I worked with Parcelforce in Grays as part of the agency work, my was three days of work from 9 am till 6 pm on 7.5tons to cover one of those sick drivers. On the first and second days, all went well. I collected 220ish packets from the Airport and varied locations took a 45-minute break and finished my shift at 6.25 pm, I same on the second day finished a bit early at 6.10 pm, but on the third day, I did not have many parcels it was 23 but a short distance travel to pick it up. When I nearly finished my shift the time was 5.25 pm a few miles away from the depot, my tachograph alarm came on warning me of 15 minutes left before taking the 45-minute break. When I arrived at the depot I had 10 minutes remaining warning, I unloaded the packets then parked the lorry a few yards and put in other work 10 minutes checked the lorry wrote a log book walked to meet the transporter manager and he said thank you for your hard work and downloaded my tachograph sign out and left at exactly 6 pm. A week later today my agency said that I did not take any break on my last day.
But I did not go over the hours because I had 10 minutes left before the 45-minute break which I thought wasn’t necessary to take. After all, I was in the depot and my shift was about to finish. I am not sure if I did wrong or really should have taken the break?
Because I drove the 7.5 tons it was my first job with a lorry so the tachograph rule is a bit confusing for me at the moment.
if working a 6 hour shift you need 15 min break
6-9 hour shift 30 min break
over 9 hour shift 45 min break
i suspect on your first and second day you did more than 3 hours work before having a 45 so you didn’t breach any of the above rules but did on your third day if you didn’t have any breaks
So I worked 9 hours on the third day, I should have taken a 30-minute break??
Short answer … yes.
Fuller answer:
- weekly working time must not exceed an average of 48 hours per week over the reference period - a maximum working time of 60 hours can be performed in any single week providing the average 48-hour limit is not exceeded
- night work: if night work is performed, working time must not exceed 10 hours in any 24-hour period. Night time is the period between 00.00 and 04.00 for goods vehicles and between 01.00 and 05.00 for passenger vehicles. The 10-hour limit may be exceeded if this is permitted under a collective or workforce agreement
- breaks:
- mobile workers must not work more than 6 consecutive hours without taking a break
- if working hours total between 6 and 9 hours, working time should be interrupted by a break or breaks totalling at least 30 minutes
- if working hours total more than 9 hours, working time should be interrupted by a break or breaks totalling at least 45 minutes
- breaks should be of at least 15 minutes’ duration
- rest: the regulations are the same as the EU drivers’ hours rules
- record keeping: records need to be kept for two years after the period in question
Assuming you are under normal EU tacho rules, and you say you are not working nights.
On your 3rd day we can ignore the 4.5hr driving limit.
Start at 09hr00 you need to start a break (at least 15min) by 15hr00. (that is because you cannot do 6hr or more)
Your total working hours are between 6 and 9 so you will need to have had at least 30min total break.
I am starting to understand now. The tachograph when the lorry stops it automatically change to break or other work?
** Normally** a tacho will go from driving (which it selects when you move for a short period, we won’t go into detail here) back to duty. Normally you need to manually select break.
Tachos can be set up differently, but that is rare.
Just look at the pictogram to check what is being recorded.
Thank you, I have learned something new today.
Relying on the tachograph to tell you when you need a break isn’t the best.
Tachographs usually only tell you about driving time breaks, although some of the more recent ones will give you a warning about working time.
It can also be the case that a tachograph can give you a working time warning that isn’t valid. For example, you take a 15 minute break after three hours, and this resets the six hour rule. The modern tachographs for some reason think you need a 45 minute break before 6 hours work. I have no idea why, but I’m sure that this may get confusing to a new driver.
To add to what’s been said, be aware that breaks at the immediate start or end of the shift do not count for the working time regulations.
For WTD breaks you must have at-least one minute or work before the first break and at-least one minute of work after the last break for them to count for the WTD.
As you’re a newbie the rules may be quite confusing in the initial period, if you’re interested, you can PM me and I will give you a link to a free download pdf (physical version is about 50 pages in A5 format) from a compliance specialist covering everything you need to know to keep yourself right.
I won’t bother posting the link openly as last time I did that, there were a whole bunch of what I considered to be unjustified criticisms of something I believe is really helpful.
Yes, I would like a copy of the PDF. How do I private message? on website truck net?
Chat message sent, you should see some kind of indication on the top right of the screen, on or near your profile pic
Thanks for the link . 