I’m hoping I can get some advice on a matter that concerns me. I work for a large parcel company, driving 7.5t from our depot to distribution hub, every night. Now, the company have, what I think, is a lax attitude towards digi tacho data etc.
Now, for starters, getting them to download my card is a task, I make my card available, and ask on a regular basis for it to be downloaded, all I get told is ‘we’ll do it later’, the last time my card was downloaded was 4th Dec, likewise the vdu is downloaded on a similar basis, once in a blue moon.
This bit is the part that concerns me most. I started with the company in May 10, my card downloaded occasionally, with 2 periods of card malfunction so printouts taken. Now, the 1st time this happened was in July 10, I recorded my activity on the printouts, and handed them in when required. Fast forward to Dec 10, and the short version is they’ve lost the printouts, the data downloaded from lorry and card hasn’t been matched up on the pc since May 10, and the period relating to printouts, they dont have the printouts to match up to vehicle data, so god knows what they’ve entered for that period, I have a written record of activity for the period but they didnt use it.
So there is my concern. Could this in any way come back at me in the future and cause me problems? And what to do about it? Do I keep quiet and say nothing, or do I need to ‘cover my arse’ and speak up? This is really just the tip of the iceberg regarding this company and the lorry, but its the main thing that concerns me.
So, please advise, comment etc,
Won’t come back to haunt you.
All you are required to do is make your card available for download, you’ve done that. Downloading from the VDU is their responsibility, not yours.
In situations when you have to take legally required printouts, not the pointless ones people print every shift, it is always best to make two sets then you can keep one set for when the office lose the set you give them. Again not your problem a sit is their responsibility to keep the data safe, and the period you were required to keep the printouts for is long past. You are in the clear on the issues you raise.
SuffolkLad:
I’m hoping I can get some advice on a matter that concerns me. I work for a large parcel company, driving 7.5t from our depot to distribution hub, every night. Now, the company have, what I think, is a lax attitude towards digi tacho data etc.
Now, for starters, getting them to download my card is a task, I make my card available, and ask on a regular basis for it to be downloaded, all I get told is ‘we’ll do it later’, the last time my card was downloaded was 4th Dec, likewise the vdu is downloaded on a similar basis, once in a blue moon.
This bit is the part that concerns me most. I started with the company in May 10, my card downloaded occasionally, with 2 periods of card malfunction so printouts taken. Now, the 1st time this happened was in July 10, I recorded my activity on the printouts, and handed them in when required. Fast forward to Dec 10, and the short version is they’ve lost the printouts, the data downloaded from lorry and card hasn’t been matched up on the pc since May 10, and the period relating to printouts, they dont have the printouts to match up to vehicle data, so god knows what they’ve entered for that period, I have a written record of activity for the period but they didnt use it.
So there is my concern. Could this in any way come back at me in the future and cause me problems? And what to do about it? Do I keep quiet and say nothing, or do I need to ‘cover my arse’ and speak up? This is really just the tip of the iceberg regarding this company and the lorry, but its the main thing that concerns me.
So, please advise, comment etc,
Your driver card should be made available for download at least every 28 days, which you have done.
The Vehicle Unit VU must be downloaded at least every 56 days.
However as a driver it is not your responsibility, the operator must do that.
The printouts from July are more than 28 days old so you do not need to carry them with you.
Your employer is at fault, not you, but I would make sure the CPC holder is aware of this, not the organ grinder in the traffic office.
Your driver card will hold much more than 28 days data, it is not wiped clean when downloaded.
We dont have a traffic office in our depot, the day to day management of the lorry is taken care of by my manager. The only manager that I’m aware had cpc has now left for another depot, although I’ll find out if our new depot manager has one.
From the companies point of view, how much of a problem and how serious is it?
Very serious and big problem with regards to their O licence
Coffeeholic:
Very serious and big problem with regards to their O licence
Just out of interest, as your a a clued up bloke on the legalities,
not sure how to word this so here goes
“What percentage of managers or CPC holders do you think are fully clued up regarding the O licence”?
its a problem if no one qualified has been assigned to look after your depot
they dont have to be physically based there
B1 GGK:
Coffeeholic:
Very serious and big problem with regards to their O licenceJust out of interest, as your a a clued up bloke on the legalities,
not sure how to word this so here goes
“What percentage of managers or CPC holders do you think are fully clued up regarding the O licence”?
Fully clued up on tacho rules, O licensing and WTD? Well under 50% would be my guess.
PMSL toooo true 
As another example of the comapnies lax attitude towards the lorry, even the small details like printer paper get overlooked. We have had no rolls of printer paper in our depot for at least 6 months, despite repeatedly asking for some, it never gets ordered. As it stands at the moment, there is no spare roll in the cab, the spare roll I had in there (I’m the only perm 7.5t driver in the depot, day duties are taken care of by agency drivers) went walkies, I found this out when I went to replace the roll last Tuesday. Theres now a roll in the printer, only because I managed to get 1 off another driver at the hub, but no spare.
