Is this legal
Drives off ferry after 9 hours break on ferry drives through port customs and books on after 20 minutes as starting in uk previous days ferry movement onto the ferry was 10 minutes
All drives and breaks are legal in the day but total drive time for the day excluding the above 20 minutes is 9 hours has a rest break books onto ferry mode then drives for 30 minutes to get to and onto a ferry has 10 hours on ferry (only needs a nine) books on as starting new shift
Nope
if not why not?
if you have had 9 hrs on ferry without movement no problem,
if you have split it I pretty sure it has to be 11 hours of plus movement on and movement of when of the ferry you have to park up somewhere to get the break in all done on ferry mode you can move up to a hour of ferry to find parking but all must add up to 11 hours plus movements some say your first movement has to be after 3 hrs this might be true but I never have and never had a problem.
just a tip if you are split breaking keep ferry ticket or room card in case you are asked for it I got stopped in france the other day told them I had a split break on ferry the first thing he asked for was the ferry ticket.
ferry movement have to be 11 hours
To use the ferry movements to interrupt a daily rest the max 2 movements totalling not more than 1 hour and the full 11 hours for a daily rest must be completed within 24 hours from the end of the last daily or weekly rest period
Hanson. There is nothing written in law to provide proof of a ferry crossing by showing them a cabin ticket or ticket.
They have to accept the ferry mode on the tacho.
toby1234abc:
Hanson. There is nothing written in law to provide proof of a ferry crossing by showing them a cabin ticket or ticket.
They have to accept the ferry mode on the tacho.
I wouldn’t think there would be but that didn’t stop the control asking me if i had a ferry ticket you know what the french are like and it saved a lot of bother explaining to him what I had done as my French isn’t that good.
toby1234abc:
Hanson. There is nothing written in law to provide proof of a ferry crossing by showing them a cabin ticket or ticket.
They have to accept the ferry mode on the tacho.
Agree with you Toby but this does seem to be a particular fad of the French it just makes life a lot easier if you can produce the proof there and then, you should know that the French make it up as they go along. As a gendarme said to me after I had pointed out to him that I hadn’t broken any laws under the EU regs “but monsieur you must understand that you are in France”
toby1234abc:
Hanson. There is nothing written in law to provide proof of a ferry crossing by showing them a cabin ticket or ticket.
They have to accept the ferry mode on the tacho.
yep, toss the tickets and tell the authorities that toby said it was ok. should go off well.
With regards to what Hanson said about keeping ferry ticket or room card always keep hold of mine just in case i get pulled in France and i drive for a French company.
Always try to make life easier for myself.
Is it necessary to put your tacho on ferry rest mode for short crossings? I ask because several of my colleagues in the past would set that mode for Dover-Calais and I’ve seen it done on youtube videos as well but I was always under the impression that the ferry mode is only if you’re interrupting a daily rest and obviously a Dover-Calais in mid-shift isn’t, and can’t be used if there isn’t access to a bed etc any way. Surely if you’re only crossing to Calais you’d just put it on rest/break mode like you would for any other break during the day?
robinhood_1984:
Is it necessary to put your tacho on ferry rest mode for short crossings? I ask because several of my colleagues in the past would set that mode for Dover-Calais and I’ve seen it done on youtube videos as well but I was always under the impression that the ferry mode is only if you’re interrupting a daily rest and obviously a Dover-Calais in mid-shift isn’t, and can’t be used if there isn’t access to a bed etc any way. Surely if you’re only crossing to Calais you’d just put it on rest/break mode like you would for any other break during the day?
Ferry bit only needed if interrupting a regular daily rest - anything else is just normal mode use
ROG:
Ferry bit only needed if interrupting a regular daily rest - anything else is just normal mode use
Thought so. Thanks Rog.
It’s not unknown for some to start their daily rest in calais after booking off then using ferry mode to board the ferry, and again to disembark it & find a suitable place to park and have a further 9 hrs off , But you wouldn’t use ferry mode mid shift no point or gain
tommy t:
But you wouldn’t use ferry mode mid shift no point or gain
That’s what I thought as well but several I used to work with would religiously select ferry mode mid shift and I couldn’t fathom out why as having 90 minutes or so on the ferry there is no different to having 45 minutes on land in a layby or services. I was on paper tacho’s until I finished up in 2009 to go to Canada so never gave it much thought until last week when watching a youtube video and the guy doing it selected ferry mode for his Calais-Dover crossing mid-shift.
I was chatting to a guy who swore blind he had to use the ferry movement to show he had used a ferry to get from one country to another. I just smiled and nodded.
You can’t use the ferry movement rules on the Dover crossings, any more than you could do on the Woolwich Ferry. They are designed for ferry movements which almost amount to a daily break but not quite. Apart from anything else, you don’t have access to a bunk, and this is a major requirement for using ferry mode.
1 in to get to dover. New one in Calais, gets you to Lyon, another one without name filled in… Gets you to almost where you should be.
Repeat as needed to come home. Fresh one in dover.
Easy least lemon squeezy 
Harry Monk:
You can’t use the ferry movement rules on the Dover crossings, any more than you could do on the Woolwich Ferry. They are designed for ferry movements which almost amount to a daily break but not quite. Apart from anything else, you don’t have access to a bunk, and this is a major requirement for using ferry mode.
according to vosa in dover they don’t have a problem with you splitting breaks on dover Calais,and to make sure I rang the helpline they said exactly the same thing,what they don’t like is you using whats left of your movement hour to get as far as you can and not parking up at first chance,i asked them where this movement hour comes from that days shift(if you have enough time) or the next days shift and they said that thats the grey area and it is interpretated differently by vosa officers they wouldn’t give me a straight anser on the help line.