New member here with a first question, most likely the start of many!
What is the score with getting stuck in a traffic jam and being over the 4.5hr point? As I’m still relatively new to the scene I’ve only ever encountered this problem once. Let me explain further…
I joined the M25 clockwise from the M11 to come off at J30, I was about 40 mins from the 4.5hr point and also my drop off, as many of you will know this should of been plenty of time. Unfortunately I lost a bit of time at the roadworks then got held up at J28 with very slow moving traffic. At this point I still had 25 mins left and coming up to J29 it slowed right down again, I made the decision to stay on the road as I only had 6 miles to go, big big mistake! It turns out traffic was snarled up from J29 to at least J30 and I was stuck in it crawling along, my 25 mins counting down ever quicker!
Anyway, to cut a long and boring short, by the time I pulled into Tesco my driving time was showing as 5hrs 5 mins Even although I was barely there the constant crawling all added up timewise.
Now, I know I ■■■■■■ up and made a stupid mistake and one which I have certainly learnt from but where do I stand 1.) WRT to downloading my card, should I ‘lose’ it or just download it and 2.) The rules appear to be very grey, just how much leeway is there in the above scenario?
No point losing your card, the info is stored in the tacho head for ever and a day any way, do a print out and write an explanation on the back, more informed people will be along shortly to give you the low down, oh, by the way, welcome aboard.
The law is that you can excede the 4hrs 30 mins driving in an emergency, and for the safety of your vehicle, load and other road users, so long as it is an unforseen event, and ONLY to get you to a secure, safe parking area. So, once you left the M25, you should have stopped at the first safe place, however, knowing the area, i would say that was probably Tesco!.
now, I would say that 40 minutes was more than enough to reach tesco at thurrock from Jct 27, and if there is an accident that causes you to be delayed, then that would be “unforseen”
I had a similar instance last week, heading into london on the M40, went past the M25 then traffic stopped. i found out that the A40 was closed at the Polish war memorial, so i turned around and tried to head round the M25 to use the A1 to get to Finchley. M25 was queueing just as bad, so I ended up in South mimms on 4:46 driving time. did a printout, and wrote the reason on the back. I will keep this with me in case I get stopped by VOSA>
pete-b:
No point losing your card, the info is stored in the tacho head for ever and a day any way, do a print out and write an explanation on the back, more informed people will be along shortly to give you the low down, oh, by the way, welcome aboard.
no need you said it all and got it right. thats all is needed ,■■■■ hapens and vosa understand that
pete-b:
No point losing your card, the info is stored in the tacho head for ever and a day any way, do a print out and write an explanation on the back, more informed people will be along shortly to give you the low down, oh, by the way, welcome aboard.
All I would add to that is do two printouts, write the same explanation on both, and keep one after you hand the other into the office after the 29 day period. That way when the office lose the one you handed in you have another. It seems required printouts are not always treated the same way as charts when they are handed in and can go missing.
As posted the printout has to done as soon after incident as possible - this is as written in the VOSA bible - so doing later in the day or week is frowned upon - ASAP also indicates you were aware of the infringement and have already held up your hand to it - be accurate with times and reasons because they will check
cheers
Steve
gm:
As posted the printout has to done as soon after incident as possible - this is as written in the VOSA bible - so doing later in the day or week is frowned upon - ASAP also indicates you were aware of the infringement and have already held up your hand to it - be accurate with times and reasons because they will check
cheers
Steve
What’s the Law according to VOSA re: analogue charts ?
Say you’ve gone over your driving time by 30 minutes because of unforseen circumstances,are you supposed to open the head ASAP after the " infringement " write the reason why on the back of the chart,then put the chart back in ?
Even though you’ve got say another 3 hours driving time in the day .
James Bateman:
What’s the Law according to VOSA re: analogue charts ?
Say you’ve gone over your driving time by 30 minutes because of unforseen circumstances,are you supposed to open the head ASAP after the " infringement " write the reason why on the back of the chart,then put the chart back in ?
Even though you’ve got say another 3 hours driving time in the day .
YES - I have done this -
At the first safe opportunity I put the time I opened the chart and then the reason for the delay, then initialed it -all done as quick as possible to keep the open-time to a minimum
James Bateman:
What’s the Law according to VOSA re: analogue charts ?
