Ihave been informed that as of the 11 May all self employed drivers will come under the rules of this directive.Has anyone else heard of this happening.It looks like all self employed will now have to keep records of all hours worked wheather driveing administation or whatever.
If your just driving you’ve been in it for a couple of years
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But it will effect owner drivers now when they do office work or servicing or any thing connected with business and as usual records will have to be kept for 2 years
I’m anticipating this as a potential problem with my O licence application and if that does turn out to be the case I am going to employ my girlfriend for eight hours a week to take care of administration etc
I had a nightmare when i changed from a sole trader to a limited company last september, the TC was concerned that i couldnt drive, be a director, and a transport manager, and adhere to the WTD, i had to resign as a director, making my wife sole director, i had to submit a detailed spread sheet of an average working week, and i had to satisfy him that i had had a system in place to monitor my average 48 hours, i followed the 17 week spread over.
How you are expected to do everything on a 48 hour average is beyond me, but i managed to keep below the threshold on my first 17 week spread, but i doubt i will on my second!! 
So beware, VOSA are clamping down on the WTD 
I ve been filling in a weekly spreedsheet since I took my first driver cpc and had my little card for over a year now and its going to be a challenge but if they want us all to be profesionals thats what we have to do.I m amazed the amount of drivers let alone o/ds who have no idea about this, at some point the bubble is going to burst isn`t it?
JC55:
Ive been filling in a weekly spreedsheet since I took my first driver cpc and had my little card for over a year now and its going to be a challenge but if they want us all to be profesionals thats what we have to do.Im amazed the amount of drivers let alone o/ds who have no idea about this, at some point the bubble is going to burst isn`t it?
its not a case of the bubble bursting 
The EU has finally got its way and the WTD is being introduced for owner/drivers thats all
Owner drivers were supposed to be exempt for the first 3 years or so I believe we are now in year 7 and it is now being introduced.
Q) How many prosecutions have been made up to yet under WTD regs. ■■?
A) NONE
One of the EU bodies did not want to introduce it for the self-employed as they felt it would be impossible to police but were over-ruled mainly thanks to the Trades Unions who it seems will do whatever they can to make sure that nobody but the paid union officials can earn a decent wage.
Lucy Radley points out in the May issue of Truck and Driver that the ordinary man in the street was never asked his opinion and getting a discussion going with a union official was a waste of time and never going to happen at any serious level. The stock answer from most people is that the bosses will make up the shortfall but they cant so they wont.
The working time directive is restrictive and un-competitive and will only make the economic situation worse… Ask the French 
So the bubble wont burst and no one will get prosecuted ever for ignoring the WTD isnt that being a touch knieve ? 
Good oll VOSA in my experience seem to be getting more and more educated they are self funded and they need to get funds from somewhere.Believe me I aint no fan of any of this like many others but I still need to earn a living .As for the french I ain`t really interested what they think. 
JC55:
So the bubble wont burst and no one will get prosecuted ever for ignoring the WTD isnt that being a touch knieve ?ll VOSA in my experience seem to be getting more and more educated they are self funded and they need to get funds from somewhere.Believe me I aint no fan of any of this like many others but I still need to earn a living .As for the french I ain`t really interested what they think.
I didnt say the bubble wouldnt burst but the facts are there have not been any prosecutions under the working time directive for mobile workers and VOSA are supposed to be taking a light touch on the issue with education rather than enforcement being the theme.
JC55:
So the bubble wont burst and no one will get prosecuted ever for ignoring the WTD isnt that being a touch knieve ?ll VOSA in my experience seem to be getting more and more educated they are self funded and they need to get funds from somewhere.Believe me I aint no fan of any of this like many others but I still need to earn a living .As for the french I ain`t really interested what they think.
Self funded doesn’t mean they fine you to stay in business, any sanctions they take go into government coffers. It is another myth that they keep what they take. Self Funding only means they have to make the operator licensing receipts, testing station fees and the new ATF pay, or close them down.
This is the latest RTD news I have had and all the other snippets seem to mirror this.
The European Commission (EC) has called on Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Poland, Portugal and Spain “to take appropriate measures” to apply the Working Time Directive to self-employed road hauliers.
The EC warned: “If these member states fail to inform the commission within two months about the measures taken to ensure compliance with EU law in this respect, the commission could refer the cases to the European Court of Justice.”
The Directive was adopted in March 2002 “to establish minimum requirements in relation to the organisation of working time in order to improve the health and safety protection of persons performing mobile road transport activities and to improve road safety and align conditions of competition”.
However, provision was made to exempt self-employed drivers until March 2009.
Now, three years on, the EC claims seven states “have failed to communicate to the commission appropriate measures taken to transpose the directive”, prompting the threat of judicial action.
Self-employed drivers in member states ignoring the directive, and in particular its weekly working time limits, would result in “a non-harmonised framework throughout the EU”, and distortion of competition against those member states which have properly applied the directive, said the commission.
“The issue of whether or not the application of the rules to self-employed drivers is appropriate was extensively discussed between the commission, parliament and council on the occasion of the expiry of the exemption for this category of drivers,” it added.
While the EC saw some practical difficulties (in its application) the European Parliament insisted the exemption should end.
In France, there are more than 10,000 owner-operator truckers and the country’s leading road haulage federation, the FNTR, claims there are “practical difficulties” in applying the directive.
“It’s important to point out that the directive refers to working time and not driving time, where the same rules apply to all haulage firms,” a spokesman told us.
“Regulating how many hours an owner-operator puts in away from the wheel appears a nigh impossible task.”
The red text I agree with.
does anybody know where you can get some spreadsheets for self employed driver to keep working time directive records that come in to force 11th may 2012.thanks
BIGGEE:
does anybody know where you can get some spreadsheets for self employed driver to keep working time directive records that come in to force 11th may 2012.thanks
If you’re a self employed driver (i.e. not an owner driver, you just provide your labour services) then you should have been keeping WTD records right from day 1. The directive has its own definition of self employed and someone who sells themself as a driver does not meet the definition whether they are self employed for tax purposes or not.
Paul
Thanks for reply,I should have put I am a owner driver
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