I’m a new driver and for the last 3 weeks I have been doing various agency jobs doing mainly multidrop. Today I started a full time permanent job (which I was really lucky and happy to get having very little experience). During today’s induction they went through drivers hours which I am pretty clued up on. Then the instructor mentioned something I had never heard of the Working time directive. I honestly never remember any questions throughout initial CPC and theory/practical test that there are two sets of working rules or was aware of this/made aware of this by an agency company (most just gave me the keys and delivery notes and off I went).
I now have full understanding on them but going home tonight I checked my printouts for my agency work and found two infringements. The first I started shift at 7.08am took a 15 minute break at 11.16am and then took a 30 minute break at 13.12 which would take me 4 minutes over the 6 hour rule.
The second I did a full shift between 6.06am and 14.56pm only taking 25 minutes of break (my total driving time was 2 hours 50 and most of the work was at the depot).
Is there any thing I can do about these infringements? should I mention them to someone or keep quiet and hope they get erased off the digicard before VOSA stop me? would they care about 4 minutes late and 5 minutes less on a break?
Not that I want to make excuses but until today I had no idea about this other set of rules and that’s why I just drove keeping in line with the EC drivers hours.
I’m a new driver and for the last 3 weeks I have been doing various agency jobs doing mainly multidrop. Today I started a full time permanent job (which I was really lucky and happy to get having very little experience). During today’s induction they went through drivers hours which I am pretty clued up on. Then the instructor mentioned something I had never heard of the Working time directive. I honestly never remember any questions throughout initial CPC and theory/practical test that there are two sets of working rules or was aware of this/made aware of this by an agency company (most just gave me the keys and delivery notes and off I went).
I now have full understanding on them but going home tonight I checked my printouts for my agency work and found two infringements. The first I started shift at 7.08am took a 15 minute break at 11.16am and then took a 30 minute break at 13.12 which would take me 4 minutes over the 6 hour rule.
The second I did a full shift between 6.06am and 14.56pm only taking 25 minutes of break (my total driving time was 2 hours 50 and most of the work was at the depot).
Is there any thing I can do about these infringements? should I mention them to someone or keep quiet and hope they get erased off the digicard before VOSA stop me? would they care about 4 minutes late and 5 minutes less on a break?
Not that I want to make excuses but until today I had no idea about this other set of rules and that’s why I just drove keeping in line with the EC drivers hours.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Your first infringement wasn’t actually an infringement because you had a 15 minute break before you had done 6 hours of work. Most people think you have to take 30 minutes break at or before the 6 hour point but it is actually 15 minutes required.
Your second infringement may also be legal dependant upon when you took the 25 minute break. Providing it was before 12.06 pm tgen you are ok. Failing that I wouldn’t worry too much about falling foul of the wtd as nobody appears to he interested on policing it except over zealous traffic clerks who think they have a little power.
The break was taken at 11.32 so I guess that wasn’t an infringement either but as I took no other break that day so my total break time was 25 minutes is that not still an infringement?7
The second I did a full shift between 6.06am and 14.56pm only taking 25 minutes of break (my total driving time was 2 hours 50 and most of the work was at the depot).
If that shift had more than a total of 6 hours drive/work then a total of 30 mins break is required with 15 mins break started by 12.06 if POA was not used
As has been said you only have one infringement for the 25 minutes break during the shift, that’s assuming the shift was over six hours working time.
Also as has been said VOSA won’t be interested in that infringement, at the moment they don’t care about the Working Time Regulations.
There’s nothing you can do about the infringement now on your card, but it’s a minor thing anyway so don’t worry about it, I’m sure no-one else will
Please don’t be offended by this but when you say “I now have full understanding on them [WTR rules]”, well you don’t really do you, otherwise you would have known that you don’t have an infringement for the 6 hour rule.
I’m not telling you this to insult you but to make you realise that although you may think you know the rules, you don’t have the understanding of them that you thought and could do with studying them a bit more
To be honest it’s possible that the same could be said about the tachograph rules, you’d be surprised how many people think they know the regulations inside out until they start posting stuff here
Feel free to ask questions in this forum about anything you’re unsure of and good luck with your new job
Thanks for all your help I think as a new driver you get a bit overwhelmed by all the different rules and regs and you just worry about getting it wrong and getting huge fines from VOSA/Police. Does anyone have any suggestions on a good book that contains all this information? I already have this book amazon.co.uk/Official-Guide- … 0115530819 which is really useful but it doesn’t contain detailed information about drivers hours.
Interestingly I asked the trainer who delivered the drivers hours session the above question and he was certain that I needed the full 30 minutes and it was an infringement, just goes to show we all get it wrong from time to time (although he is paid to know this).
