So I have been working at a laundry company for the past 2 months.
I thought I had been doing OK with the tacho but it turns out I have accumulated around 40 infringements.
When I get in the truck, it asks for a manual entry, it has the rest icon on it and I had thought i had been confirming that I was on rest since my last withdrawal. I recently learnt that this is not the case. Now I am worried that if I look for a new job, my new employer will see this and not employ me. Nobody has shown me what to do with the tacho and I had just been figuring it out myself. I also had taken breaks but had been cancelled in a DAF truck when I took keys out. So more infringements from that. Some of them say I have worked 144 hours with no rest. How bad is this?
Don’t worry it’s happening in start. U just need to do it in tha right away from now then all good.
Check some videos on youtube how to do manuel entry
Davek2611:
So I have been working at a laundry company for the past 2 months.
I thought I had been doing OK with the tacho but it turns out I have accumulated around 40 infringements.
When I get in the truck, it asks for a manual entry, it has the rest icon on it and I had thought i had been confirming that I was on rest since my last withdrawal. I recently learnt that this is not the case. Now I am worried that if I look for a new job, my new employer will see this and not employ me. Nobody has shown me what to do with the tacho and I had just been figuring it out myself. I also had taken breaks but had been cancelled in a DAF truck when I took keys out. So more infringements from that. Some of them say I have worked 144 hours with no rest. How bad is this?
New driver or not about 40 infringements in a couple of months is a lot, if you get pulled into a roadside check the DVSA bods are going to be asking why your card is not downloaded regularly and why the company have not been checking your records, as a new driver they may go easy on you but I wouldn’t have thought your company would be so lucky.
If you’re looking for a new job, and frankly it sounds like you should, it may be time to lose your driver card and try to get some clean records on a new card because no prospective employer is going to be happy seeing so many infringements in such a short space of time.
If you can tell us what make and age of tachograph you use we might be able to find some Youtube videos for you to watch and a user manual to read 
As far as the switching off of the ignition is concerned, what activity mode the tachograph defaults to when the ignition is switched on or off depends on how the tachograph has been set up, if you drive different vehicles you need to check each vehicle you drive.
tachograph:
Davek2611:
So I have been working at a laundry company for the past 2 months.
I thought I had been doing OK with the tacho but it turns out I have accumulated around 40 infringements.
When I get in the truck, it asks for a manual entry, it has the rest icon on it and I had thought i had been confirming that I was on rest since my last withdrawal. I recently learnt that this is not the case. Now I am worried that if I look for a new job, my new employer will see this and not employ me. Nobody has shown me what to do with the tacho and I had just been figuring it out myself. I also had taken breaks but had been cancelled in a DAF truck when I took keys out. So more infringements from that. Some of them say I have worked 144 hours with no rest. How bad is this?
New driver or not about 40 infringements in a couple of months is a lot, if you get pulled into a roadside check the DVSA bods are going to be asking why your card is not downloaded regularly and why the company have not been checking your records, as a new driver they may go easy on you but I wouldn’t have thought your company would be so lucky.
If you’re looking for a new job, and frankly it sounds like you should, it may be time to lose your driver card and try to get some clean records on a new card because no prospective employer is going to be happy seeing so many infringements in such a short space of time.
If you can tell us what make and age of tachograph you use we might be able to find some Youtube videos for you to watch and a user manual to read
As far as the switching off of the ignition is concerned, what activity mode the tachograph defaults to when the ignition is switched on or off depends on how the tachograph has been set up, if you drive different vehicles you need to check each vehicle you drive.
I don’t believe a new company will be able to see any records from a previous company when the card is downloaded. If I go on Tachomaster I can see all info since I have been using it for downloading my card. But I cant see any of the info downloaded by my employer or my last employer. So I don’t believe a new employer would be able to see your previous employer infringements either.
It will just show drive elsewhere or worked elsewhere for manual entries on non driving days.
Tachomaster will also only show infringements for the last 28 days when downloading your card daily AFAIK unless it can be changed to show them further back. See screenshot from Tachomaster for days before I started downloading my card myself at home.
When you click on a previous employer date it will just say this driver did not work for [company name] on this day and give no more information about the activities or anything else. The only thing a new employer will see is a note saying drove elsewhere and that is it.
See below screenshot, same card same data on the card since 2019 I think, but I can only see that I drove for each day for my current company and my previous company.
I am also fairly certain it would be a breach of the DPA for companies to see detailed information from a previous employers download of your card, other than the fact you have data downloaded off the card for previous days etc.
