i agree with Daxi. the drivers who are intentionally breaking the law will end up suffering for it eventually. i am forced to make my money up somehow and i intend to carry on monday to friday as normal but i will be doing either every other saturday, or every third saturday depending on weekly breaks.
even doing non tacho work will be found out easily enough. its not worth the risk. stay legal for your own sake. its your licence and livelihood at stake 
I can only emphasise what others have already said. There are loads of fiddles and the nice Police and VOSA officers know about them. Whilst you can dodge them a lot of the time you only need one to stop you and get suspicious about you ‘only work weekends mate.’ It won’t take them long to do their checks and then you have the problem of explaining to the Transport Manager that his vehicle is now stuck with a 24 hour prohibition on it and you’re on your way to explain it all to the Magistrates. Then, after the ‘reference period’ has ended along comes Mr VOSA and discovers that the Agency records show you there at weekends and your weekday employer does not have your weekend hours on his RTD records. That’s another trip to see the people sitting on the Bench. Best to keep it legal.
I think the above says it all so it is definately not worth doing what I suggested. I will also take aboard all that has been said above. Cheers, Neil.
if there is a legal way to increase our money, we will find it 
I would go away, read and digest the drivers hours law before you decide to do anything. Their are plenty of links to it around the forums, looks like a headache I know, but well worth reading and absorbing if you want to keep your licence in tact and in the worst case, out the nick .
geebee45:
That’s another trip to see the people sitting on the Bench. .
And if it follows a fatality, then consider that it could also be a visit to the ‘Big House’ for Manslaughter.
Accidents are a fact of life. On average ten people get killed on our roads every day. Normally it is a simple case of an ‘Error of Judgement’ and the worst that happens is a conviction for Careless Driving. However, combine that with a flagrant breach of Driving Regs, and the matter becomes far more serious.
Is the propect of a few more quid in your pocket each week really worth risking Porridge for seven or eight years?
Cheers for the replies fellas, I didn’t and don’t have any intention of breaking the hours laws etc but thought that because of the low amount of driving I currently do during the week that I might be able to do some at the weekend for class 1 experience but now I no the answer. A BIG NO NO.
To be honest the weekly rest didnt cross my mined 
Cheers 
You can drive at the weekends provided you take sufficient weekly rest & do not exceed working hours.
With driving hours as you drive during the week you are limited to a maximum of 15 hours per day, so like any other Driver you can drive on a Saturday, providing you make up for any lost weekly break time during the week.
For you it will probably be working hours that will limit what you can do rather than driving hours, but you should still be able to drive.
The drivers’ hours rules say:
A weekly rest must be taken after no more than six daily driving periods
Therefore, you can’t work seven days in a row.
no way you can do 7 days. you must have a minimum weekly rest of 24 CONSECUTIVE hours if taken away from base ie on the road, or 36 hours if you are home for the weekend. any short breaks must be made up within 3 weeks
Scanny77 said:
no way you can do 7 days
Actually you can drive quite legally doing 7 days x 52 weeks per year. You have to be driving under Domestic Hours Code. Under this, an HGV driver can quite legally drive for upto 10 hours each and every day. Duty period is maximum 11 hours per day, but you don’t need a mid-shift break, all 10 hours driving can be done in one hit. You don’t need a weekly rest period either. Lunacy or what■■? Imagine your car being hit by a 44 tonner carrying offal, the guy hasn’t had a weekly rest in 8 months, it’s alright he’s on domestic rules. Your car is hit by a 44 tonner carrying car parts, totally different story. The worst part of this is under domestic rules you don’t need to use a tacho you can use a log book and write what you like, virtually uncheckable. Sorry folk…rant over, off to swallow a chill pill
Newbie:
Being quite new to this myself , i would continue in your week job and do the agency at the weekend but keep both seperate. I would tell the agency nothing about the week job and vice versa. Just dont carry your weeks tachos with you on the weekend and again vice versa. It might be worth listening to some of the old hands 1st though. I know people who agency hop though and they make a fortune.
