Periods of Availability

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

I’ll cut right to the chase. Regarding periods of availability would these examples be classed as proper use of switching the tachograph to PoA:

  1. You are driving along the motorway when the traffic starts to back up and eventually stops. After 10 minutes the traffic is still stationary. You switch off your engine and set your tachograph to PoA. 30 minutes later the traffic begins to move again so you switch your engine back on, tachograph automatically switches to driving and you continue on your journey. The 30 minutes of PoA does not count towards your total driving time.

  2. You’ve arrived at your destination but there is a queue waiting to get onto the loading bay. You are told it will only be about 10 minutes before you are unloaded. So you return to your cab and set your tachograph to PoA. True to his word (shockingly), you start moving again in 10 minutes. This 10 minute period does not count towards your total driving time.

  3. You’ve arrived at your destination but there is a queue waiting to get onto the loading bay. You are told it will only be about 25 minutes before you are unloaded. So you return to your cab and set your tachograph to Rest. 20 minutes later you are asked to back up to the bay and you begin your driving time again. This 20 minute period now counts towards the first half a broken 45min break (15min + 30min) though you still need to take a full 30 min break before your 4.5hrs are up.

Thanks in advance

Newbie Donbar

2

My answers are:

  1. improper use as you didn’t know how long you were going to wait in advance, putting it on break might have been more useful.
  2. Yes you could put it on POA
  3. is correct
    POA doesn’t count towards your driving time, the only thing that counts towards driving time is driving
3

Foxstein:
My answers are:

  1. improper use as you didn’t know how long you were going to wait in advance, putting it on break might have been more useful.
  2. Yes you could put it on POA
  3. is correct
    POA doesn’t count towards your driving time, the only thing that counts towards driving time is driving

This ↑

Though to be honest the chances of anyone ever knowing that you used POA without knowing in advance how long you would be waiting is slim I would have thought :wink:

POA also doesn’t count towards your working time for the WTD.

4

put it on break and forget poa unless you do not get paid for any recorded breaks