I know I have some infringements on my card over the last couple of years, I have had to recently sign off a WTD infringement at work ■■■■ up on a manual entry, I also know I have made the odd ■■■■ up at my previous employment as well during manual entries for several days and again can’t see those either.
But as for the OP yes you need to learnt to gets to grips quickly with managing your infringement issues, 40 in 2 months even for a new driver is about as bad as it gets tbh.
You do need to be very careful if you get one of the trucks that changes the mode when you either take the keys out or put them in.
If you catch it quickly you may not lose any break because the way tachograph units work they record what you did for the majority of the minute. If you only have it off break for 20 seconds, it shouldn’t record any ‘other work’.
You need to be quite disciplined and essentially decide if you are going to have the keys in or out for your entire break. It is easy to forget if you decide to go for a stroll or into a shop. It is all too easy just to take the keys out and go.
The safety net for infringements should be the operator telling you what you have done wrong and how not to get so many infringements. This is poor that this hasn’t happened.
Do you intend to get busy with a printout for every day you infringed and explain on the back what really happened? (That’s the only legal way to protect yourself).
Is your employer accepting any responsibility for not catching this sooner?
stu675:
Do you intend to get busy with a printout for every day you infringed and explain on the back what really happened? (That’s the only legal way to protect yourself).
Is your employer accepting any responsibility for not catching this sooner?
A printout isnt a shield from action by the authorities. If you go over hours on a particular occasion, then doing a print-out at the time, with an explanation might be helpful. That might show there was a reason for an infringement, you were aware of it, but couldnt avoid it.
Any printout done now will merely show you weren`t aware at the time of what you were doing.
If the employer only did a first download and analysis, especially of a new employee and a new pass to boot, after 2 months, they should carry some responsibility I`d agree.
tachograph:
Davek2611:
So I have been working at a laundry company for the past 2 months.
I thought I had been doing OK with the tacho but it turns out I have accumulated around 40 infringements.
When I get in the truck, it asks for a manual entry, it has the rest icon on it and I had thought i had been confirming that I was on rest since my last withdrawal. I recently learnt that this is not the case. Now I am worried that if I look for a new job, my new employer will see this and not employ me. Nobody has shown me what to do with the tacho and I had just been figuring it out myself. I also had taken breaks but had been cancelled in a DAF truck when I took keys out. So more infringements from that. Some of them say I have worked 144 hours with no rest. How bad is this?
New driver or not about 40 infringements in a couple of months is a lot, if you get pulled into a roadside check the DVSA bods are going to be asking why your card is not downloaded regularly and why the company have not been checking your records, as a new driver they may go easy on you but I wouldn’t have thought your company would be so lucky.
If you’re looking for a new job, and frankly it sounds like you should, it may be time to lose your driver card and try to get some clean records on a new card because no prospective employer is going to be happy seeing so many infringements in such a short space of time.
If you can tell us what make and age of tachograph you use we might be able to find some Youtube videos for you to watch and a user manual to read
As far as the switching off of the ignition is concerned, what activity mode the tachograph defaults to when the ignition is switched on or off depends on how the tachograph has been set up, if you drive different vehicles you need to check each vehicle you drive.
Thanks, yeha my company hasn’t shown me anything on the tacho so I thought I was doing it right. They only just pulled up my infringements now. I download the card every week.
I’m not sure what they are. We have mercs that seem to be OK. But the DAF is the one that changes the mode when taking keys out
simcor:
I don’t believe a new company will be able to see any records from a previous company when the card is downloaded. If I go on Tachomaster I can see all info since I have been using it for downloading my card. But I cant see any of the info downloaded by my employer or my last employer. So I don’t believe a new employer would be able to see your previous employer infringements either.
Tachomaster charge for each weeks records that are downloaded so it’s likely that your company don’t track work done for other companies to save money.
From Tachomaster:
TachoMaster:
New Drivers:
New Drivers that you recruit and add onto Tachomaster may have many months of data already recorded on his/her driver card from previous employment. Tachomaster will need to take 4 weeks data from the previous employment in order to calculate the driver’s working time and EU rules compliance. You will be charged for these 4 weeks of data at the standard rate of £1 per week. Please remember that you need to have analysed this data to remain compliant.
Agency or Casual:
Where a driver is marked as Agency or Casual, you are free to select and enter data for the days when the worker worked for your company. You will only be charged for the weeks that you have entered for Agency or Casual drivers, therefore any week where no day has been selected will not be charged.
Please remember that if you do not to select individual days for Agency or Casual workers and choose instead to download all of the data, Tachomaster will charge for all the data downloaded, which might include weeks where the driver was working for a third party.
simcor:
Tachomaster will also only show infringements for the last 28 days when downloading your card daily AFAIK unless it can be changed to show them further back. See screenshot from Tachomaster for days before I started downloading my card myself at home.
