Does the ferry movement allowance apply for longer crossings to? I ask because I regularly used to ship out from Immingham to Cuxhaven on a Saturday night and the crossing could take anywhere from 19-24 hours and often had you arriving in Cuxhaven Sunday evening, several hours short of the end of the German Sunday driving ban so you had to pull off the ship, drive about 1.5km through the terminal and park outside the gate and wait for 10pm or whenever after that you wanted to leave. I was on paper tacho’s back then and used to write on the back that I’d done a ferry movement and then start a full 13/15 shift once I’d left there sometime after midnight. Was I wrong in doing this? I never got checked so have no idea.
hanson:
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.
I challenge you to get that in writing, as Dover - Calais/Dunkirk does not provide a bunk or couchette, so you definetly cannot use it as part of a split break.
On routes which do provide a bunk or couchette, the hour you have for driving on and off does not count towards either shift, but does count towards your weekly & fortnightly totals.
the vosa man in dover was happy with what I had done,i was expecting to get fined I do have the persons name from the help line,its all fine for me. now if you was on it split breaking every day they might take a different view.it seems to me like they all have a different view and goal posts get moved as we go along.
im pretty sure a vosa man lets say in carlile would take a different view as he would not have a idea about dover Calais
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.
your wrong n that one harry Dover Calais is no different than any other ferry crossing . i was stopped for routine check by vosa and no fine or warning was given to me for doing a ferry rest on Dover Calais crossing .
robinhood_1984:
…and then start a full 13/15 shift once I’d left there sometime after midnight…
…had a little shiver when I read that!! Could never get the hang of starting work when everyone else was fast asleep!! It was bad enough pulling up when the sun had just risen let alone keep on going then until lunchtime!! 
Hold on lads ; Flying Foden and Hanson have both said it is ok with the UK DVSA to have a ferry rest on a ship without a bunk bed.
But what about the Gendarmes and Belgium road traffic enforcement officers.
How do you explain that to them.
“Well DVSA in Dover said it is ok.”.Prepare to open your wallets to hear those words “You must pay.Papiers de camion s’il vous plait Monsieur.”
I once tried to pull over the eyes of the Guarda Civil by pretending to get to a pharmacy to get some Ventolin inhalers.
I only had 8 hours daily rest due to having a good night in the “club”.
I squirted my puffer as he climbed up in the cab.
It made no difference.
Parked up all day to start a new daily rest and fined.
in Europe they have there own ways of looking at it and its just luck of the draw who you get. got stopped in control the other week he checked everything and he never found a problem card went on his computer his card went in machine he was happy,as you well know you can get a fine in Europe for something you cant get a fine for in uk.
example when I got stopped on control I told him I had split breaked on caen ferry he asked for the crossing ticket which I still had I always keep them when I have split a break he was happy when i showed him,now some will say you don’t have to prove by showing a ticket but why have all the hassle when you can be on your way pretty quick im pretty sure he would have gone down the route of how do i know you was on the ferry and maybe fined aswell.
the flying foden:
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.your wrong n that one harry Dover Calais is no different than any other ferry crossing . i was stopped for routine check by vosa and no fine or warning was given to me for doing a ferry rest on Dover Calais crossing .
Harry is correct. Dover - Calais is different to longer ferry crossings as you don’t have access to a bunk or couchette which is specifically required by the regulations. Just because one particular VOSA officer choose not to fine you for something does not mean it is correct or legal.
I have heard the deeper in to Europe you go, the Police do not understand the ferry mode and have fined drivers for not enough rest.
whelmic:
the flying foden:
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.your wrong n that one harry Dover Calais is no different than any other ferry crossing . i was stopped for routine check by vosa and no fine or warning was given to me for doing a ferry rest on Dover Calais crossing .
Harry is correct. Dover - Calais is different to longer ferry crossings as you don’t have access to a bunk or couchette which is specifically required by the regulations. Just because one particular VOSA officer choose not to fine you for something does not mean it is correct or legal.
must be more than one officer then the lady on the help line says the same unless it was the cleaner that picked the fone up.
why doesn’t someone come on here and say they have been fined for it or is that because no one ever has
whelmic:
the flying foden:
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.your wrong n that one harry Dover Calais is no different than any other ferry crossing . i was stopped for routine check by vosa and no fine or warning was given to me for doing a ferry rest on Dover Calais crossing .
