I have my first shift this Saturday with an agency doing local RDC work with no handballing.
In the terms of contract they emailed me it states I don’t get paid for lunch breaks and other rest breaks, which is fine.
Does that mean I put the tachograph to other work when waiting in the RDC waiting room and take my 45 when back on the road or take the card out and do manual entries when I return to my truck? What is normally done in this situation.
I have heard of drivers sitting in waiting rooms for hours so obviously I’m not going to leave it on rest.
The other thing the terms of contract says is that I have to complete a timesheet and get it signed by the hirer. Is the agency meant to give me timesheets to be filled in or am I supposed to source them myself.
I know they are probably silly questions but I don’t want to make stupid mistakes on my first day.
My agency supply me with timesheets. I complete 1 timesheet per assignment, get it signed off by the client at the end of each one and they keep one of the copies for their records. I then just take a photo of the timesheet and what’s app it to the agency, and keep hold of them.
Your question is a good example of how no one tells you anything when you are on agency, starting with the agency 
Hope you have a good first shift.
Normally they will deduct 45 minutes from you each shift, so if you do a 12 hour shift the agency will pay you 11 1/4 hours, regarding breaks whenever I go to an RDC it’s straight on break !
I would check again with the agency but I would expect only 45 mins to be deducted for all breaks regardless of what the tacho says. So therefore you would be fine to leave it on break. You cannot remove the card without a good reason, so that’s not an option…
The theory is that you put it on POA, but that will mean the agency will lose out having to pay you for all the time sat doing nothing. I’m sure they’ll be reasonable and only deduct 45 mins.
Where I was, even if driving time was over 9 hrs, so more than one 45 min break was required, you would only be deducted one 45 min, because the other one was only because you were doing overtime.
Worst case, they can email you a timesheet for you to printout beforehand, or they post them to you (no use for Saturday), or the client has a stock of them if they use that agency a lot? Agent should have given you a supply when you registered with them!
Phoned the agency and they emailing me a timesheet and was told to put tacho on other work when at RDC and take my 45 in my truck. At least I know what they want me to do so all good, I hope 
Stuart1:
Phoned the agency and they emailing me a timesheet and was told to put tacho on other work when at RDC and take my 45 in my truck. At least I know what they want me to do so all good, I hope
A note of caution - the Agency may want you to do it that way, but the client company may have other ideas.
Stand your ground, keep yourself legal.
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Roymondo:
Stuart1:
Phoned the agency and they emailing me a timesheet and was told to put tacho on other work when at RDC and take my 45 in my truck. At least I know what they want me to do so all good, I hope
A note of caution - the Agency may want you to do it that way, but the client company may have other ideas.
Stand your ground, keep yourself legal.
Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk
Why get him worried?
There is no situation where it would be illegal to put it on other work (other than defeating the tacho from recording driving).
Stuart, the agency is paying you, they are your client, so do what they say for now and I’m sure you’ll learn what works for you. Whether you want to take a break on a bay and have access to your cab to change it after 45 mins and get home earlier or not.
stu675:
Stuart, the agency is paying you, they are your client, so do what they say for now and I’m sure you’ll learn what works for you. Whether you want to take a break on a bay and have access to your cab to change it after 45 mins and get home earlier or not.
That’s what I did, as you say they are the ones paying me.
Well all went ok I think. Was given the keys, paperwork and trailer to couple up. Two local RDC drops and then back to change trailer and off to Three more RDC’s.
Although it felt I was getting thrown in the deep end to begin with it was rather straight forward. It was strange seeing how different RDC’s work. Most allowed me to sit in my truck whilst getting tipped and the last one I had to self tip using a electric pallet lift.
The only Problem I had (apart from a blind side reverse onto one bay 
) was when I was finished and headed back into the yard, there was no one in the transport office (they were all away home) to sign my timesheet, download my tacho card or even hand the keys and paperwork too. The only person there was the security/gate man and he wasn’t sure what to do. So I gave him the keys, paperwork and he signed my timesheet.
Stuart1:
stu675:
Stuart, the agency is paying you, they are your client, so do what they say for now and I’m sure you’ll learn what works for you. Whether you want to take a break on a bay and have access to your cab to change it after 45 mins and get home earlier or not.
That’s what I did, as you say they are the ones paying me.
Well all went ok I think. Was given the keys, paperwork and trailer to couple up. Two local RDC drops and then back to change trailer and off to Three more RDC’s.
Although it felt I was getting thrown in the deep end to begin with it was rather straight forward. It was strange seeing how different RDC’s work. Most allowed me to sit in my truck whilst getting tipped and the last one I had to self tip using a electric pallet lift.
