Hello and Merry Christmas everyone.
I have an interview next week for my 1st Driving Job 
I have held my HGV licence for a few years but never driven on a Tacho as my previous job was exempt. Is there any iPhone friendly apps out there that you can record you hours on/use during the day to record them?
I have downloaded the easyTrucking app and have no idea if its any good.
Thanks in advance
Spooner85:
Hello and Merry Christmas everyone.
I have an interview next week for my 1st Driving Job
I have held my HGV licence for a few years but never driven on a Tacho as my previous job was exempt. Is there any iPhone friendly apps out there that you can record you hours on/use during the day to record them?
I have downloaded the easyTrucking app and have no idea if its any good.
Thanks in advance
If you’re going to be driving on tachograph you don’t need an app for your phone, everything will be recorded on your driver card, that’s what the tachograph is for.
If you want to keep your own records for some reason you can always do a printout at the end of each shift and put the relevant information into a spreadsheet or something.
If you decide to take printouts for your own records it’s probably worth buying a roll of cheap printing paper off eBay.
Sorry if I’ve misunderstood your post 
Hi mate. Yeah its for my records so I can keep on top of things for the 1st few weeks. I all else fails I will just use good old pen and paper.
Spooner85:
Hi mate. Yeah its for my records so I can keep on top of things for the 1st few weeks. I all else fails I will just use good old pen and paper.
I do the following
use a notebook and at the top of the page goes: (used to use an A5 diary but I found this year they have put Sat and Sun on the same page. Also some days I do a lot of short distance and so on a page-a-day diary I run out of space - I work Wed to Sun).
day of the week Date
REG: STA (start time)
ODO:
From with dep time To with arr time (inc which trailer number involved
each journey listed for the timesheet which I fill out in the evening (the notebook is my copy)
often 20 or so entries until parkup
FIN (finish time)
ODO (odometer reading)
CDT (â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– drive time for that day) CDTWK (total for the week BUT between rest days i.e. driving period)
CWT (■■■■■■■■■■working time for that day) CWTWK (total for the week… BUT fixed period i.e. Mon to Sun some weeks I run out of DT or WT on the Sun and have to drive into the yard Mon morning… which needs to be watched as I work Wed to Sun. )
You don’t want to get an app like Tachoguard* and Trucker Timer* but you do want an app to add up hours and mins - I use Timecalc which is free and no adverts (just a basic calculator which can do hours and mins and decimals like a usual calculator).
iirc Tachguard does not do 15 or 30 min breaks and Trucker Timer I also found errors but cannot remember now what they were.
For breaks I put down the CDT# start - finish x 16,31, 46 mins (whichever… but if unloading maybe 1h15 and add ON BAY) saves any questions as I don’t use POA.
e.g. from 18dec21 it says 2h54#1057-11.43 x 46
The office may question why I took break before 3 driving hours. BUT they can look at the start time STA 0515 and I took a 46 min as I only had 18 mins left before going over working time. I took the extra 15 mins for driving time as I had a further 2.5 hrs of driving before reaching the destination. Logging the CDT and break times avoids any questions later.
This I have found works well for me - TImeCalc is a must but not other apps.
STA , CDTWK, CWTWK go on the right hand side of the page - I couldn’t move them across on this forum page.
I also log infringements (I write these in green biro) so I have a record in case of a job interview or any queries. Last week i was stuck on the North A1 for 3 hours due to an accident. Times all logged for my tacho printout… which I keep in a CD folder with 10 sleeves (costs a £1) - only thing I’ve found that stores them easily.
So my notebook is a full logbook of all driving. Loads of tacho printouts become a pain.
HTH
My employer gives access to the Tachomaster app. If your employer uses Tachomaster, it may be worth asking for a login (which may not even cost anything extra to the company).
I managed fine without it before, but it is useful to see the working time average over the reference period and also perhaps working time remaining in the week (if you plan on going near 60 hours for example).
Also, if you forget to write down any start or finish times these can easily be checked. As far as compliance goes, it doesn’t really help too much day to day as it only updates after you have downloaded at the end of the shift. Generally my reference is my diary, so I can see when I started, when I had my last break etc etc.
In any case at most places if you are doing something wrong someone will be chasing after you asking for signatures from you agreeing that you have been naughty. Probably the most common infringement is going over 6 hours working time. Most drivers have probably done it at some stage.
Noremac:
a] My employer gives access to the Tachomaster app. If your employer uses Tachomaster, it may be worth asking for a login (which may not even cost anything extra to the company).I managed fine without it before, but it is useful to see the working time average over the reference period and also perhaps working time remaining in the week (if you plan on going near 60 hours for example).
b] … Generally my reference is my diary, so I can see when I started, when I had my last break etc etc.
a] good point if it’s a smallish company. My firm is over 100 trucks perhaps 150 drivers and won’t do that.
b] keeping a good log is a must. There is a phone app (Driver Card Reader or Stoneridge Duo Mobile) for downloading tacho data but not sure if it is glitch free. As you say paper and pen is best along with a calculator that can do calculations in hr:min.
jessejazza:
a] good point if it’s a smallish company. My firm is over 100 trucks perhaps 150 drivers and won’t do that…
Is that so? Have you even asked the question?
I worked for DHL which has a few more trucks than 100 and all drivers were given access to tachomaster worker app if requested.
I work for another company again with slightly more than 100 trucks and again have been given a log in for tachomaster worker app.
It is easy and simple to set up a worker login on tachomaster at each individual depot and simply requires the admin user or anyone with admin rights to set it up for you. It takes a couple of minutes to set it up.
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