Doing farm milk collections which fall under domestic rules. Another driver insists that it’s a legal requirement to take a break at or before 4.5 hrs driving (‘out of scope’ mode) and his argument is that the tacho flashes up a warning at 4.25 and again at 4.5 with further warnings until a 45 has been taken. Whilst the latter is indeed true on the Stoneridge units we have fitted, from my reading of the dot gov website I don’t see any mention of this alleged “legal requirement”, ergo that should mean it can be roundly ignored and one can continue working if they wish to do so? Usually I’ll change the tacho (set to ‘out of scope’ mode) to break when I’m tipping, just so it doesn’t nag me later in the day, but I often forget.
Another debate I’ve heard which I’ve steered clear of thus far is that you can work as many days as you want so long as you are out of scope, and the single day you do driving the artic tanker on a trunk under EU rules doesn’t matter. From what I’ve read this is incorrect as even a single minute or driving or work under EU rules during the working week would require the driver to take EU rules daily and weekly rest periods so you wouldn’t be able to do 1 day of EU and then 6 days of GB (we have 2 drivers off and are all mucking in to cover the shifts between us). “Just put it on ‘out of scope’ regardless” is the default answer but personally I’d rather not and don’t fancy my chances trying to blag Vosa with details of a farm that I haven’t been to, should I get pulled in for a check (and we go past 2 very active check-points every day, plus we’re yellow OCRS for vehicle defects apparently).
Is my understanding of the rules on both bits above correct?
If a driver does EU reg driving for any part of a week then the rest rules for that week must be adhered to AFTER that EU driving was done
Bit impossible to do the rest rules before that shift if say mon/tue/wed were out of scope then thu is on EU regs
Yes, that’s what I meant but perhaps didn’t explain it well.
I’m struggling to find a reason NOT to use EU rules on all work, including the farms. Are there any benefits to using it in this scenario? 90% of the work is driving to the farms then between the farms, then all the way back to the dairy. It’s like today, I had 11 collections over 2 runs and had it on GB rules but ended up with a 13 hr shift due to the silo being too full after my first run and had to wait for space. I’m not seeing any “exemption” (as such) to blag this under; it seems to be a violation of the GB rules duty time limit by 2 hours 
. If I’d had the tacho set to EU rules it wouldn’t have been an issue.
You’re right, on both counts, although I wouldn’t tip on break, as you’re now turning something that legal into illegal just to stop the tacho warning.
Rog is a bit wrong on the rest, once you go into EU, then the daily rest requirements of EU apply to that day and the weekly rest requirements apply. The daily rest doesn’t apply if you’ve not driven under EU.
Also you only go back to 0000 Monday morning for the 144.
So you couldn’t have a week off say, drive Mon - sat on domestic then drive Sunday on EU, as your 144 starts when you start on or after 0000 Mon morning.
But you could work multiple weeks 7 days a week on domestic, then do a EU regs shift on Saturday
GB domestic has a duty limit of 11 hours, but this doesn’t include breaks, only driving + other work.
There’s no limit on your shift length or the amount of rest you need, just adequate, so long as you don’t work more than 11 hours in a 24 hour period
stevieboy308:
GB domestic has a duty limit of 11 hours, but this doesn’t include breaks, only driving + other work.
There’s no limit on your shift length or the amount of rest you need, just adequate, so long as you don’t work more than 11 hours in a 24 hour period
Even with the tacho breaks excluded from the count, I’d have been over 11 hours duty time today because of the [zb]-ups. Thing it’s best to set EU rules as I’m not seeing any benefits from GB rules given the nature of the work.
R420:
stevieboy308:
GB domestic has a duty limit of 11 hours, but this doesn’t include breaks, only driving + other work.
There’s no limit on your shift length or the amount of rest you need, just adequate, so long as you don’t work more than 11 hours in a 24 hour period
Even with the tacho breaks excluded from the count, I’d have been over 11 hours duty time today because of the [zb]-ups. Thing it’s best to set EU rules as I’m not seeing any benefits from GB rules given the nature of the work.
Yep, there’s pros and cons to both, I run on domestic for a couple of months a year as we need to run 7 days a week and do long days, the rest of the time we just stick to EU
Under UK domestic rules daftly you could legally do this
1 hour duty
1 hour off
and do that for 22 hours
Then do 2 hours off and start all over again for 7 days a week 365 days a year = DAFT
ROG:
Under UK domestic rules daftly you could legally do this
1 hour duty
1 hour off
and do that for 22 hours
Then do 2 hours off and start all over again for 7 days a week 365 days a year = DAFT
There’s still a requirement for adequate rest!
stevieboy308:
ROG:
Under UK domestic rules daftly you could legally do this
1 hour duty
1 hour off
and do that for 22 hours
Then do 2 hours off and start all over again for 7 days a week 365 days a year = DAFT
There’s still a requirement for adequate rest!
Under what law that is regulated 
for safety and morally I agree there should be
Maybe not, but stack it bad and it ain’t gonna be pretty!