I feel a bit of an interloper here: although I had driver CPC until a year or so ago I am currently a traffic commissioner. Won’t say which one as I am reasonably content with the current layout of my face!
I am posting here because a couple of weeks ago I held conduct hearings for around 15 drivers all of whom had pulled their tacho cards and carried on driving, in most cases to hide 4.5 hours or daily driving time offences. What most of them didn’t realise is that by pulling their card they were making false entries, which is almost always a far more serious offence than the offence it is intended to hide.
If you occasionally go over 4.5 or 9/10 hours it is unlikely to come to a traffic commissioner’s attention. But the moment you pull your card, that is an offence that will bring you before a TC. The expected outcome at a TC hearing (unless there are significant mitigating or aggravating factors) is a four week HGV licence suspension for each offence of pulling the card, and 12 months disqualification if there are more than six such offences (which was the case with many of the 15 drivers). I know TCs are considered as [zb]s, but in reality we would far rather not be handing out suspensions of this kind.
So please, whatever you do, don’t pull your card. Far better just to drive with it in and make an honest record of an offence, with maybe an explanation on the back of the printout. Even if you’re caught, the outcome will be much less severe than it will be if you falsify the record. Hope this is helpful, and I will now stand by for the buckets of excrement!
Mod’s edit:
If you need asterisks to get a word past the auto censor, then that’s your clue that you’re trying to use a banned word.
There’s a clue in the name, the auto censor is err… hmmm… automatic, so please just type whatever you want, then leave it.
The ‘preview’ button is your friend!! dd.
Traffic Commissioner:
I feel a bit of an interloper here: although I had driver CPC until a year or so ago I am currently a traffic commissioner.
If a routine truck-downloaded check were done at a yard, it would quickly flag up that a truck had been driven for miles and miles (way beyond “yard shunting mileage”) without a card in, and often and regular…
Hold on guys , what if he really is a T.C , the rules allow us to continue or depart from them for unforeseen reasons, such as forensic examination at a fatal RTC , if you are out of time when the road is finally reopen , you can’t have a night out on the hard shoulder of the motorway after being trapped for 17 hours.
I can see the frustration when you are say 10 to 15 minutes away from the yard and time is up , the temptation is too much .
Yeah it is a serious offence and any company worth their salt will be monitoring any driving registered on the vehicle that doesn’t fit with it being shunted around the yard. Any drivers who are regularly pulling the card should have been fired long before any TC got involved. No mention of the penalty for the operator allowing the six plus offences. So, dear TC, what happened to the operators? We may even have some reading you never know.
Noremac:
Yeah it is a serious offence and any company worth their salt will be monitoring any driving registered on the vehicle that doesn’t fit with it being shunted around the yard. Any drivers who are regularly pulling the card should have been fired long before any TC got involved. No mention of the penalty for the operator allowing the six plus offences. So, dear TC, what happened to the operators? We may even have some reading you never know.
Well you make a good point about operators, Noremac: the reason I didn’t address them in my earlier post is that this is a forum for drivers and I wanted to alert drivers to the potential consequences for them personally of pulling their cards (I accept that many know already). You are right that competent operators will quickly identify and deal with instances of driving without a card. The problem is that quite a few operators only download vehicle units at the maximum 90 day interval (if at all) and even some who do the downloads then fail to run a missing mileage report. These operators are indeed likely to be called to a public inquiry and have their o-licence suspended or revoked.
For those questioning my sanity/true identity, I will be on the Highways England stand at Truckfest tomorrow (3 July), so do drop by for a chat.
However the point being made is sound and worth pointing out. Yes it’s obvious to me, but maybe a new driver might get the temptation to do it. Who knows. Worthwhile also pointing out that DVSA will not remove your testicles for the odd minor transgression
Noremac:
Yeah it is a serious offence and any company worth their salt will be monitoring any driving registered on the vehicle that doesn’t fit with it being shunted around the yard. Any drivers who are regularly pulling the card should have been fired long before any TC got involved. No mention of the penalty for the operator allowing the six plus offences. So, dear TC, what happened to the operators? We may even have some reading you never know.
Well you make a good point about operators, Noremac: the reason I didn’t address them in my earlier post is that this is a forum for drivers and I wanted to alert drivers to the potential consequences for them personally of pulling their cards (I accept that many know already). You are right that competent operators will quickly identify and deal with instances of driving without a card. The problem is that quite a few operators only download vehicle units at the maximum 90 day interval (if at all) and even some who do the downloads then fail to run a missing mileage report. These operators are indeed likely to be called to a public inquiry and have their o-licence suspended or revoked.
For those questioning my sanity/true identity, I will be on the Highways England stand at Truckfest tomorrow (3 July), so do drop by for a chat.
Ok thanks. I expect a moderator will be along to take out your swear word with the auto-detect avoidance technique you used. Standard practice on the driver forum, we don’t like sweary words on here. You should know better.
Pulling your card will not automatically put you before the tc , as in my case it was a letter from the t/c informing me I was receiving a caution for my conduct
This is going to take some explaining, but here goes…
There was some suspicion as to the credibility of former TN member “Bogbrush.”
I include myself in that.
If only folks would simply report a post and let us get on with things…
Rather than that though, the usual suspects had to completely trash the topic (yet again…)
This created a mass of unnecessary extra work for the Mod/Admin Team (yet again…)
Anyway, going forward… After initial misunderstandings on both sides, PMs were exchanged and verifications carried out behind the scenes. This process took some time, and involved myself and my line manager at DVV Media.
After suitable checks and assurances etc, the member formerly known as “Bogbrush” has been reborn as Traffic Commissioner, the change of username being allowed by TN’s ‘exceptional circumstances’ rule.
To make this nice and clear, I’m writing this slowly for those who can’t read very fast…
If you don’t like TCs = kindly jog on without leaving nonsense comments (cos they’ll be deleted anyway. )
Finally… please be respectful… and heed our message… otherwise…
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For those to whom this multi-user ID stuff matters (for whatever reason ) there’s a new topic in the Feedback Forum:
Dear Traffic Commissioner,
Came you have a word with the transport secretary Grant Shapp and tell him he’s a bellend for allowing the changes in extended drivers hours to cope with the driver shortage
Traffic Commissioner:
For those questioning my sanity/true identity, I will be on the Highways England stand at Truckfest tomorrow (3 July), so do drop by for a chat.
A friend of mine did just that and I’d like to welcome you to Trucknet…………Nick.
Quick question - if another driver asks me to reverse his truck (company yard) but his card is in his tacho and I have mine in my truck’s tacho and we don’t swap cards what length of prison time am I looking at?
If only folks would simply report a post and let us get on with things… 
)
