Hey all,not sure if this has been asked before…I am a scaffolder (not for much longer I hope, but hey ho!)
I drive a 3.5t transit flat bed. I’m normally part of a team that has one driver…me.
Thing is, some days we are travelling some ridiculous runs,boss expects farrr too much on a daily basis. We start at 7am, sometimes 6am if he feels like it. We’re not contracted to any hours, infact, were not contracted to anything, there isn’t one.
For example a typical day (from our yard in Wigan) could look like, Northampton, Bradford, nelson. Hours of driving on its own, plus scaffolding. It means we rarely have time to stop for rest, I am team leader so I can’t stay in the truck at jobs, rarely got time to ■■■■ in a toilet, rarely got time to stop for dinner, the list goes on…
So my question is, are there any laws around this? Its definitely not safe doing 8-9 hours of driving and then scaffolding with no break and I’m sure if I fell asleep at the wheel overworked,it wouldn’t be my bosses fault! I’ve read that there is a 10 hour limit but I was under the impression driving hours only applied to over 3.5t.
Any help and advice appreciated. I’m doing my cat 2 training anyway so hopefully soon I’ll be all tacho’d up and off the tools!
Domestic driving rules do cover 3.5t and these state max 10 hours driving and 11 hours duty in a 24 hour period. Driving is the time spent at the controls of the vehicle (even if stationary) and duty does not include breaks - so work and driving only.
There are no rules for break or rest meaning you ‘could’ drive 10h non stop.
You are not required to keep/make records as the vehicle is 3.5t meaning almost impossible to enforce the rules of 10h driving etc
However - if you were to be in an incident it is possible your working hours could be investigated and action taken against both you and your employer because you have exceeded the Domestic hours - in my experience unlikely. This could make things worse if you were the cause of the incident and increase the sanctions taken (i.e prison if a death)
Of course the Health & Safety at Work Act would also come into it.
Basically if you don’t think what you are doing is safe - don’t do it 
Sit down with the boss and discuss it 
It’s also important to note that the 11 hours duty in 24 is not 11 hours continuous from when you start your shift. Unlike the EU hours, where you have to be done a maximum of 13 or 15 hours from when you start work due to daily rest requirements, for domestic you don’t have a daily rest period so the 11 hours could be spread right through the 24 hours.
You could do a couple of hours, have a couple hours not on duty, do an hour, have an hour off, do another hour, couple off and continue in this vein throughout the period. Which means you could start work at say 7:00 and still be doing duty time at 06:00 the following morning providing you haven’t clocked up 11 hours of duty or 10 hours of driving.
On any day you do less than 4 hours driving the rules don’t apply so you aren’t limited to 11 hours duty.