Company made them take a week off without pay for not using the modes correctly, sorry if I made it sound that they were done officially but I heard stories don’t know how true it is about vosa, upon seeing a driver unloading his lorry on the side of the street or in a Market area etc asking to see his cards and if he had it on rest while working, he gets fined. Don’t know if it’s true but I always use all the modes on my taco just to make it look right.
bald bloke:
sammy:
tootman318:
Just had pint with old driver mate and we got onto poa. He,s been told if he gets held up and books say 2 hours poa and has not got enough driving time to get back without a break he can carry on because the poa counts as break. Never had to book poa so couldn,t tell him a lot really.I know you supposed to know start and finish times but we work in the real world!! Any help guys??How come you never have to book POA? Even if you don’t you should use it every so often to make it look like your trying to use it properly, couple of our lads got done for not showing POA on there cards
What a load of ru 
bbish I never book poa and have never been done by anyone.
[/quote]
Never been asked or told to book poa so don,t know a lot about it. We do waste containers swapovers, so if tosco say “gonna be hours drive” we don,t normally wait. Just go to next job, re book tosco for next day.
sammy:
Company made them take a week off without pay for not using the modes correctly, sorry if I made it sound that they were done officially but I heard stories don’t know how true it is about vosa, upon seeing a driver unloading his lorry on the side of the street or in a Market area etc asking to see his cards and if he had it on rest while working, he gets fined. Don’t know if it’s true but I always use all the modes on my taco just to make it look right.
Well if VOSA saw someone working whilst the tachograph was on break they certainly would get fined, and unless they could convince the VOSA people that it was a one off I imagine they could possibly expect to be talking directly with the local TC in the not too distant future.
You should be using the tachograph mode that’s relevant to what you’re doing not using them all just for the sake of it 
merc0447:
What i reckon has happened is that some of this guys colleagues have went over 60 hours got a wtd infringement, the transport clerk has told them POA would have prevented it - it has then filtered down to the rank and file and turned into a ‘‘driver myth’’
That could be close to it, will see him at tosco next week and find out a bit more hopefully
Basically if I’m on a bay I put it on POA, if I filling with diesel or tipping myself or washing I put it on other work and if I’m taking a brake or finished for the day obviously it’s on break. What’s wrong with that? Sounds alright to me that I’m using all the modes when I’m supposed to rather than putting it into break every time I stop.
sammy:
Company made them take a week off without pay for not using the modes correctly
Hard to say which are more stupid in that case, the company or the drivers. 
sammy:
Basically if I’m on a bay I put it on POA, if I filling with diesel or tipping myself or washing I put it on other work and if I’m taking a brake or finished for the day obviously it’s on break. What’s wrong with that? Sounds alright to me that I’m using all the modes when I’m supposed to rather than putting it into break every time I stop.
Although you’re never likely to get into any kind of trouble for what you’re doing technically unless you know how long you will be on the bay it is an offence
One of the requirements of POA is that you know how long you will be waiting.
Coffeeholic:
sammy:
Company made them take a week off without pay for not using the modes correctlyHard to say which are more stupid in that case, the company or the drivers.
We are told we must run 110% legal including using the modes on the taco correctly, when it was seen that these two drivers, despite warnings were constantly putting their taco on break they were disciplined, no great mystery there.
So if I cant use POA whilst on a bay or waiting on a bay, what mode should I use?
sammy:
Coffeeholic:
sammy:
Company made them take a week off without pay for not using the modes correctlyHard to say which are more stupid in that case, the company or the drivers.
We are told we must run 110% legal including using the modes on the taco correctly, when it was seen that these two drivers, despite warnings were constantly putting their taco on break they were disciplined, no great mystery there.
Honestly Guv, it is 25 carat 
sammy:
So if I cant use POA whilst on a bay or waiting on a bay, what mode should I use?
If you’re on a bay and working you should use “other work”, if you’re on a bay and waiting you can legally use POA if you know how long you will be waiting or “break” or “other work” if you don’t know how long you will be waiting.
If you’re on a bay and waiting/not working there’s no reason not to use “break” unless you don’t want to reset the driving time on a digital tachograph.
tachograph:
sammy:
So if I cant use POA whilst on a bay or waiting on a bay, what mode should I use?If you’re on a bay and working you should use “other work”, if you’re on a bay and waiting you can legally use POA if you know how long you will be waiting or “break” or “other work” if you don’t know how long you will be waiting.
If you’re on a bay and waiting/not working there’s no reason not to use “break” unless you don’t want to reset the driving time on a digital tachograph.
I’ve got a headache 
can’t do right for doing wrong.
sammy:
Coffeeholic:
sammy:
Company made them take a week off without pay for not using the modes correctlyHard to say which are more stupid in that case, the company or the drivers.
