Well I am totally shocked at this post. Unbelievable that any driver who has just completed his class 1 licence could even contemplate breaking driving hours and daily rest periods. These regulations are there for a reason and are rightly so heavily enforced. You are responsible for knowing your driving hours and your daily, weekly rests. Break those and your driving career will be cut very short. I have no sympathy with anyone who breaks these regulations and neither will VOSA when they take your licence.
I think you now know the general consensus. If you haven’t got the hours, don’t ring in, just take it back. They will soon learn, and if they don’t? You have a class 1, go somewhere else. Simples.
6 24 hrs periods between weekly rest 144 hrs must be with is the fixed week Sunday midnight to Sunday midnight , 3 reduced between two weekly periods , if you’ve used you’re 3 reduced rest you can still do a 15 hr day but have a split daily rest of 3 hrs some where in you’re shift followed by a 9 hr witch basically leaves 12 hr working time 
but in youre case that does look highly doubtful but keep it in mind
As basically everyone else has said - keep the office updated, don’t work on break, don’t break the law… and find a decent company to work for, sharpish!
Hi to all I’m a wannabe (doing my theory and hazard perception tomorrow 
).
I have harvested a lot of good information off of this site (keep up all the good work) that’s given me a lot of answers. Then looking for an answer to my wife’s question on driving time I came across this thread and it filled me with HORROR as to what drivers are being told expected to do.
Is it just simply new drivers pass their tests without really understanding driver’s hours and the guys in the transport office who should be big brother to new drivers are actually taking the P*** and throwing huge work loads on them.
Or is this a common to new and old drivers and most companies, and if it’s common to all I’m a little disappointed that not one of the answers/opinion’s actually said.
“We need to put a stop to this so report the people - the company’s responsible to the relevant authorities”. Surely unreasonable work loads would not be the norm. “It’s your licence”
I’m not doing the job yet so it’s easy for me but if it’s possible for me to lose my licence for doing unreasonable driving hours I don’t think I would do it.
It is true that new drivers are often woefully short on knowledge of drivers’ hours. This is why there is a half day introduction to drivers’ hours and tachos as part of our Starter Pack. This gives newbies a fair chance of staying within the rules. But it has to be said that it takes more than half a day to master all the intricacies.
Companies will normally give a full days’ work. Why wouldn’t they? The difference is that a new driver will inevitably be slower as they don’t know the drops and it takes time to become familiar with the paperwork and delivery systems. Provided the new driver hasn’t been sat in lay-bys for an hour at a time or spending time lost cos they cant read a map, most companies seem to be content.
So my message is simple; learn the basic rules and get stuck in!
Good luck all, Pete 
MrFS1E:
Is it just simply new drivers pass their tests without really understanding driver’s hours and the guys in the transport office who should be big brother to new drivers are actually taking the P*** and throwing huge work loads on them.
Yes. Welcome to transport. You’ve already figured it out so you’ll probably do well.
It just sounded to me further in the OP’S thread that he’s just being bullied in to breaking the law as to drivers hours. He may have a fairly good understanding of the rules/law. But being told to “complete all delivery’s” causing him to work over his hours should not be the norm.
Yes company’s will of coarse fill a lorry for a days work and new drivers need to learn the ropes quickly but they should not be pushed into breaking the law.
But it’s a learning curve I’ll have to adapt to when the time comes.
Or perhaps Not
Without a doubt, there are some rogue operators who will expect a day’s work and a bit more. Best not to stay with them and move on. Any sign of bullying is well out of order in this day and age. I want to believe that the vast majority of operators have the desire to run within the rules; just a matter of finding out which is which.
Pete
Well some have you have written some scathing comments which is fine if you live in an area where there is plenty of Class 2 work and have no worries. (someone thought I was Class 1!.. wish that was the case).
What you didn’t mention was perhaps the following. A rota “4 on - 2 off” means working 3 days at 15 hours and one at 13 hours. [So WTD is 58 hours and I was asked to work overtime last week? Or is it as I am in fact most weeks Mon to Sun working 5 days]. In my case the weekly rest period is my days off.The company is one of these Vosa “pet firms” I presume. They invite Vosa in for an inspection and get on their good books knowing that their vehicles wont be stopped… Vosa really is a bit of a ‘muppet’ organisation - they should have as part of their professional practice a procedure whereby drivers can report firms and they will inspect.
There is such in the sense that a driver can complain but it won’t be followed up without documentation. I have taken photocopies of run sheets, scanned them at home and will send them off shortly. The estimated times are beyond 13 hours and no allowance for break. Once they have sufficient evidence they MAY act. BUT there will always be the excuse the driver is slow etc.
As for bullying… that is a fair way of putting it but what no-one has mentioned is that it is a sackable offence to give instruction to break the law. That is the reply one should give. If it happens again and if I was sacked for refusing I could demand the company take action on a corporate basis and take action privately. Of course one has to have the money. More than likely politely said they would back down instantly.
I have done quite a lot of multi-drop - fair companies are fine but this is ridiculous 30-40 drops a day. Of course it is yet again another way of getting employees to work harder and giving less pay.
As for moving on! Had a local company contact me having read my CV on CV-library… would I like a job! Not half!
Yes I would love to walk away resigning instantly but financially I am in difficulties and even this job took four weeks to materialise since I door knocked. The firm has a policy of ‘career development’ and so after 2 months one can apply for internal vacancies (it’s a huge warehouse and repair establishment). Just happens that there is also a large Class 1 fleet (sister firm)…AND… they have contacted me asking if I would be interested in the training programme. Class 1 paid for!