Harry is correct. Dover - Calais is different to longer ferry crossings as you don’t have access to a bunk or couchette which is specifically required by the regulations. Just because one particular VOSA officer choose not to fine you for something does not mean it is correct or legal.
so the couchettes on the spirit of France & spirit of Britain are there just for show then are they
.
the flying foden:
so the couchettes on the spirit of France & spirit of Britain are there just for show then are they
They’re not couchettes, they’re glorified sun loungers. 
I do believe I’ve read on here that drivers have been fined in France for using ferry mode on the DOCA route, because there is no access to a bunk.
bullitt:
I didn’t have to start then but after being on the ferry for the best part of 24 hours with nothing to do other than sleep, then the having to move the truck off the ferry upon docking etc, I was usually wide awake and couldn’t then sleep till morning. It also benefitted me because by leaving at lets say midnight or 1am I could miss all the traffic in Bremen and Hannover on my way to Bitterfeld in the former DDR. I was usually completelly knackered by day break though so almost always stopped on the old East German border for 2-4 hours sleep then ran to Bitterfeld, tipped if they were still open and parked there till the next morning. It worked fine that way. On the times I chose to start at 5 or 6am from Cuxhaven I’d end up spending hours that day in horrendous traffic in Bremen/Hannover etc and it just wasn’t worth it.
The worst thing about those trips for me was the having to leave home on Saturday afternoon, I never did like that.
the flying foden:
whelmic:
the flying foden:
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.your wrong n that one harry Dover Calais is no different than any other ferry crossing . i was stopped for routine check by vosa and no fine or warning was given to me for doing a ferry rest on Dover Calais crossing .
Harry is correct. Dover - Calais is different to longer ferry crossings as you don’t have access to a bunk or couchette which is specifically required by the regulations. Just because one particular VOSA officer choose not to fine you for something does not mean it is correct or legal.
so the couchettes on the spirit of France & spirit of Britain are there just for show then are they
The definition of a couchette taken from the Oxford English Dictionary is: “A railway carriage with seats convertible into sleeping berths.” There certainly were not any of these on the Spirit of Britain last time I was on there!
whelmic:
the flying foden:
whelmic:
the flying foden:
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.your wrong n that one harry Dover Calais is no different than any other ferry crossing . i was stopped for routine check by vosa and no fine or warning was given to me for doing a ferry rest on Dover Calais crossing .
Harry is correct. Dover - Calais is different to longer ferry crossings as you don’t have access to a bunk or couchette which is specifically required by the regulations. Just because one particular VOSA officer choose not to fine you for something does not mean it is correct or legal.
so the couchettes on the spirit of France & spirit of Britain are there just for show then are they
The definition of a couchette taken from the Oxford English Dictionary is: “A railway carriage with seats convertible into sleeping berths.” There certainly were not any of these on the Spirit of Britain last time I was on there!
looks like vosa can’t find that page in the English or any other Dictionary. and as long as when my card gets checked either by them or by my company and no infringements are on it then im a happy bunny .
so the couchettes on the spirit of France & spirit of Britain are there just for show then are they
[/quote]
The definition of a couchette taken from the Oxford English Dictionary is: “A railway carriage with seats convertible into sleeping berths.” There certainly were not any of these on the Spirit of Britain last time I was on there!
[/quote]
Haven’t seen many railway carriages on the Mont St Michel recently either, so would you consider that one cannot utilize a ferry break on the portsmouth/Caen crossing??
skorpio:
so the couchettes on the spirit of France & spirit of Britain are there just for show then are they
The definition of a couchette taken from the Oxford English Dictionary is: “A railway carriage with seats convertible into sleeping berths.” There certainly were not any of these on the Spirit of Britain last time I was on there!
[/quote]
Haven’t seen many railway carriages on the Mont St Michel recently either, so would you consider that one cannot utilize a ferry break on the portsmouth/Caen crossing??
[/quote]
No, the legislation states that the drivers must have “access to a bunk or couchette”. Mont St Michel and all other vessels operated by Brittany Ferries have bunks so there is no issue.
The issue is only with the Dover - Calais/Dunkirk ferries which don’t have either bunks or couchettes
Rec dover calais have done a few times esp when delays and ran out of time
Been pulled in uk and on francd in the weeks after no issues
The other way if not all the time is to ship to dover park up etc
As calais is now a unsafe place to stop for the driver vehixle and load safety
So technically could legally deviate from the rules
Back on paper tachos pre 07 when was quite bad in calais at time
Done this a few times got to calais 10-20mins over time shipped to uk took 9off
Wrote reason on back never an issue
And guy i was working for at time had vosa in many drivers got done for things
But they were happy with my explanations and no fines or court for me
These are PCV rules so I don’t know if they are the same as HGV.