I did my induction with Royal Mail and it was a very good experience, the staff member who took me through it was very good and I learnt a lot from him.
One thing he said that you are supposed to do in RM is when you come in for your shift and put your card in you should do a manual entry from the end of last shift to beginning of new one to put in your rest time. I kind of assumed (I have no clue about tachos) that if your card wasn’t in a truck really the only option would be that you were resting (though I guess you could technically be doing other work) and you wouldn’t have to do any kind of entry.
Should I do a manual entry for every job I do even if not at Royal Mail at the start to record rest time?
It was good though he went though a lot of manual entry on the Taco with me and I learned a lot about using it.
I’ve heard from other drivers that RM have a zero tolerance approach to just about everything these days so if that’s what they’ve said, you’ve got no option. Seems daft to me though, if you’ve recorded rest in the normal way why do they need you to confirm it manually?
It’s good that they’ve spent time showing you how to do manual entries, I’ve rarely had to use them and would be quite rusty if I had to do one tomorrow.
Personally speaking I wouldn’t do manual entries at other jobs if it wasn’t required, though it might be useful to do it as practice.
Zac_A:
I’ve heard from other drivers that RM have a zero tolerance approach to just about everything these days so if that’s what they’ve said, you’ve got no option. Seems daft to me though, if you’ve recorded rest in the normal way why do they need you to confirm it manually?
It’s good that they’ve spent time showing you how to do manual entries, I’ve rarely had to use them and would be quite rusty if I had to do one tomorrow.
Personally speaking I wouldn’t do manual entries at other jobs if it wasn’t required, though it might be useful to do it as practice.
When say recorded rest normally, what do you mean? (Apart from changing to rest while on duty on Tacho to cover driver and working time directives) When you take card out of Tacho at end of day, you don’t need to change it to anything do you? Or do you change it rest then take it out? Using Tachos is a bit of a mystery really!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought RM was asking you to confirm at the start of your shift that you’d had your Daily Rest in the hours preceding starting work, is that correct?
As long as you’re setting your tacho to the bed symbol at the end of the shift the day before, and preferably leaving it a minute or two so that it’s recording that before you eject it, this will record on your card that you have been having Rest when your card is inserted the next day so at that point no manual entry should be required
Zac_A:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought RM was asking you to confirm at the start of your shift that you’d had your Daily Rest in the hours preceding starting work, is that correct?
As long as you’re setting your tacho to the bed symbol at the end of the shift the day before, and preferably leaving it a minute or two so that it’s recording that before you eject it, this will record on your card that you have been having Rest when your card is inserted the next day so at that point no manual entry should be required
Yes I believe that’s why they want you to do it. I didn’t think that you needed to change the Tacho to rest once you finished for the day then remove the card, I just stopped did my paper work and then did a print out and left Truck (Only done one day in a truck so far)
Zac_A:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought RM was asking you to confirm at the start of your shift that you’d had your Daily Rest in the hours preceding starting work, is that correct?
As long as you’re setting your tacho to the bed symbol at the end of the shift the day before, and preferably leaving it a minute or two so that it’s recording that before you eject it, this will record on your card that you have been having Rest when your card is inserted the next day so at that point no manual entry should be required
Yes I believe that’s why they want you to do it. I didn’t think that you needed to change the Tacho to rest once you finished for the day then remove the card, I just stopped did my paper work and then did a print out and left Truck (Only done one day in a truck so far)
Thanks for the replys
We record rest as a manual entry between shifts.
It also accounts for the half hour or so of other work to clear the yard and before entering the truck the following shift
Manual entries show you left your truck and handed your keys in (couple of minutes of other work), assuming your having a rest till the next day, again collect keys, find truck next day (albeit 10 minutes max) is other work. Which legally needs to be shown. Btw which depot was this at?
abzyyy:
Manual entries show you left your truck and handed your keys in (couple of minutes of other work), assuming your having a rest till the next day, again collect keys, find truck next day (albeit 10 minutes max) is other work. Which legally needs to be shown. Btw which depot was this at?
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Was in the Poole Depot, good experience there, if you get an assessment there, the guy there is brilliant and very helpful. The other work I guess makes sense, the rest time is, I guess, because they track all your worked and rested hours on their system to make sure you are complying with work time directives.
Just out of interest dudevoid who got you the assessment as I just had a call from Manpower who said Royal Mail would only assess for 7.5t with previous experience. Are you completely new to driving??
When you turn up for a shift at RM or anywhere else, you would turn up at your start time. You may or may not get a vehicle immediately, but in most cases you wouldn’t be immediately putting your card in from your start time.