We are told we must run 110% legal including using the modes on the taco correctly, when it was seen that these two drivers, despite warnings were constantly putting their taco on break they were disciplined, no great mystery there.
Presumably you mean they were putting the tachograph on “break” whilst they were working, if so then it sounds fair enough to me to as they’d been given previous warnings, harsh but probably fair
Was a bit harsh alright but to be fair we are constantly being told to do things right and some people just don’t like being told what to do.
tachograph:
sammy:
Coffeeholic:
sammy:
Company made them take a week off without pay for not using the modes correctlyHard to say which are more stupid in that case, the company or the drivers.
We are told we must run 110% legal including using the modes on the taco correctly, when it was seen that these two drivers, despite warnings were constantly putting their taco on break they were disciplined, no great mystery there.
Presumably you mean they were putting the tachograph on “break” whilst they were working, if so then it sounds fair enough to me to as they’d been given previous warnings, harsh but probably fair
According to the first post they were in trouble for not using POA. Now further details say they were using break so it doesn’t necessarily sound as if they had it on break when working.
sammy:
Basically if I’m on a bay I put it on POA, if I filling with diesel or tipping myself or washing I put it on other work and if I’m taking a brake or finished for the day obviously it’s on break. What’s wrong with that? Sounds alright to me that I’m using all the modes when I’m supposed to rather than putting it into break every time I stop.
At the end of the shift you go on rest, not break. Break and rest are different things. Putting it on POA while on a bay doing nothing isn’t legal unless you know how long you will be. There is nothing illegal with putting it on break when ever you aren’t driving or working. In the course of a day there are only three modes you have to use. Driving, obviously and done automatically unless you have a really old tacho, other work for checks, loading, unloading fuelling and so on and break for required breaks. POA is optional and often cannot be used if the period doesn’t meet the criteria for POA.
Those driver’s who lost a weeks pay for not using POA only had to say to the company that they couldn’t use it as they did not know the length of the wait in advance and there would be nothing the company could do about that.
sammy:
Was a bit harsh alright but to be fair we are constantly being told to do things right and some people just don’t like being told what to do.
But you aren’t being told to do things right if the company say you must book POA, no company can say you must book it because unless the situation is right you cannot do so. By insisting the company are asking you to create a false record, and that can be a big fine, four figures, for you.
Coffeeholic:
tachograph:
sammy:
Coffeeholic:
sammy:
Company made them take a week off without pay for not using the modes correctlyHard to say which are more stupid in that case, the company or the drivers.
We are told we must run 110% legal including using the modes on the taco correctly, when it was seen that these two drivers, despite warnings were constantly putting their taco on break they were disciplined, no great mystery there.
Presumably you mean they were putting the tachograph on “break” whilst they were working, if so then it sounds fair enough to me to as they’d been given previous warnings, harsh but probably fair
According to the first post they were in trouble for not using POA. Now further details say they were using break so it doesn’t necessarily sound as if they had it on break when working.
It is a bit confusing I agree, but if they were working with the tachograph on break or POA they were in the wrong, but I suspect we will never know what really happened 
tachograph:
Coffeeholic:
According to the first post they were in trouble for not using POA. Now further details say they were using break so it doesn’t necessarily sound as if they had it on break when working.It is a bit confusing I agree, but if they were working with the tachograph on break or POA they were in the wrong, but I suspect we will never know what really happened
Indeed.
All I can do at this point is refer you to the comment I made earlier, I think it sums the situation up quite succinctly.
Coffeeholic:
sammy:
Basically if I’m on a bay I put it on POA, if I filling with diesel or tipping myself or washing I put it on other work and if I’m taking a brake or finished for the day obviously it’s on break. What’s wrong with that? Sounds alright to me that I’m using all the modes when I’m supposed to rather than putting it into break every time I stop.At the end of the shift you go on rest, not break. Break and rest are different things. Putting it on POA while on a bay doing nothing isn’t legal unless you know how long you will be. There is nothing illegal with putting it on break when ever you aren’t driving or working. In the course of a day there are only three modes you have to use. Driving, obviously and done automatically unless you have a really old tacho, other work for checks, loading, unloading fuelling and so on and break for required breaks. POA is optional and often cannot be used if the period doesn’t meet the criteria for POA.
Those driver’s who lost a weeks pay for not using POA only had to say to the company that they couldn’t use it as they did not know the length of the wait in advance and there would be nothing the company could do about that.
Fixed that for you
They were in trouble for not using the modes on their tacos properly despite warnings, I don’t know the ins and outs of it but that’s what one of them told me. As far as I knew until I was corrected this evening was that sitting waiting for/on a bay should be regarded as POA and that’s what I thought they got into trouble for.