Hi all,
i have decided to stop as an employed driver and have started to do self employed casual driving, ie sick and holiday cover as down in the southwest it pays better than employed driving.
As regards to the wtd i take it i will now have to keep all my own records as i will not be tyed to one employer , if i do how do go about keeping track of my hours, do i just keep hold of them for 2 years? or is it still all down to the company i am driving for■■?
if any one can help me on this i would be most grateful as no one seems to know and i keep getting conflicting information…
cheers and all the best,
ian… 
If you are self employed, working for several employers, then the WTD doesn’t apply untill 2009 ( I think its 2009!)
It is March 2009 Denis. However one of the main criteria for deciding if you are self employed, as far as the WTD goes, which is different criteria to the Inland Revenue, is that you must hold an O Licence. In my opinion this means that Black Dog will not be self employed as far as the WTD goes.
Black Dog, You can get all the info here on self employed and the WTD and here on record keeping.
Coffeeholic:
is that you must hold an O Licence.
They’ve slipped that bit in somewhat quietly. It wasn’t in the original guidance document and nor is it in the actual Regulations.
“self-employed driver” means anyone whose main occupation is to transport passengers or goods by road for hire or reward within the meaning of Community legislation under cover of a Community licence or any other professional authorisation to carry out such transport, who is entitled to work for himself and who is not tied to an employer by an employment contract or by any other type of working hierarchical relationship, who is free to organise the relevant working activities, whose income depends directly on the profits made and who has the freedom, individually or through a co-operation between self-employed drivers, to have commercial relations with several customers;
Another example of Civil Service “Gold-plating”? Vosa adapting regulations to what they would like them to say, as opposed to what the wording actually means.
If it were to affect me, then I would certainly be pressing them on the issue and referring the matter to my MP.
Coffeeholic:
However one of the main criteria for deciding if you are self employed, as far as the WTD goes, which is different criteria to the Inland Revenue, is that you must hold an O Licence.
hmm, strange criteria, 
hadn’t read that before, although I hadn’t read much WTD stuff anyway !
I was hoping that by March 2009 they would have decided the whole things a load of [zb] and scrapped it
Krankee:
Coffeeholic:
is that you must hold an O Licence.
They’ve slipped that bit in somewhat quietly. It wasn’t in the original guidance document and nor is it in the actual Regulations.
They did indeed, although it has been there on the vOSA site for a while and I have seen it mentioned in the various trade press on several occasions.
I think they have taken this bit
goods by road for hire or reward within the meaning of Community legislation under cover of a Community licence
and decided that you need an O Licence, but it seems a bit strange to me. If by Community Licence they mean a Community Authorisation, needed to transport goods internationally for hire and reward, then how does that fit for an OD that doesn’t have an International O Licence? They wouldn’t have a Community Authorisation so are they saying they aren’t self employed?
And yet if you search under ‘Community Licence’, it throws up a DVLA site that clearly deals with Driving Licences.
And where it mentions “Community licence or any other professional authorisation” surely it is covering the fact that a vocational Licence issued in Jersey or Guernsey, which are not part of the EU (are they?), can be used for a limited period (before exchange) when taking up residence in the UK.
Are BFG Licences still issued?
Whoa!
Before you consign another Rain Forest to the anals of history, consider the wording of the WTD.
Records have to be kept for two years, and we have available two downloads for the purposes of keeping those records. I cannot see any obligation to preserve and store any original documentation from which those records are compiled.
At the end of every Reference Period, either save the information to a disk, or burn it to a CD. If VOSA want to challenge the accuracy of your records, then they can go around collecting charts which have been returned to companies.
If the accuracy of the Reference Periods for which charts are still available are accurate, then they are not at liberty to assume that earlier periods are otherwise.
Coffeeholic:
. If by Community Licence they mean a Community Authorisation, needed to transport goods internationally for hire and reward, then how does that fit for an OD that doesn’t have an International O Licence? They wouldn’t have a Community Authorisation so are they saying they aren’t self employed?
I’m running on a SN O licence so certainly don’t have a “Community Authorisation”
but I have somewhere about 100 regular customers and another 150 that I have done one off jobs for in the last 5 years!! so I can’t see them trying to tell me I’m not self employed !
going off on a tangent, now minimum financial standing levels are the same for National and International licences I shall probably go for SI at my next renewal - can’t see any reason to stick with the national 
Denis F:
Coffeeholic:
. If by Community Licence they mean a Community Authorisation, needed to transport goods internationally for hire and reward, then how does that fit for an OD that doesn’t have an International O Licence? They wouldn’t have a Community Authorisation so are they saying they aren’t self employed?
I’m running on a SN O licence so certainly don’t have a “Community Authorisation”
but I have somewhere about 100 regular customers and another 150 that I have done one off jobs for in the last 5 years!! so I can’t see them trying to tell me I’m not self employed
Exactly Denis but then again just to confuse matters even more you don’t actually need more than one customer, you just have to have the freedom to have more than one if you choose.