I’ve been a driver for over 20yrs & have a good record… a few months ago I had a nasty one on an A road in Scotland, unit only. It was the middle of the night, the road was wet & as I went over the brow of a hill on a corner, the back end slid away & I slid & spun round. The unit wheels bumped the curb & the thing tipped over onto it’s N/S on the grass verge.
Now… I was taken off the road by the company until the accident was investigated. I can’t be sure exactly of my speed but think it was around 40mph at the time. The company produced Isotrak readings that indicated my last recorded speed was 56mph & have taken this to be the speed I was travelling when I crashed. I think this speed trace was taken from the bypass which was about 4mins driving time from where the accident happened? The company are insisting that I was driving at 56mph, & therefore speeding, when I had the accident. Now they want to sack me for gross misconduct??
I’ve asked for more accurate data from the head unit in the truck but they won’t or can’t produce it? The isotrak printout has between 11 & 13 traces per hour so it’s difficult to work out exactly where I was when that last trace was taken?
I called the police & they were happy that the unit was not causing any obstruction… they didn’t download the VU. They sussed the situation out & saw it was a pure accident, didn’t even breathalyse me. They liaised with the firm to organise recovery of the unit & that was it. I presumed the first thing my firm would do was to download the VU, so although this thing has dragged out for months, I’ve been quietly confident that the VU data would show I wasn’t speeding. Now there doesn’t appear to be any data from the vehicle itself & I’m getting sacked from the last Isotrak trace? I think there’s been a ■■■■ up & my firm’s neglected to d/l the data from the truck… Can they sack me from the Isotrak trace? There calling it ‘gross misconduct’, driving in an unsafe & unprofessional manner manner, at excess speed over the national speed limit!
What was the speed limit of the road when the last trace was taken? We’re you speeding on the road where isotrak says you were on the limiter.
Whatever anyone on here answers, disregard it and go and seek proper legal advice. You may have free legal cover as part of a union subscription, household insurance or car insurance.
Better to get it straight from the people who know the law not those that hear the law from RDC waiting rooms.
“What was the speed limit of the road when the last trace was taken?”… This is my problem, I came off the duel carriageway & the accident happened 3-4 minutes later on an A road. There’s an average of 11 traces per hour on the Isotrak printout, which suggests a trace every 5.5 minutes, although the traces are not uniform so the time between them seems to vary. So how can I tell where I was exactly when the final trace was taken?
No reason has been offered as to why there’s no data from the VU in the truck.
My Union rep is helping but it’s difficult to find someone who actually knows enough about these Isotrak readings to accurately decipher them. With traces every 5+ minutes, there’s more gaps than there are traces.
I’m only speculating here, because I really don’t know the answer, but I’ve been led to believe that a head unit will only record the speed trace for 24hrs, before it overwrites itself. Even if the unit was on its side, but still had power and was parked up somewhere, it’ll still be recording a speed of zero.
All I can say is that we are innocent until proven guilty.
A large majority of numpties take whatever punishment is thrown at them. Fight them, beat them, might be worth your while to be ever so stressed out that you end up so mithered that you end up not being able to work until you draw your (full) pension.
I know folk who have taken such a course. It’s not my thing, but it does happen.
Cheers guys… I’m gutted it’s come to this as I thought when the VU data eventually turned up I’d be in the clear.
A short spell online has taught me that you can d/l precise speed data from those tacho’s for the last 3 months… something which the company should have known, & done immediately in my opinion. They d/l all the units weekly but it looks as if they’ve only been d/loading the last 24hrs by pressing the wrong buttons on the d/loader, so they’ve figured the isotrak data will be enough to fire me.
Smiggsy:
A short spell online has taught me that you can d/l precise speed data from those tacho’s for the last 3 months…
Care to drop a link as to where you found that out? That’s worth knowing if it’s correct, I was under the belief (as with PaulNowak above) that the speed trace was overwritten daily.
Smiggsy:
A short spell online has taught me that you can d/l precise speed data from those tacho’s for the last 3 months
I don’t know where you got that information but it’s not correct, the EU specifications for a digital tachograph require the VU to hold a speed profile for the last 24 hours of vehicle movement.
I doubt very much that any make of digital tachograph holds significantly more speed data than the EU specifications require.
Whatever you do you should not take for granted that everything you read on the internet is accurate unless you read the regulations yourself
The easiest way to find the section is to open the document and search for 12.7
Anex IB
12.7
Detailed speed data
The recording equipment shall record and store in its data memory the instan-
taneous speed of the vehicle and the corresponding date and time at every second
of at least the last 24 hours that the vehicle has been moving.
tachograph:
12.7
Detailed speed data
The recording equipment shall record and store in its data memory the instan-
taneous speed of the vehicle and the corresponding date and time at every second
of at least the last 24 hours that the vehicle has been moving.
So if the vehicle has been sat since rolling over then the speed trace should be visible on the head unit.