SuffolkLad:
As another example of the comapnies lax attitude towards the lorry, even the small details like printer paper get overlooked. We have had no rolls of printer paper in our depot for at least 6 months, despite repeatedly asking for some, it never gets ordered. As it stands at the moment, there is no spare roll in the cab, the spare roll I had in there (I’m the only perm 7.5t driver in the depot, day duties are taken care of by agency drivers) went walkies, I found this out when I went to replace the roll last Tuesday. Theres now a roll in the printer, only because I managed to get 1 off another driver at the hub, but no spare.
Insufficient paper would be a problem for you is stopped. While there is no legal requirement to carry a spare the regulations do require ‘sufficient paper’ and that is generally accepted to be one in the VDU and one spare.
If they agency drivers are using all the paper doing needless print outs maybe you could remove the roll from the machine at the end of your shift. They agency guys at our place love doing print outs so I remove the roll when I am not using the truck for that reason.
ok, is there any other way of finding out who the cpc holder is? As I’ve asked around at work, spoken to managers and no one has a clue what I’m on about, so am still none the wiser.
SuffolkLad:
ok, is there any other way of finding out who the cpc holder is? As I’ve asked around at work, spoken to managers and no one has a clue what I’m on about, so am still none the wiser.
You could put the O licence number into Google and it may show something up in Applications and Decisions if there have been any relevant changes recently 
Coffeeholic:
SuffolkLad:
As another example of the comapnies lax attitude towards the lorry, even the small details like printer paper get overlooked. We have had no rolls of printer paper in our depot for at least 6 months, despite repeatedly asking for some, it never gets ordered. As it stands at the moment, there is no spare roll in the cab, the spare roll I had in there (I’m the only perm 7.5t driver in the depot, day duties are taken care of by agency drivers) went walkies, I found this out when I went to replace the roll last Tuesday. Theres now a roll in the printer, only because I managed to get 1 off another driver at the hub, but no spare.Insufficient paper would be a problem for you is stopped. While there is no legal requirement to carry a spare the regulations do require ‘sufficient paper’ and that is generally accepted to be one in the VDU and one spare.
If they agency drivers are using all the paper doing needless print outs maybe you could remove the roll from the machine at the end of your shift. They agency guys at our place love doing print outs so I remove the roll when I am not using the truck for that reason.
Most probable reason for agency drivers doing the print outs is that the person running the agency requires them after 28 days so if a client queries the hours a particular driver worked on such a date they have proof of what they did, on more than one occasion when i worked for an agency i got called to say the client was querying my hours and after looking at the printout and cross referencing with my diary it showed that i was most likely sat in the clients yard waiting to be loaded etc.
smarty1972:
Coffeeholic:
SuffolkLad:
As another example of the comapnies lax attitude towards the lorry, even the small details like printer paper get overlooked. We have had no rolls of printer paper in our depot for at least 6 months, despite repeatedly asking for some, it never gets ordered. As it stands at the moment, there is no spare roll in the cab, the spare roll I had in there (I’m the only perm 7.5t driver in the depot, day duties are taken care of by agency drivers) went walkies, I found this out when I went to replace the roll last Tuesday. Theres now a roll in the printer, only because I managed to get 1 off another driver at the hub, but no spare.Insufficient paper would be a problem for you is stopped. While there is no legal requirement to carry a spare the regulations do require ‘sufficient paper’ and that is generally accepted to be one in the VDU and one spare.
If they agency drivers are using all the paper doing needless print outs maybe you could remove the roll from the machine at the end of your shift. They agency guys at our place love doing print outs so I remove the roll when I am not using the truck for that reason.
Most probable reason for agency drivers doing the print outs is that the person running the agency requires them after 28 days so if a client queries the hours a particular driver worked on such a date they have proof of what they did, on more than one occasion when i worked for an agency i got called to say the client was querying my hours and after looking at the printout and cross referencing with my diary it showed that i was most likely sat in the clients yard waiting to be loaded etc.
Being as how the data will stay on the card for many months, close to a year in fact, and you can go back and take a printout of a day at any time there is really no reason for the agency to require daily printouts. If a client queries your hours, and they will surely do that in weeks rather than months, you can make a printout of the relevant day then. Or the agency could invest in a cheap card reader.
Also why would the agency only require them after 28 days and not say at the end of the week with your time sheet?
SuffolkLad:
We dont have a traffic office in our depot, the day to day management of the lorry is taken care of by my manager. The only manager that I’m aware had cpc has now left for another depot, although I’ll find out if our new depot manager has one.
From the companies point of view, how much of a problem and how serious is it?
Hi SuffolkLad,
It’s quite possible that there’s nobody at your depot who holds a CPC, and there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that situation.
If your company has more than one depot in that traffic area, then the CPC function for your depot’s trucks might be covered by a manager at another depot.