The tachograph
Almost nobody loses a licence over a tachograph. A great many people collect infringements over one, and an infringement file is what a traffic commissioner reads when an operator is called in.
Manual entries
The gap is the offence, not the work
Everything from the moment your card came out of the last vehicle to the moment it goes into the next one has to be on the card. If you did other work, put other work. If you rested, put rest. AN UNEXPLAINED GAP is what gets picked up, and it looks worse than whatever you were actually doing.
Do it at the start, before you move
The unit asks you when the card goes in. That is the moment. Answering it properly takes a minute standing still and fixing it afterwards takes a printout, a pen and an explanation.
Other work means all work, not just driving work
Loading, unloading, cleaning the vehicle, paperwork, maintenance, and WORK FOR ANY OTHER EMPLOYER. A second job counts. That last one surprises people every time and it is the one that causes trouble, because it also eats into the hours you are allowed.
Period of availability is not a break
POA is waiting where you knew in advance how long the wait would be and you were free to do as you liked, and the second seat on a double manned run. Waiting that you did not know about in advance is not POA. If in doubt, ask before you record it, not after.
The country symbol, both ends
You must record the country where the daily work period BEGINS and the country where it ENDS. Crossing a border, do it at the first suitable stopping point at or after the crossing. It is a small button and it is a real requirement.
What you carry, and how far back
Current day plus 28
You carry the current day and the previous 28 days. That is card, printouts and any manual records together, not whichever of them you happen to have.
56 days if you run to the EU
International work between the UK and the EU means full daily records for the previous 56 days, not 28. Two different numbers, and the one that applies is the one for the work you are doing.
A week with no in scope driving still needs a record
Holiday, sick, a week on other work. DVSA will accept one record for the whole fixed week rather than seven daily ones, but a blank week is still a blank.
The card itself
Treat it like a bank card
No bending, no heat, no force. One card only. Using somebody else's is not a shortcut, it is fraud, and it ends careers rather than shifts.
Lost, stolen or broken: seven days to apply, fifteen to drive
REPORT IT AND APPLY FOR A REPLACEMENT WITHIN SEVEN CALENDAR DAYS. You may drive for a maximum of FIFTEEN calendar days without it, taking a printout at the start and end of every shift and writing your name, your licence or card number and your signature on each one.
Carry print roll that fits
Type approved, and enough of it. Being unable to produce a printout at the roadside because the roll ran out is your problem, not the examiner's.
What we will never ask you to do
Nobody here will ever ask you to drive on somebody else's card, to leave a gap, or to record rest you did not take. If any client asks you to, ring us and we will take it up with them, and you will not lose the assignment over it.
The drivers' hours rules beat any instruction from us or from a client. That is in the handbook and it is not a form of words.
If you have made a mistake on a card, tell us. A mistake explained on the day is an administrative note. The same mistake found by an examiner eight weeks later is an infringement with nobody to speak for it.
Where this comes from
Checked against the DVSA guidance on drivers' hours and tachographs for goods vehicles. The wording is ours, and it is a plain summary rather than the rules themselves: where this page and the guidance differ, the guidance wins and we want to know about it. The same points are in the worker handbook, published before anybody signs anything.
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