Say you’ve gone over your driving time by 30 minutes because of unforseen circumstances,are you supposed to open the head ASAP after the " infringement " write the reason why on the back of the chart,then put the chart back in ?
Even though you’ve got say another 3 hours driving time in the day .
YES - I have done this -
At the first safe opportunity I put the time I opened the chart and then the reason for the delay, then initialed it -all done as quick as possible to keep the open-time to a minimum
Cheers ROG,I was always under the impression it was a big no no for a driver to open the head,unless requested to by the law.
I’ve always waited till the end of the shift before I’ve written the reason for any delay etc:
Will think on in future.
gm:
Now thats a new one on me - never before have i opened the head and placed a reason on the back of an chart
just digi tachs
cheers
Steve
VOSA/police like the records to be as up to date as reasonably possible if they do a roadside check.
I can just imagine this - due to an unforseen problem the driving time gets to 5 hours without the required breaks taken - driver stops for 45 min break and then does another 2 hours driving - gets stopped by VOSA…
Driver, we got you for insufficient driving breaks - but I was going to put the reason at the end of my shift - Hmmm… not sure I believe that…
The driver may or may not get away with that but why take the chance
I don’t know the regulations that govern the use of analogue tachos but I am going to guess that they probably say something like - the driver must not remove the tacho for more than is necessary - or similar - perhaps those members that have knowledge of this can give a more definitive answer ■■
I had this situation on M25 on Friday, a journey that took 30mins in one direction took 58 mins on the way back. I parked up on the roundabout at Hunton Bridge, marked for “Emergency Vehicles Only”, thinking better to get done for parking than exceeding driving time.
My printout showed 4h29m so I feel I could argue that road safety was paramount.
During my thirty minute stay no one appeared to tell me I shouldn’t be there, surprisingly.
waddy640:
I had this situation on M25 on Friday, a journey that took 30mins in one direction took 58 mins on the way back. I parked up on the roundabout at Hunton Bridge, marked for “Emergency Vehicles Only”, thinking better to get done for parking than exceeding driving time.
My printout showed 4h29m so I feel I could argue that road safety was paramount.
During my thirty minute stay no one appeared to tell me I shouldn’t be there, surprisingly.
IMO, you were lucky not to get moved on or done
Road safety would be just as well served if you had carried on to find a SAFE & SUITABLE place to take the break
I was parked in a lay-by, well clear of the traffic lanes. The problem with carrying on is that VOSA/Police will invariably know of a ‘suitable place’ that you are not aware of and claim that you should have used that facility.
When you are driving along, how many lay-bys have space to park an artic in? When I resumed my journey the first lay-by with space was three traffic jams later and around an hours driving. That was in Baldock, some 34 miles from Watford.
this brings up a whole new question…that is what is a “SAFE AND SUITABLE” place to stop.
My personal opinion is for a short break any layby, industrial estate, or spare ground will do as long as there are no parking restrictions.
However for daily rest I will not stop in a layby that isnt seperated from the carraigeway by a divider. I have driven past several narrow laybys to find a suitable (in my eyes) one and marked the tacho accordingly.
ROG:
‘…At the first safe opportunity … put the time … opened … and then the reason for the delay, then initial… it - all done as quick as possible to keep the open-time to a minimum…’
I was 120 seconds from doing exactly that last Friday teatime (there’s a surprise!) as my running time clicked to 4 hrs, 29 mins before I was fortunately able to throw it onto ‘break’ in time.
Whether lucky or well planned, I dunno, but I’d sooner nail my ■■■■ to the back door rather than being potentially seen by a roadside snoop as ‘out-of-control’ even if due to an unforeseen circumstance.
It’s been said on here before how the Easties pull over anywhere, but I argue that the M1, M25, etc is a pit-stop too far.
As far as i am aware, it is OK to open the tacho head on an analogue tacho briefly, for the purpose of checking your driving time, and to make a manual entry. This should be kept to a minimum.
checking your driving time once a day would be ok, but not every hour!
Even although I was barely there the constant crawling all added up timewise.