It’s a lot of years since I used Tachomaster and I haven’t found anything definitive on their website but from memory I’m 99.9% certain that Tachomaster will show all infringements regardless of how old they are, there’s a lot of settings in Tachomaster and it can probably be set to only show infringements for the last 28 days.
Having said that not all companies use Tachomaster, each software will have it’s own settings and it’s own peculiarities so lets not get too hung up on Tachomaster
tachograph:
simcor:
I don’t believe a new company will be able to see any records from a previous company when the card is downloaded.
My snippet of real world observation is ;
My current job is the first time I have had use of the Taxhomaster worker app. I have just over a year of time served here. I can scroll through the shifts page and see just over two years worth of info, but the vehicle reg are not shown for the shifts from my last job. It just so happened that the day I did a trial shift at my current place was also the first day of my current digi card, so I have never downloaded my driver card for those oldest shifts at my new job. If the office also have access to that info too I have no idea.
Franglais:
stu675:
Do you intend to get busy with a printout for every day you infringed and explain on the back what really happened? (That’s the only legal way to protect yourself).
Is your employer accepting any responsibility for not catching this sooner?
A printout isnt a shield from action by the authorities. If you go over hours on a particular occasion, then doing a print-out at the time, with an explanation might be helpful. That might show there was a reason for an infringement, you were aware of it, but couldnt avoid it.
Any printout done now will merely show you weren`t aware at the time of what you were doing.
But surely, in the situation we have here, it would be a shield of invincibility. Because all he has done here (repeatedly) is record breaks and rests as other work. Therefore a printout with a correction on the back would eliminate any scrap of evidence that there had been any single infringement and the DVSA would be powerless to take any action against him.
Admittedly it would still take a lot of explaining to a prospective employer if they were just to download his card.
Or am I wrong?
stu675:
Franglais:
stu675:
Do you intend to get busy with a printout for every day you infringed and explain on the back what really happened? (That’s the only legal way to protect yourself).
Is your employer accepting any responsibility for not catching this sooner?
A printout isnt a shield from action by the authorities. If you go over hours on a particular occasion, then doing a print-out at the time, with an explanation might be helpful. That might show there was a reason for an infringement, you were aware of it, but couldnt avoid it.
Any printout done now will merely show you weren`t aware at the time of what you were doing.
But surely, in the situation we have here, it would be a shield of invincibility. Because all he has done here (repeatedly) is record breaks and rests as other work. Therefore a printout with a correction on the back would eliminate any scrap of evidence that there had been any single infringement and the DVSA would be powerless to take any action against him.
Admittedly it would still take a lot of explaining to a prospective employer if they were just to download his card.
Or am I wrong?
Ah! The predictive function (crystal balls effect) of modern tachographs?
By doing a retrospective printout, the tacho predicts it is about to have the back of the roll signed, and erases the offence.
Yep, DVLA are gnashing their teeth at being thwarted like this. 
For the OP
The company were remiss in not downloading card earlier and catching the error being made by the driver. As a new start they really should have been checking much more often than the legal limits too.
The DVLA should see that it is a record keeping error, not a case of working excess and dangerous hours.
More likely a serious finger wagging for driver rather than any fine.
Any tacho readout will reveal all the “offences” for a long time, (months/years) but anyone who takes more than a few seconds to read and understand that readout will see what is going on.
Generally
Having a tacho analysis sheet signed by the driver doesnt draw a line under any infringement or offence any more than signing the back of a tacho roll does. You cant drive 25 hrs in a day, sign a print-out, and feel safe!
Signing a tacho roll after an unavoidable delay or whatever, shows:
The driver knew at the time they had exceeded their hours.
There was an over-riding reason to have exceeded hours.
If the authorities think there wasnt any [u]good[/u] reason for going over time it could still be a bust. Companies getting drivers to sign for infringements isnt enough. They must do more if there are repeats of the same infringements.
Given this is the Newbie section,
Dont get your breaks or daily rest too short. Never. Dont exceed duty or driving times. Dont aim to to take a break at 4hrs29 minutes! If something [u]exceptional[/u] happens, then do a printout there and then, explain what has happened and why, and sign it. If DVLA see and [u]agree it is unforeseeable[/u] you wont be in trouble. We all know stuff happens on the road.
Edit to add:
28 day rule. Not on this thread but there seem to be a few myths around.
Drivers must carry the previous 28 days records with them. (28 days not 28 working days) (This will almost always be your card)
At the roadside the authorities will only examine 28 previous days.
