I’ve been driving class 1 since 1975 non stop, seen all sorts of Ill thought out rules & regs,POA the most stupid, never used it, never will, your always available and at work, total rubbish, think most experienced sensible drivers will agree. Clive. Wales. God help us with these jobs worths, they have absolutely no clue of how it all works.
tachograph:
dieseldave:
nick2008:
dieseldave:
Just a small point folks…
For some of the older hands… let’s remember that this is the Newbies’ Forum.
but should this be not in newbies but in the safety and law section then Dave ■■?
It’s a fair point and I did think about that, but the OP is a newbie asking a newbie question.
I agree, the problems occur when other new drivers or people who simply don’t know what they’re talking about decide to give answers as if they do know.
If people want to have a go at answering questions there’s nothing wrong with that, this is a discussion forum after-all, but they should at-least make it clear that they’re not sure, telling new drivers some of the things that’s been posted in this thread could lead them into trouble.
to many new drivers or drivers with small expirience undestand tacho rules much betters for drivers with 20 years expirince.to many drivers with 20 years exp cant explain about reduced rest,compensation.all depend
Clivelambert:
I’ve been driving class 1 since 1975 non stop, seen all sorts of Ill thought out rules & regs,POA the most stupid, never used it, never will, your always available and at work, total rubbish, think most experienced sensible drivers will agree. Clive. Wales. God help us with these jobs worths, they have absolutely no clue of how it all works.
depend what drivers do and how long shift every day ■■?if drivers will be work 5/6 day per week 12/13 hours per day. with out POA and leave tacho in other job all the time .so VOSA AFTER can give to “present”.but if drivers work just 8 hours per day,all the time,yes can don t worry about POA.
WHY NO USE POA if it is possible.■■?
POA would never stand up in court, don’t matter how long shifts you do, there is never a time you are off duty completely , the very word POA is an anigma, haulage will never be a science, anyone in the real world would appreciate this, sorry to sound bitter and twisted, been at it to long, and touch wood have never had problem with Vosa, find it all a bit laughable.
Theory question.
POA don’t count toward working time, I get that no probs.
If I do a 12hr day but had an hour on POA during that 12hrs, does that mean I’ve only recorded 11hrs work and can actually work another 2hr?
Thinking in 24hr terms, I wouldn’t get that 1hr back as REST though would I?
Hope this makes sense.
wheelyb:
Theory question.
POA don’t count toward working time, I get that no probs.
If I do a 12hr day but had an hour on POA during that 12hrs, does that mean I’ve only recorded 11hrs work and can actually work another 2hr?Thinking in 24hr terms, I wouldn’t get that 1hr back as REST though would I?
Hope this makes sense.
I think you answered your own question 
Quote from another web-site ( I dont like to do it, but guess its necessary)
from HGV LGV Training Directory
Period of Availability (POA)
A period of availability refers to waiting time known in advance by the worker. The worker does not have to remain at their workstation, although they may need to for reasons of security or safety, but they must be available to answer calls to start work or resume driving at the employer’s request.
As mentioned above, the duration should be known in advance either before departure or just before the start of the period in question. Workers do not need to be formally notified about a POA or its likely duration — it is enough to simply ‘know’ about it.
Periods of availability do not include delays due to road closures, diversions, or congestion as the worker will still be driving as part of this classification.
The important part, as I see it is
Workers do not need to be formally notified about a POA or its likely duration — it is enough to simply ‘know’ about it
Therefor, in my view when I arrive to be tipped, at a site that Ive been to many times before
and know that if Im not lucky enought to be 1st in the queue,
that each truck infront of me is going to take 15 ~ 20ish minutes to tipped.
And there are 4 of them, I be expecting at least a 45 minute wait.
( i.e “simply ‘know’ about it” hence in my view, the use of POA is now justified )
I might have to move the truck forward servial times while in the queue,
so the POA will be interupted by these short periods of driving.
And hence be recorded as something like:
Head set to POA [10min POA ] [ 1minute Driving ] >
Head set to POA [15min POA] [ 1 minute Driving ] >
Head set to POA [17min POA ] [ 1min Driving ] >
Yep’ee Im now 1st in the queue…
[9 min POA ] //interupted by being called in to tip
[ 3 min driving ]
[ 15 min other work ] now supervising the tipping, etc etc
de 2xQ
PS: Personally I think its ALL Hog-wash ,i.e Contradictory:
example:
The worker does not have to remain at their workstation,
although they may need to for reasons of security or safety
umm, The Drivers now taking on the role of " Security Guard "
Isnt that “Other Work” 
, The rules are riddled with contradiction…
wheelyb:
Theory question.
POA don’t count toward working time, I get that no probs.
If I do a 12hr day but had an hour on POA during that 12hrs, does that mean I’ve only recorded 11hrs work and can actually work another 2hr?Thinking in 24hr terms, I wouldn’t get that 1hr back as REST though would I?
Hope this makes sense.
POA does not count as working time but it also does not count as rest.
Without wanting to complicate it further I suppose you could look on it as duty time but not working time.
Is there any other industry that has such a ridiculous logging system for tracking work.
Gives me a head ache just thinking about it. What ever happened to the plain and simple clock-in and clock-out method 
madmossy:
Is there any other industry that has such a ridiculous logging system for tracking work.
I quite agree.
Until the companies who run massive RDCs who seem to reluctant to employ any more than two or three unloading staff to handle the hundreds of lorries they see each day have a massive change in policy.
We are stuck wasting hours in waiting rooms while the EU thinks up rules to persuade us that we are not at work when we obviously are.
W
I can understand from a safety perspective that limiting drivers hours makes sense, some would happily just work till they drop. What I did find quiet amusing though is one trainer I spoke to recently went on about how 50% of road collisions involve LGV’s.
Ok great, that means the other 50% are cars, so why are LGV drivers penalised so heavily.