Totally illegal - under the new WTD you MUST inform employer be it agency, full time whatever of any other work carried out in that week.
geebee45:
Scanny77 said:no way you can do 7 days
Actually you can drive quite legally doing 7 days x 52 weeks per year. You have to be driving under Domestic Hours Code. Under this, an HGV driver can quite legally drive for upto 10 hours each and every day. Duty period is maximum 11 hours per day, but you don’t need a mid-shift break, all 10 hours driving can be done in one hit. You don’t need a weekly rest period either. Lunacy or what■■? Imagine your car being hit by a 44 tonner carrying offal, the guy hasn’t had a weekly rest in 8 months, it’s alright he’s on domestic rules. Your car is hit by a 44 tonner carrying car parts, totally different story. The worst part of this is under domestic rules you don’t need to use a tacho you can use a log book and write what you like, virtually uncheckable. Sorry folk…rant over, off to swallow a chill pill
Are the Royal Mail still allowed to drive on domestic rules?
justdrivers:
Newbie:
Being quite new to this myself , i would continue in your week job and do the agency at the weekend but keep both seperate. I would tell the agency nothing about the week job and vice versa. Just dont carry your weeks tachos with you on the weekend and again vice versa. It might be worth listening to some of the old hands 1st though. I know people who agency hop though and they make a fortune.Totally illegal - under the new WTD you MUST inform employer be it agency, full time whatever of any other work carried out in that week.
Would this not have been illegal even before the WTD came into effect?
mrpg wrote;
Are the Royal Mail still allowed to drive on domestic rules?
Yes, but they have to use tacho charts, not permitted to use log books. Something to do with it was deemed unfair over the other parcel carriers that Royal Mail was entitled to run under Domestic Hours and use log books. I believe that it was seen to be unfair if Royal Mails’ records could not be checked in the same way that other companys’ could.
I Drive on Domestic rules, doing milk collection from farms
No weekly rest required, i usually work 6 days a week as the hours are so easy (job and finish, start at 06.30 usually home by 15.30)
Maximum of 11 hours a day
No breaks from driving required.
It is quite bizarre really as we are driving back at the end of the day usually fully loaded in 44 and 35 tonners, and have been on the go all day since early am without a break.
So who decides whether you drive by domestic rules or EC rules as looking at the Department of Transport webpage it seems to me that you do domestic if you are exempt from the EC ones 
Part C - UK Domestic Drivers’ Hours Rules
40. What are the UK domestic rules?
The UK domestic rules apply to most goods vehicles which are exempt from the EC rules.
Gurner:
I Drive on Domestic rules
It is quite bizarre really as we are driving back at the end of the day usually fully loaded in 44 and 35 tonners, and have been on the go all day since early am without a break.
A 44t wagon aint exempt is it 
uvox82:
So who decides whether you drive by domestic rules or EC rules as looking at the Department of Transport webpage it seems to me that you do domestic if you are exempt from the EC onesPart C - UK Domestic Drivers’ Hours Rules
40. What are the UK domestic rules?
The UK domestic rules apply to most goods vehicles which are exempt from the EC rules.Gurner:
I Drive on Domestic rules
It is quite bizarre really as we are driving back at the end of the day usually fully loaded in 44 and 35 tonners, and have been on the go all day since early am without a break.A 44t wagon aint exempt is it
Vehicles involved in milk collections from farms are exempt, doesn’t matter how big they are . I’ll try to find a link detailing all the exemptions, although I’m currently refering to the FTA handbook.
mrpj:
justdrivers:
Newbie:
Being quite new to this myself , i would continue in your week job and do the agency at the weekend but keep both seperate. I would tell the agency nothing about the week job and vice versa. Just dont carry your weeks tachos with you on the weekend and again vice versa. It might be worth listening to some of the old hands 1st though. I know people who agency hop though and they make a fortune.Totally illegal - under the new WTD you MUST inform employer be it agency, full time whatever of any other work carried out in that week.
Would this not have been illegal even before the WTD came into effect?
Yes - but it wasn’t policed before and the drivers were taken on trust. Now we are allowed to call the other agencies to ask the question and they must provide the information by law. Most agencies know what their drivers are up to and we have a great bunch of lads who tell us if they are working elsewhere as we do not frown upon them working for more than one agencey unlike several I know - At the end of the day everyone goes to work to earn a living and if we were to restrict them to just working for us they would then start to become underhand and work elsewhere without telling us.
uvox82:
A 44t wagon aint exempt is it
Yep