The only Problem I had (apart from a blind side reverse onto one bay ) was when I was finished and headed back into the yard, there was no one in the transport office (they were all away home) to sign my timesheet, download my tacho card or even hand the keys and paperwork too. The only person there was the security/gate man and he wasn’t sure what to do. So I gave him the keys, paperwork and he signed my timesheet.
Sounds like great experience you’re getting!
My first experience of electric pallet trucks was that they weren’t working, so that’s a step up you had.
I’ve had that with nobody available at the end as well, remember you only have to make your tacho card available. The downloading is not your responsibility, but if you’re going back to the same place, offering it before and after is good practice. I also had about a grand in cash cos some of it was c.o.d. and I refused to go back again.
Well done in the blindside. I tried one the other night and with the mirror cams i decided I just couldn’t see well enough so changed to do it the normal way.
The agency bod probably hasn’t done the job.
If you leave the tacho on other work and you have no control over the keys then unfortunately you leave yourself open to going over six hours work.
Probably the most appropriate use of the tachograph is POA, although there may be naysayers that appear to shoot me down.
I would argue that if you don’t know how long the tip will take or that you will definitely be able to stay on the bay for the length of the break, then break it is not appropriate. It would also reset your driving perhaps when you don’t wish to reset your driving.
An issue with POA is that it does appear to reset your driving on the tachograph when you take 45 minutes. In reality, when the tachograph is downloaded you haven’t reset your driving (explanation below). If you fall foul of that, you wouldn’t be the first. You do need to note down how much driving you have.
POA resetting driving: The tachographs are set up to reset driving after 45 minutes POA because when the card is in slot 2, POA can count as break for the co-driver. For some reason the tachograph isn’t smart enough to know the card is in slot 1 and driving should not be reset.
Noremac:
The agency bod probably hasn’t done the job.
If you leave the tacho on other work and you have no control over the keys then unfortunately you leave yourself open to going over six hours work.
Probably the most appropriate use of the tachograph is POA, although there may be naysayers that appear to shoot me down.
I would argue that if you don’t know how long the tip will take or that you will definitely be able to stay on the bay for the length of the break, then break it is not appropriate. It would also reset your driving perhaps when you don’t wish to reset your driving.
An issue with POA is that it does appear to reset your driving on the tachograph when you take 45 minutes. In reality, when the tachograph is downloaded you haven’t reset your driving (explanation below). If you fall foul of that, you wouldn’t be the first. You do need to note down how much driving you have.
POA resetting driving: The tachographs are set up to reset driving after 45 minutes POA because when the card is in slot 2, POA can count as break for the co-driver. For some reason the tachograph isn’t smart enough to know the card is in slot 1 and driving should not be reset.
You cannot (legally) use POA unless you know in advance roughly how long it will take.
You cannot (legally) use Break if you are required to assist or monitor unloading, or deal with queries/discrepancies, make phone calls or complete paperwork.
For all practical purposes, you can do either (or some combination of both).
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Roymondo:
You cannot (legally) use POA unless you know in advance roughly how long it will take.
You cannot (legally) use Break if you are required to assist or monitor unloading, or deal with queries/discrepancies, make phone calls or complete paperwork.
For all practical purposes, you can do either (or some combination of both).
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Indeed, a driver is put in a predicament not of his / her making. It could even possibly be argued that a driver having to give the keys to a third party means he / she is no longer in control of the vehicle for this time and could justifiably argue that he / she should remove the card. However valid that stance may be, the action of doing so may attract attention and questions from either the operator or the DVSA.
Noremac:
Roymondo:
You cannot (legally) use POA unless you know in advance roughly how long it will take.
You cannot (legally) use Break if you are required to assist or monitor unloading, or deal with queries/discrepancies, make phone calls or complete paperwork.
For all practical purposes, you can do either (or some combination of both).
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Indeed, a driver is put in a predicament not of his / her making. It could even possibly be argued that a driver having to give the keys to a third party means he / she is no longer in control of the vehicle for this time and could justifiably argue that he / she should remove the card. However valid that stance may be, the action of doing so may attract attention and questions from either the operator or the DVSA.
The (legally correct) approach would be to set the tacho to whatever mode fits with the situation at the point you leave the cab to hand the keys in, then if necessary do a handwritten entry once you are able to return to the cab to correct any incorrectly recorded activity.
But (almost) no-one ever does that…
Roymondo:
The (legally correct) approach would be to set the tacho to whatever mode fits with the situation at the point you leave the cab to hand the keys in, then if necessary do a handwritten entry once you are able to return to the cab to correct any incorrectly recorded activity.
But (almost) no-one ever does that…
…most would drivers would picture trying to explain this to a TM who is proffering pieces of paper to sign and realise that it wouldn’t matter what words came out of your mouth or handwritten notes were provided, the TM would just require the infringements to be signed for.