sorry, yep, one of them. Just to save me trawling through books and mags, does anyone know, the 10 hour ruling for night workers (if shift falls between midnight and 4am or any part of it), can you opt out as a workforce? I am aware you can opt out of the 48hr week as a workforce, but i thought the night time ruling was set in stone? Had 3am start today, and at 1pm after much ‘discssion’ on phone with haulier and agency i parked up at South Mimms, and was ‘rescued’ back to yard by another driver. Trouble was i could have been back in yard by 13:50ish, the drivers turned up at 14:30, and had an attitude with me as I ‘wouldn’t drive the truck back’ (they promptly walked off to get some dinner). The office had the same sort of thing, and no matter how much i said i am not trying to be awkward, just trying to do the right thing, i got no sympathy. Ended up back in the yard at 16:00. Agency were supportive, but just before getting in yard they rang and attmitted they (the drivers when WTD was bought in) had opted out of the 48hr and 10hr night time ruling. They admitted they should have known this in the morning when this was first discussed, but aren’t that clued up on the hours and WTD regs. They apologised and will ring haulier tomorrow to say it was their fault for not telling me sooner, but i was sure you couldn’t opt out of the 10hr ruling. Anyone know?
Dieselcowboy:
does anyone know, the 10 hour ruling for night workers (if shift falls between midnight and 4am or any part of it), can you opt out as a workforce?
Yes, you can.
Dieselcowboy:
I am aware you can opt out of the 48hr week as a workforce
No, you can’t.
And another couple of points to add to what Flying Fenman has said.
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The 10 hour night time limit is working time - Driving and Other Work and does not include Breaks or POA. During the period from 03:00 - 13:00 you must have surely had a break and or some POA, under the WTD you would have needed at least a 15 minute break and potentially 45 minutes if you didn’t have any POA, I would have thought you could have made it back as you say you were only 50 minutes from the yard.
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Your parking up and protesting was pointless as the time spent being driven back to the depot counts as ‘Other Work’ so you may have exceeded the 10 hour WTD night limit anyway. I don’t know what time your next shift starts but today’s didn’t finish until you were back at the depot and finished, 16:00 or a little after, and didn’t finish at 13:00 so that will have a bearing on what time you resume work.
Coffeeholic:
And another couple of points to add to what Flying Fenman has said.
The 10 hour night time limit is working time - Driving and Other Work and does not include Breaks or POA. During the period from 03:00 - 13:00 you must have surely had a break and or some POA, under the WTD you would have needed at least a 15 minute break and potentially 45 minutes if you didn’t have any POA, I would have thought you could have made it back as you say you were only 50 minutes from the yard.
Your parking up and protesting was pointless as the time spent being driven back to the depot counts as ‘Other Work’ so you may have exceeded the 10 hour WTD night limit anyway. I don’t know what time your next shift starts but today’s didn’t finish until you were back at the depot and finished, 16:00 or a little after, and didn’t finish at 13:00 so that will have a bearing on what time you resume work.
right well that would explain a lot more then. I must explain though that i did not park up in protest, it was not done like that. I explained i would run out of time (obviously wrongly) at 13:00, so was told to stop at South Mimms as that would be the first place. I honestly thought i was doing the right thing by not working over the 10hr rule, unfortunately the haulier has absolutely no knowledge of WTD, and my agency had forgotten they had opted out anyway. Ok, lesson learned, i have to apologise to the haulier now to try to keep thier trust.
Sorry, I took the fact you wrote the word discussion as ‘discussion’ to mean it was a heated exchange. Ignore the protest bit, but not the rest of it. 
i’m so bloody annoyed with myself though, normally i try to keep my head down and just get on with what i am given. Today i know my name was mud. Shows what a little (lack of) knowledge can do! However, i would have prefered to have been corrected at the time by the haulier or the agency. Bloody WTD, i am more than fine with the ‘normal’ hors regs, even the recent ammendments, but WTD has thown me a bit lately. Normally don’t have to worry about it as i have more than enough breaks to cover myself for the WTD, but today was a little different. Thanks for the advice, next time i will know!
sorry, meant to explain, i put ‘discussion’ as i told them i would be out of time, and they just took it.
In fact at first i had to explain the 10hr rule (or thought i was! almost right)
change the WTD to Willing To Drive when next in there and they wont moan.