Wise not to ‘jump the gun’ too early sometimes… things can work out. I will know during the next week. Meanwhile I’ll submit my evidence for an inspection.
I don’t understand why you would want to shackle yourself to this company by letting them put you through Class 1 training (because there’s bound to be a tie in period) when they’re already expecting unreasonable things from you?
Indigo:
I don’t understand why you would want to shackle yourself to this company by letting them put you through Class 1 training (because there’s bound to be a tie in period) when they’re already expecting unreasonable things from you?
‘The company’ - has it’s own delivery fleet, three smaller franchised fleets (one of which I work for), and another for the artic work. I actually applied to the main delivery fleet who do respect workers hours and found myself in one of the franchisees.
jessejazza:
Well some have you have written some scathing comments which is fine if you live in an area where there is plenty of Class 2 work and have no worries…
Hi jessejazza,
I’m afraid that you’re suffering from the same thing that a lot of newbies suffer from. It’s called… a company might be taking advantage of you. This is unfortunately compounded by your newness, which isn’t your fault. Simple as that!
I’ll start by observing that nobody answering your OP knows whether what is expected of you is actually reasonable when measured in a fair way.
To try to help you, I’ll offer you this perspective:
The current law on drivers’ hours is called 561/2006.
Article 10 of 561/2006 can be re-written and distilled into plain English in the following way:
A transport company shall organise the work of drivers it employs or who are put at its disposal in such a way that the drivers are able to comply with the requirements relating to permitted hours of driving, breaks and rest periods.
The transport company shall properly instruct the driver and shall make regular checks to ensure that the requirements relating to permitted hours of driving, breaks and rest periods are complied with.
A transport company can organise its office staff as it sees fit, but a different law says that there MUST be AT LEAST ONE ‘nominated’ qualified Transport Manager ™ who is legally answerable to the Traffic Commissioner (TC) in order that the company can hold an Operator’s Licence to operate its vehicles. This is proper British law from the UK Parliament.
British law requires the transport company to give a written and signed promise to the TC that it will abide by the rules on drivers’ hours (amongst some other written promises.) These promises are properly called “Undertakings” and are recorded by the TC at the time that the company’s Operator’s Licence application is considered and granted.
There are a range of sanctions against transport companies and TMs available to the Traffic Commissioner if it is found that the undertakings to comply with the law are not being met. Sometimes, a nominated TM forgets their promise(s) and has to go for a compulsory chat with the TC at which they get officially reminded and warned as to their future conduct. 
Within a large company, there are usually a number of people who have the job title ‘Supervisor’ or even ‘TM,’ so I suspect that it is these people who you deal with on a day-to-day basis. It is possible that the ‘nominated’ TM (very unwisely) may not be fully aware of the (bullying?) antics of his underlings to earn their delivery target bonuses (if applicable,) but he/she is still answerable nevertheless.
It’s a shame that the office underlings aren’t as personally answerable as the actual ‘nominated’ TM, but that’s the way of it I’m afraid.
My employer used to be one that had pushy staff and several guys were like you and fell for it getting theirselves in trouble for going over to get the work done. Until they noticed the rest of us were doing what we could legally, not working breaks and getting back before our time was out regardless of wether we had failed drops or not. Grow a pair and tell them where to go, your the driver and it’s down to you to know when you need to have your vehicle back by and be off duty… if you’ve still got work left over then that’s down to their poor planning and expecting you to do to much… I’ve never had a problem with multi drop and love the challenges of it but you’ve got to be willing to stick up for yourself against the monkeys on the phones in the office. Best wishes.
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My son has recently changed jobs ( ok not in transport ) but in his contract they may /can change him shifts but they must give him 28 day notice he received an email letting him know his shift pattern he told them he would not be doing the 1st week as they said why they had given him less than 3 weeks notice he is 28 btw so yep you can do this
Next time they ask if you will carry on regardless ask if they are going to pay your bills see what the answer is or ask if they are willing to work 15 hours as they can not hard
Or you could make an anonymous call to DSA or what ever they are called this week
If you report them to Vosa, you could be dropping yourself in it. They may investigate the company and the drivers alongside. You’re doing the right thing amassing evidence, get yourself out of there asap and turn the whole lot over to vosa. As for class1, it’s up to you but I wouldn’t want to be tied to that particular operator. If you don’t want to report them yourself, name and shame on here, there are plenty who will.
jbaz73:
… name and shame on here, …
Sorry mate, but that’s not good advice.
There are ‘other’ sites where that kind of thing is allowed, but the owners of TN don’t like the public name and shame game.
PMs are the way to go with that point, but the rest can still be discussed.
jbaz73:
… You’re doing the right thing amassing evidence, get yourself out of there asap and turn the whole lot over to vosa. As for class1, it’s up to you but I wouldn’t want to be tied to that particular operator. If you don’t want to report them yourself, name and shame on here, there are plenty who will.
That’s what I am doing - had a good interview today! Strangely enough I had an email from the company after they had seen my CV on CV-library a couple of weeks ago… would I be interested in working for them?
Sadly didn’t get the job and resigned from the other. As for a complaint it is passed to the ‘Investigation section’ but decline to provide any feedback. The DVSA must be the only public office that do not have a formal complaints procedure which they have to follow. For me I think driving is over. 2yrs Class 2 work without problems and an awful job to end it.
I understand your current thinking. But get your head round it and try again. The huge majority of operators are straight and legal.
Go door knocking and get another start.
All the best, Pete