Where I work once in a while they ask warehouse staff to go out in class 2 truck .
The driver has all relevant licenses etc.
Come.back downloads his card. Fair enough.
But now there telling him he has to download his card every 28 days
Even if he hasn’t been out in a truck for 28 days he’s been told it’s a legal requirement.is this true? As be no information on it to download .
No big issue doing it…just don’t see the point in downloading a card when youhaven’t been on a truck for over a month .
i thought it was a legal requirement.
Last year i had a period of 6 months off having and recovering from an op. There was no way i could download my card as i wasn’t at work. When i did d/l it it gave me all sorts of infringements like 6 months worth of no weekly rest etc. However i fail to see what difference putting it in the reader every 28 days would do.
Way I look at it. If you stick your card on rest for a couple of mins before ejection it. Surely it would presume your on rest untill next time be that next day or months later.
How you can get an infringment when not using it god knows
No, it doesn’t work like that now. Drivers - no matter how occasionally they drive - need to be able to produce a full 28 day record of all activities.
I don’t think this company has correctly understood how that works, because a card download showing no driving does not count as a “full record”. This company needs to know about the official format “attestation letter” if they plan to send warehouse workers on the road occasionally.
@zac_a so in my case where i couldn’t download the card because i was unable to work or even get to work what should i of done or is a record of my sickness (sick notes) acceptable
On your return to work you have four options:
Create your full record by hand, in block entries on the back of
(i) analogue charts ( 
)
(ii) do same but on the back of a digi tacho print out where your card number is on the “front” of the printout (easiest option)
(iii) Do a complex series of manual entries (not recommended)
(iv) see the guys in the office to create a record using official format “attestation letters”
Is it a chore? A bit.
Did DVSA need to go down this route? Debatable.
Is it worth X amount of your time to tick the boxes to avoid penalities? In my book, yes, considering that the default penalty seems to be a £200 fine as standard, from feedback I’ve had.
It is probably a compliance thing. If getting audited and you have a driver on your books and he hasn’t downloaded in 28 days, it would be something that would be questioned. It would probably be time-consuming dealing with it, so to avoid that, get the driver to download.
A download could also potentially uncover some undeclared agency driving being done on the side and an operator shouldn’t be sending a driver out without knowing the appropriate rest has been taken prior to the shift.
The legalities of it I don’t know to be honest, but it seems a reasonable request.
As regards records, I expect that in 99% of cases where drivers go out on the road occasionally, they are not meeting the required records stipulated, which actually state that the records need to be on tachograph paper or the old analogue discs.
Additionally, in weeks where EU driving does occur, a full record, including exact times of breaks should be kept. Something tells me when Joe Bloggs suddenly gets asked to go out in the rigid when someone calls in sick, that he may not actually have all that information written on tachograph paper.
The attestation forms are fine, but is there always someone there to fill one of these in in a timely fashion when a run is waiting to go out?
I think I recall quite a bizarre rule that your name will suffice, but if you don’t put your name, then both your driving licence number and digi card number will make it acceptable.
Name only? Maybe, but my view would always be to avoid Plod or DVSA being able to make nitpicking comments like “but how do we know this Joe Bloggs is the same one whose card is in the tacho” or some other such nonsense; I’ve found that anything bureaucratic is best dealt with by removing any remote potential for ambiguity.
Wouldn’t it all be rest anyway if off work anyway?
Goff, in this case it wouldn’t be rest as the guy was working in the warehouse. I got laid off at Christmas, took four weeks off and then found a new job. The day I started I put my card in and followed the prompt “rest until now?” and clicked “yes”. As far as I’m concerned that was a true statement.
I was referring to @cooper1203 who was off for 6 months recovering from an operation sorry.
No worries mate. It’s never clear who’s talking to whom and about what with this new format 
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it would of been yes apart from a few min either end which is what i did. so it either didnt like that or the other alternative is as i put my card in the reader before i got in a unit and did my manual entries it may of analised it as 6 months other work but when i put it in the second time i would of thought it would of reset its self.
Yes, I don’t know how you’d get infringements if the manual entry was correct.
But it now needs to be “proved” by one of the four methods, it is no longer just “assumed”. No wonder drivers sometimes feel like DVSA are “out to get them”.
I think what @goff118 is saying is; the manual entry putting rest preceded by work and followed by work appears to meet the criteria and covers the whole time accurately (in the case of @cooper1203 anyway).
Just putting the card in and not bothering with a manual entry wouldn’t be acceptable.
Yes, so the “proof” would be on the digicard. There must have been a mistake with the manual entry for that to throw up infringements?
no mistake either it didn’t like 6 months of rest or because i downloaded it before i did the manual entry the software got its knickers in a twist
And just to make matters worse the 28 days is going to increase to 56 days at the end of December 2024!
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