Once I’d backed it up to the discharge point I wasn’t required to do anything until it finished discharging around half an hour to an hour later and there was only me who’d be there for a few hours so I’d nip into Minsterley to get a newspaper and have a short walk, come back and have a breakfast in the canteen and read my paper. By the time I’d finished them my 45 was over, I’d go back to the truck and the paperwork would be sat on the drivers seat.
but it was brilliant.