Similarly at the end of a shift, you eject your card and then hand the keys in, download your card etc etc and your shift ends some time after this.
The time before putting your card in and after ejecting is included in the overall shift and it is relevant (daily, weekly rest).
Of course many drivers working for operators who aren’t strict on it may proceed for months or years without ever doing manual entries and feel no ill effect. However, a consistent start time of 7 minutes past the hour may eventually raise an eyebrow at a DVSA stop, so why not just spend a few seconds making the entry?
It never used to be but it’s now second nature for me to put card in and enter a manual entry for my “start time”, I give them the 10mins it takes to get out the place.
Takes seconds, makes sure management can’t squeeze any extra work out of me and gives me a “clock in” history in the event of any pay disputes.
I’ve never put tacho to rest before ejecting, never had an issue!
manicpb:
It never used to be but it’s now second nature for me to put card in and enter a manual entry for my “start time”, I give them the 10mins it takes to get out the place.
Takes seconds, makes sure management can’t squeeze any extra work out of me and gives me a “clock in” history in the event of any pay disputes.
I’ve never put tacho to rest before ejecting, never had an issue!
Same with me, if my start time is 11.00 for example, by the time I get my keys and run, then actually find the unit at least 10minutes have elapsed, so when i jump in the cab, i need to account for finishing my shift and walking back to the office to debrief, so a manual entry of 10 minutes on “other work” the night before and then 10 minutes “other work” for the start of my shift and then about 25 minutes of “other work”…wagon and trailer checks, setting up my sat-nav, getting all my bits and bobs sorted etc etc then start my drive, nobody ever has questioned my manual entries. The 35 minutes or so of manual entries at the start of your shift is all part of my duty time and is already biting into my 6hour WTD
I know I am a bit late to this but just wanted to explain manual entries. Basically the period between your start time and physically putting your card in the tacho and the time between ejecting your card and getting your finish time after debriefing are unaccounted for on your card and tachomaster if you don’t do manual entries when you insert your card each day. This can cause a problem when companies are audited or if you ever get stopped by the dvsa etc.
The way we are trained to do it is say your start time is 0300, that is the time you started work so when you get to your vehicle at say 03.10 and insert your card, press ok when the tacho says 1M manual entry? Yes, change the date to your last shift date and it will show the time you ejected your card, select other work (cross hammers) by pressing the number 1 button then change the time you ejected to your actual finish time.
Now select rest (the bed symbol) by pressing the number 1 button again and change the time to your shift start time today, then change the symbol to cross hammers again (other work), the tacho should now show the current time and click ok, then it will say confirm manual entry, yes no, if you select yes it will store if you select no it show each entry you have just done by pressing ok to scroll through, it is always a good idea to select no first when it asks you to confirm and double check your entry is correct before submitting it, remember to click OK on each section of your entry after changing the mode date and time
Sorry if thats long winded, best way I could explain it lol
Chris Cooke:
I know I am a bit late to this but just wanted to explain manual entries. Basically the period between your start time and physically putting your card in the tacho and the time between ejecting your card and getting your finish time after debriefing are unaccounted for on your card and tachomaster if you don’t do manual entries when you insert your card each day. This can cause a problem when companies are audited or if you ever get stopped by the dvsa etc.
The way we are trained to do it is say your start time is 0300, that is the time you started work so when you get to your vehicle at say 03.10 and insert your card, press ok when the tacho says 1M manual entry? Yes, change the date to your last shift date and it will show the time you ejected your card, select other work (cross hammers) by pressing the number 1 button then change the time you ejected to your actual finish time.
Now select rest (the bed symbol) by pressing the number 1 button again and change the time to your shift start time today, then change the symbol to cross hammers again (other work), the tacho should now show the current time and click ok, then it will say confirm manual entry, yes no, if you select yes it will store if you select no it show each entry you have just done by pressing ok to scroll through, it is always a good idea to select no first when it asks you to confirm and double check your entry is correct before submitting it, remember to click OK on each section of your entry after changing the mode date and time
Sorry if thats long winded, best way I could explain it lol
And just to add, you don’t need to change the mode to the bed symbol before ejecting your card, just eject the card and then you manually enter the rest period as above when doing your manual entry the following shift, if you don’t do manual entries tachomaster will assume your rest period itself, so it’s always important to get into the habit of doing manual entries to avoid accidental infringements.
Also some days you may be a spare driver and not physically enter a vehicle, you still have to account for this time as other work via a manual entry so your card data matches up with what you have done physically, hope that makes sense