Me and my mate went out looking for jobs today and after the usual rejections came upon one rather large company who were very keen to set us both on when jobs come up regardless of us being 21 and 22. Upon questioning him about how they work to the WTD he told me all the details etc but one thing that puzzled me was his insistence that a 45 min break must be taken after 4.5hrs duty time, wether or not you were sat on poa for 3 hours of that time. I asked him if he meant that a 45 min break has to be taken after a combined driving time of 4.5 hours and he says no, 4.5 hours from the moment the tacho is inserted regardless of mode, though obviously not if it has been sat on rest mode. Is this correct? I thought that poa doesn’t go towards your driving/working time and as such is irrelivent as far as adding up time to find out when a rest is needed is concerned?
Could just be their company policy to have 45mins every 4.5 hours, would at least keep you legal regardless of driving/working/resting times.
map-man:
Could just be their company policy to have 45mins every 4.5 hours, would at least keep you legal regardless of driving/working/resting times.
Thats what I think too but he insists that it is “the law of the land” and there was no point trying to argue with him, but I’m pretty confident it ain’t the law of the land at all.
The law of the land is 45 mins after no more than 4.5 hrs driving time or 30 mins after no more than 6 hrs duty time if 4.5 hrs driving time has not been reached, so I would guess that its company policy and therefore their law of the land which you should be happy to accept as it’s better for you in the long run as it saves keeping a check on the 6 hr limit. 
Davey Driver:
The law of the land is 45 mins after no more than 4.5 hrs driving time or 30 mins after no more than 6 hrs duty time if 4.5 hrs driving time has not been reached, so I would guess that its company policy and therefore their law of the land which you should be happy to accept as it’s better for you in the long run as it saves keeping a check on the 6 hr limit.
I must just be stupid! For some unknown reason when I’m faced with overlapping regulations such as EU tacho and WTD my mind just melts and its panic stations. Atleast with this company you don’t have to keep any written record of mode switches for the wtd, its all calculated for you from your tacho afterwards and the way they work you’re unlikely to show over 48hrs p/w anyway. Anyway, I’m probably gonna go round some more companies today, so no doubt I’ll be confused further later on when I’ve been given ten different versions of the wtd from ten different people!