Registered on here years ago for some advice on potentially doing LGV driving, well unfortunately I have to be honest…I’m not an LGV driver, I’m one of those annoying bus drivers now. However, it appears there’s a lot of knowledge on driver hours which I’ve yet to find anywhere else online, some advice please.
So, I work Mon-Fri, 8am to 4pm, in an office job unrelated to driving but I also dabble in bits and pieces of local service bus work within 50km of the base so they don’t have a tachograph fitted as they’re not required (rather like say, a recovery LGV driver) and subject to GB Domestic rules. Nice and easy you’d think…
However, there’s a prospect of a couple of bits of rail replacement bus driving from another firm coming available, which would be over 50km from base, so I’d need to use a tacho and follow EU/AETR rules for this work. It wouldn’t be mixed GB Domestic/EU in a shift, totally EU rules on the tacho. So the issue I have with this is if I come back to the tacho after say 2 weeks of a mix of other work and rest, that’s going to be several hours to enter on the tacho card!
My research so far points towards that I don’t have to keep any records on non-EU weeks (by week a 00:00 Monday to 23:59 Sunday) but I do need full records for the weeks I may do rail replacement within EU rules. I’ve also read that rather than sticking loads of manual entries on the tacho card, I can keep a written diary/log book of the other work then just keep the tacho card for the rail replacement EU rules work? I also appreciate there’s more complexity with WTD but I’ll come to that later.
That means only 1 day driving every other weekend under EU regs
Records for the other work can be logged in a diary - no need to input into a tacho or do printouts
That means only 1 day driving every other weekend under EU regs
Records for the other work can be logged in a diary - no need to input into a tacho or do printouts
Well that’s that sorted, thanks Rog, I suspect it’ll be less than fortnightly to be offered EU stuff, but I’ll keep an eye on it.
Rog, I am really reluctant to second guess you at anytime but I can’t find anywhere a reference to a diary. The recent changes brought in by 1054 seem to back up the previous hard line contained within Clarification Note 7 - namely a full set of records to be kept and be able to produce at the roadside for a rolling 28 period using the manual input facility, print outs or a Tacho charts rear. The old article 6(5) and the new one refer to manual entries but in the context of using the switches on the tachograph (as does A.34 in 165).
The only exception I can see at all is an option to use Attestation Letter contained within Clarification note 7 but that seems restricted to Gen 1 users or “excessively burdensome retroactive recording” - their words not mine!
You are correct in saying that there is nothing official regarding a diary in the EU regs but here in the UK the DVSA accept a diary as proof of other work
If they wish to corroborate that diary then all they have to do is to investigate further by going into HMRC tax records or contacting any companies that the diary holder has worked for
I don’t think that they would accept that course of action or defence at the roadside though and their attitudes seem to be hardening to the 28 (soon to be 56 days) day roadside production requirement. In many ways they are asking infrequent users of the digital Tacho (like the opening questioner in this exchange) to be more accomplished in using that Tacho then a full time driver.
This is made worse following the amendment to Art 6(5) of 561 which removed the phrase “since last daily / weekly rest period” - it’s now open ended and seems to open up the possibility of a goldmine of Roadside Penalty Tickets and prohibitions.
So if you work all week 9-5 and want to do a bit of driving your tied to one weekend in two if using EU rules if you were using domestic is there any benefit ? Its been a while since I did any and may have an opportunity at some stage.