However the days previous to those 28 days are not invisible. They are 99.99% certainly still on your card, and are also stored by your employer (the operator of any vehicle you have been driving) for at least one year. The police or DVLA can visit an operators office and examine their records.
If you are under suspicion for any offence then all records, including those more than 28 days old can be seen and examined. That may be by looking at your card or by looking at office records.
Franglais:
stu675:
Or am I wrong?
Ah! The predictive function (crystal balls effect) of modern tachographs?
By doing a retrospective printout, the tacho predicts it is about to have the back of the roll signed, and erases the offence.
Yep, DVLA are gnashing their teeth at being thwarted like this.
I’m not sure if you agree with me or not?
stu675:
Franglais:
stu675:
Or am I wrong?
Ah! The predictive function (crystal balls effect) of modern tachographs?
By doing a retrospective printout, the tacho predicts it is about to have the back of the roll signed, and erases the offence.
Yep, DVLA are gnashing their teeth at being thwarted like this.
I’m not sure if you agree with me or not?
I wasn`t sure that you were being serious.
stu675:
But surely, in the situation we have here, it would be a shield of invincibility. Because all he has done here (repeatedly) is record breaks and rests as other work. Therefore a printout with a correction on the back would eliminate any scrap of evidence that there had been any single infringement and the DVSA would be powerless to take any action against him.
I think the rest of my post makes it clear what actually happens with tacho records.
Generally:
Any offences from at least the past 28days are recorded on your card.
They are held for at least a year by the vehicle operator.
A driver doing a download or printout and signing the back does nothing to those records.
If you have a reasonable excuse for any infringements, then any records of you being aware of the infringement, at the time, together with a written explanation may help the driver.
Nothing more.
In this case:
The OP wasnt aware of his errors at the time. His employer didnt point them out to him in a timely fashion. (remembering he is a new employee and a new pass)
He has, it seems, had his errors pointed out to him, and hopefully had the correct procedures explained. He may well have now signed a sheet saying such.
Doing a printout now would IMHO do nothing useful.
Doubt the above? Do any number of downloads or printouts you like, insert card into tacho head, go to printout, scroll through the dates, I bet you will get bored as it goes past several months of records.
Just a quick one to correct something that has been stated incorrectly several times on this thread. DVSA quietly changed the rules last year regarding tacho printouts, they now need to be kept for 42 days, not the 28 it used to be. Everyone should be aware of this, but they did almost nothing to tell people (I only found out because it came up on my Transport Manager CPC course), so watch out, would be a real ■■■■■■ if you got done for not having a printout because you binned it too soon
Sent from my SM-F711B using Tapatalk
Terry Cooksey:
Just a quick one to correct something that has been stated incorrectly several times on this thread. DVSA quietly changed the rules last year regarding tacho printouts, they now need to be kept for 42 days, not the 28 it used to be. Everyone should be aware of this, but they did almost nothing to tell people (I only found out because it came up on my Transport Manager CPC course), so watch out, would be a real ■■■■■■ if you got done for not having a printout because you binned it too soon
Sent from my SM-F711B using Tapatalk
Interesting.
From Gov site today.
gov.uk/guidance/drivers-hou … raph-rules Sec.4.2
“The only time a manual record or entry is legally required is when:
…
…
Manual records must be kept and produced in the same way as any other record which has been produced using the tachograph.”
And last update to Gov site on Tachos seems to be Aug 2020?
gov.uk/guidance/drivers-hou … es/updates
Terry Cooksey:
Just a quick one to correct something that has been stated incorrectly several times on this thread. DVSA quietly changed the rules last year regarding tacho printouts, they now need to be kept for 42 days, not the 28 it used to be. Everyone should be aware of this, but they did almost nothing to tell people (I only found out because it came up on my Transport Manager CPC course), so watch out, would be a real ■■■■■■ if you got done for not having a printout because you binned it too soon
I think you may be mixing up the 28 days that you must carry records with the 42 days that you have to hand charts into the transport company
4 [u]Overview[/u]. Tachograph rules - Drivers’ hours and tachographs: goods vehicles
Drivers are responsible for operating the tachograph correctly in order to record their activities accurately and fully. Specifically, drivers must:
~snip~
- return used charts to the operator within 42 days. This requirement must be complied with even when a driver changes employer
~snip~
- be able to produce at the roadside:
- charts and any legally required manual records for the current day and the previous 28 calendar days
[/*:m][/list:u]
[/quote]
This is a very good explanation of manual entries… for a VDO type youtube.com/watch?v=_VlkMO- … =Deady2012
for a stoneridge type youtube.com/watch?v=4f0a9hA … =Deady2012
