Hello all, I’m a small operator in Somerset running a small fleet of tipper vehicles, three analogue and two digi-tach equipped.
What is the position with me (or anyone else) shunting the digi-tach vehicles out of the warehouse to either get an item of plant out/get an analogue wagon out without the digi-tach truck having a card in? Obviously “Driving without card” flashes up and is recorded.
Any guidance on this area would be much appreciated.Looking forward to getting involved in this great forum
Our wagons are shunted around all night long, usually by a Non HGV licence holder with no Digi card.
If I get asked to come in early to play a bit of ‘Musical Lorries’ I just record my time as Other Work on my Digi Card, when I finally get to leave the yard.
No doubt someone will tell me that I’m supposed to record ‘Every Centimetre’ that I drive, but that’s not practical as it would take more time to put the card in & out than it would just shunting them ! Lol !
If on a modern digi then it would need more than 30 seconds worth of driving to record such so in most cases its pointless to keep switching the card from truck to truck
Its also unreasonable to expect a driver to keep using their card in X amount of vehicles to move them around in a yard for a few seconds each time
Dr Dave:
Hello all, I’m a small operator in Somerset running a small fleet of tipper vehicles, three analogue and two digi-tach equipped.
What is the position with me (or anyone else) shunting the digi-tach vehicles out of the warehouse to either get an item of plant out/get an analogue wagon out without the digi-tach truck having a card in? Obviously “Driving without card” flashes up and is recorded.
Any guidance on this area would be much appreciated.Looking forward to getting involved in this great forum
No problem, you’ll find that plenty of companies move vehicles around the yard without using a card.
The only issue / warning I would give here is to make sure that if vehicles are being moved around by night staff that the drivers card has been removed from the tacho as this will of course flag up an infringements when in actual fact, the drivers is tucked up in bed asleep.
As an operator or shunter it shouldn’t cause any problems. The vehicle is at it home base, the drivers have “clocked off” and are on their rest periods. It could be a fitter moving the vehicle, another member of warehouse staff or even the boss if he decides to wash one or take one for a trundle round the yard.
As a driver I would arrive at work and put the card in any lorry that was available and then move another or another ten vehicles. If a driver has left his card in the vehicle he can blame no-one except himself unless he has kept the only vehicle keys.
At a slight angle to this, I left my card sticking out of the slot on a Friday (talking digitachos), only to find someone on the late shift (during which vehicles are loaded by “off-road” drivers) had helpfully pushed it in and so I was apparently at work all weekend. The question is, was I technically responsible for making a false document, even though I did literally nothing, or was I responsible for not keeping hold of my card?
Snudger:
At a slight angle to this, I left my card sticking out of the slot on a Friday (talking digitachos), only to find someone on the late shift (during which vehicles are loaded by “off-road” drivers) had helpfully pushed it in and so I was apparently at work all weekend. The question is, was I technically responsible for making a false document, even though I did literally nothing, or was I responsible for not keeping hold of my card?
As long as you do a printout and write an explanation of what happened you should be fine, do two printouts and hand one in when your card is downloaded and keep the other with you in case you get stopped.
However, as you’ve now found out it’s not a good idea to leave your driver card sticking out of the tachograph overnight or at weekends.
Personally I’d be having a word with the loaders to make sure they realise that they should not under any circumstances use other peoples driver cards
I think that if you have the same vehicle day in day out then you are entitled to leave your card in the machine but ejected state. The loaders have no right to interefere and I too would be having a word.
Indeed, I did exactly as you guys said. Having tracked down the individual responsible and explained the implications, they won’t be doing it again! - and I might be a bit more careful in future too.
