I work Thursday-Monday and on occasions have had an infringement letter telling me l’ve either done 4/5 9hr breaks or 4/5 15hr spreads in the same working" week".
Example of this is as follows: Sun 15hrs-9 off, Mon 15hrs followed by Tues & Wed off Thurs, Fri and Sat all 15’s with 9 off then no more than 13 on the Monday followed by 2 days off and so on. If l have 1 day off its minimum 36 off and 2 days off is minimum 54+ hrs. The driver trainer among others says that as long as l have the required rest its legal and obviously the infringement people think its illegal. I realise what the fixed working week is, but Thurs-Mon is my fixed working week. Who’s right ? cos l’m confused. 
Wouldie:
I realise what the fixed working week is, …
Wouldie:
… but Thurs-Mon is my [fixed] working week.
Hi Wouldie,
To try to help, I’ve split your last sentence at the point where I think your confusion might arise.
The first part of what you wrote is the precisely defined ‘fixed week’ as written in the law:
‘a week’ means the period of time between 00.00 on Monday and 24.00 on Sunday;
This cannot be altered by your boss.
The second part of what you wrote is your working week as set by your boss.
As long as all daily / weekly / two-weekly limits on driving / working / breaks / rest are observed, your boss can organise the work in each (legally) fixed week to suit operational requirements.
Those two ideas are compatible with each other as long as you remember that the ‘fixed week’ is something that is different from your working week and will work quite well as long as you stick to all limits.
I’ve attempted to explain only the principle involved, but as to whether your example of the hours you work is legally correct, I’ll leave that bit to those who are better than me at explaining it. 
Two sets of rules each with their own criteria
Fixed week rules and between weekly rest rules
Certain things are subject to one of those such as …
Extending driving time between two daily rests to over 9 hours = max twice per fixed week
Reducing daily rest to less than 11 hours = max 3 times between weekly rests
Wouldie:
I realise what the fixed working week is, but Thurs-Mon is my fixed working week.
There is nothing in the regs about a working week only fixed week and between weekly rests
Wouldie:
I work Thursday-Monday and on occasions have had an infringement letter telling me l’ve either done 4/5 9hr breaks or 4/5 15hr spreads in the same working" week".
Example of this is as follows: Sun 15hrs-9 off, Mon 15hrs followed by Tues & Wed off Thurs, Fri and Sat all 15’s with 9 off then no more than 13 on the Monday followed by 2 days off and so on. If l have 1 day off its minimum 36 off and 2 days off is minimum 54+ hrs. The driver trainer among others says that as long as l have the required rest its legal and obviously the infringement people think its illegal. I realise what the fixed working week is, but Thurs-Mon is my fixed working week. Who’s right ? cos l’m confused.
You’re allowed three reduced daily rest periods between weekly rest periods, the fixed week doesn’t come into the equation.
You work Thursday to Monday but your example is a bit confusing because it starts on a Sunday, I’m not going to try to second guess what was done before Sunday, your next working week where you do three reduced daily rest periods from Thursday to Saturday then a 13 hour shift on Monday is probably legal but you don’t say what happened on Sunday
It may be me but I don’t get your example at-all.
One thing I would point out is that you say some days are 13 hours shifts, but that does not mean they were not reduced daily rest periods, a 13 hour shift followed by a rest period of less than 11 hours is still a reduced daily rest period.
So you reduce on the first 3 days after your weekly rest, Thursday Friday and Saturday, by exceeding 13 hours shift time which means you are limited to maximum 13 hour shifts on Sunday and Monday with a minimum of 11 hours rest. So provided you didn’t do more than 13 hours shift or had less than 11 hours on the last two days of your week then it’s legal. You don’t actually mention what you worked on the Sunday after the 3x15s on Thursday to Saturday.
If the infringement letters are say exactly as you stated - 4/5 9 hour rests or 4/5 15 hour shifts in a working week - and you haven’t done more than 3 between Thursday and Monday then the answer is clear solution is simple. The analysis company are crap and your company needs to get rid and find one which knows the regulations.
Sorry that’s my fault that l made out my first shift was on a sunday, its not its Thursday. l could type out ten weeks of shifts, but won’t. At some point the back end of one week has run into another. eg thurs-fri-sat all 13hrs work with 11hrs off sun-mon both 15hrs with 9 off then tues-wed rest days. thurs-fri-sat all 15hrs work with 9hrs off then sun-mon 13hrs work with 11hrs off then tues-wed rest days and so on and so on. Infringement for 15hrs x 5 in the one week as is daily rest 9x5. In house driver trainer says its legal, infringement people say its not. This is not how l work every week its just something that crops up every now and again as l’m old and absent minded.
Wouldie:
Sorry that’s my fault that l made out my first shift was on a sunday, its not its Thursday. l could type out ten weeks of shifts, but won’t. At some point the back end of one week has run into another. eg thurs-fri-sat all 13hrs work with 11hrs off sun-mon both 15hrs with 9 off then tues-wed rest days. thurs-fri-sat all 15hrs work with 9hrs off then sun-mon 13hrs work with 11hrs off then tues-wed rest days and so on and so on. Infringement for 15hrs x 5 in the one week as is daily rest 9x5. In house driver trainer says its legal, infringement people say its not. This is not how l work every week its just something that crops up every now and again as l’m old and absent minded.
Based on that information it’s 100% legal and the analysis people are crap at their job.
If there has never been more than 3 x 15s between weekly rests (or in your working week as you call it) then its legal
I think analysis is adding Is using The fixed week and adding Mon + Thu+ Fri + Sat Sun and not your between weekly (Tue/Wed) rest periods
Many thanks for the replies lads things are much clearer now. 
gmccabe13:
I think analysis is adding Is using The fixed week and adding Mon + Thu+ Fri + Sat Sun and not your between weekly (Tue/Wed) rest periods
One of the DVSA LGV theory questions is this -
How many times can a driver reduce the daily rest in a WEEK?
The correct answer comes up as 3
We know that is wrong because week refers to the fixed week and the max possible amount is 6
The word WEEK needs to changed to BETWEEN WEEKLY RESTS in the question to get the answer of 3
If the DVSA are getting it wrong no wonder many newbies are confused 