Need help with tacho usages please

ASK THE EXPERTS SAFETY, LAW AND WORKING TIME DIRECTIVE FORUM (INTE
1

Hello I’ve got a few questions about using a tacho.

  1. For the 6hr rule does this start as soon as I put my card in?

So if I put my card in at 9:00am would I need to have a 15min break before 3:00pm?
And then for 6hr-9hr would I need a 15min break between 3:01pm and 6:00pm?

  1. Leaving card in over weekend

For this I’ve recently left my card in over the weekend. I’ve done a print out but no manual entry, working wise can I carry on working normally and not worry about hours? this is because my tacho says I’ve already done 39hours of work and it’s a Wednesday. Also can I carry on working if my VDO is saying to take a 45h rest?

(Edit) can I do manual entry after doing a few hours of driving

If anyone can help me with these it would be appreciated

2

Newdriver1:

  1. For the 6hr rule does this start as soon as I put my card in?

So if I put my card in at 9:00am would I need to have a 15min break before 3:00pm?
And then for 6hr-9hr would I need a 15min break between 3:01pm and 6:00pm?

15 min break needed by 3pm
3 to 6pm no 15 break needed if your shift is say 12 hours long
Assuming a driving time break is not needed before any of those WTD breaks

Legal 12.5 shift example where the driving time is not more than 4.5 hours
work 6
break 15
work 5
break 30
work 1

OOPS :blush: = AS OVER 9 HOURS WORK THEN IT NEEDS AN EXTRA 15 BREAK
SILLY ME :unamused:
Have changed second 15 to a 30

3

Newdriver1:
Hello I’ve got a few questions about using a tacho.

  1. For the 6hr rule does this start as soon as I put my card in?

So if I put my card in at 9:00am would I need to have a 15min break before 3:00pm?
And then for 6hr-9hr would I need a 15min break between 3:01pm and 6:00pm?

  1. Leaving card in over weekend

For this I’ve recently left my card in over the weekend. I’ve done a print out but no manual entry, working wise can I carry on working normally and not worry about hours? this is because my tacho says I’ve already done 39hours of work and it’s a Wednesday. Also can I carry on working if my VDO is saying to take a 45h rest?

If anyone can help me with these it would be appreciated

  1. No, it starts before you put your card in. It starts when you arrive and start working. ( Which is what you should backdate your card to when you do a manual entry)
    So, just semantics, but hopefully explaining what you should do.

1b. There is no 9 Hr rule!!!
A new 6 hr rule starts as soon as you finish a break.
Also, before you finish a shift you have to consider the total length of the day and have you had sufficient break(s).

Hope that helps.

You’ll need to explain about the weekend. Was the tacho on rest?
Sounds like it was on other work, like what I did last month.
You need to do manual entries for the weekend to correct all of that and I got an infringement for it (not sure if that’s valid or not)
Once you have done your manual entries for rest and keep them with you, You are ok to carry on working. But you will need to keep yourself legal as to breaks, because the tacho won’t help you, it will just keep telling you to break now.

4

Your card should have been removed or set to rest over the weekend if left in, if leaving in you also need to manually enter start / end country at the start / end of the shift. If you are doing work before or after you leave the truck you’ll need to remove the card and manually enter the time when you next insert your card.
youtu.be/8TTf64zC5uk

You can only make a manual entry for the time the card is out, you cannot change the data the tacho has recorded on the card. If a wrong mode has been recorded you need to do a printout with an explanation, correcting the mistake and sign is, then hand it into the office after 28 days.

You must have an accurate record of your work on your card. So you can’t start at 0500, but but get a truck till 0600 and just put your card in and off you go, you need to record say a couple of minutes talking to the office bod saying go wait for a truck, you’d then record the waiting time as break or poa till you got the truck or other work if they had you sweeping the yard!

There’s 2 parts to the wtd breaks.

  1. The 6 hour rule
    you can’t work more than 6 hours at any point without a 15 min break, a break of 15 or more allows you to work upto another 6 hours before needing another 15 min break. This works the same as driving 4.5 hours and a 45. (Only driving and other work count as working time)

  2. The total break
    This is dependent on the total amount of working time in the shift, only driving and other work count as working time for the wtd.

0-6 hours of working time = 0 break required
Over 6 but not over 9 = 30 mins of break/s
Over 9 = 45 mins of break/s required.
A shift can only be have 1 of the 3 apply, so ignore the other 2

Breaks can be taken anywhere in the shift to count towards the total required, except the very beginning or end of the shift, so each break must have at least 1 min of work either side of it and they must be at least 15 mins long to count.

The 6 - 9 and 9+ are purely used to determine how much break is required in total and are nothing to do with when any breaks are required.

So anyone who drives over 4.5 hours in a shift will have a 45 for that and tick the total break box for any shift, so all they’ll need to worry about is the 6 hour rule.

These are extreme examples
of what is legal

Work 6
Break 15
Work 6
Break 15
Work 2:14
Break 15
Work 1 min

Work 6
Break 25
Work 6
Break 20
Work 2:15

Work 2
Poa 11
Work 2