Van drivers and breaks

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
21

Urm the word adequate…its a joke isnt it ?

22

quaser:
I’m pretty sure that eventually van drivers will be tacho bound like the rest of us.

And the day it happens will be bad news for us all driving 3.5 Tonners.

I take breaks when I feel I need them, that may be after 2 hours, other days it may be after 5/6. Humans don’t automatically switch off after 4.5 hours!

There’s a couple of runs I do a week that are 5 hours right round, including 45 minutes driving straight back to base from the last delivery. It’ll ■■■■ me off no end if I have to take a break just to run back home!

23

In Germany log books are required for vehicles between 2.8 and 3.5tonne although i am not sure if this is for haulage vehicles or all vehicles , i had a full vosa check at sandbach services on monday the officer was most suprised to see my o licence in the window and my pocket diary with other duty and other driving in , green score and on my way.

24

Jenson Button:
I would love to know the logic that seams to assume a van won’t cause as bigger smash than a 7.5 tonner… but that’s beyond me.

So white van man - whom is supposed to only do 11 hours duty and 10 hours driving in a day… his breaks are not enforcable - and he just writes up a log book (if he can be bothered) with what ever he wants in? and hopes that no one questions his pay packet?

and in the event of him causing a major accident - would he and the firm he works for be investigated ?

There is no logic and it doesn’t make any sense at all to me .The company i work for has vans, 7.5t and 18t so are obliged to keep driving records for all drivers and all drivers are obliged to keep daily records .However as i said earlier the van driving only counts as other work as far as VOSA is concerned so i could in theory do 12-15hrs in a van and the next day jump into a truck and do a 10hr shift after only a few hours rest ,how is it that we have such backward rules

25

Our 3.5 is on our operators licence. And we have to do Manual tachos for our time spent driving it. We only have to comply with working time breaks though when in the van.