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Law on the move
Page 42
Page 43
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
As our legal news pages show, TCs do not accept ignorance as a defence.
We asked RHA national training instructor Bob Auchterionie to set up some scenarios to test your Knowledge of the rules on hours and 0-licensing.
Have a go. check out the answers and if you've got many of them wrong some urgent revision might he in order if you're to stay out of trouble and preserve your licence. Next time well be testing you on a new area of law digital tachographs.
Drivers' hours
1YOU DRIVE A VAN with a permissible maximum weight of 2.8 tonnes and tow a twin-axle car trailer weighing 750kg when empty: You deliver cars between dealers all over the country, and the trailer has a permissible maximum weight of two tonnes. Do you need to have a tachograph fitted and must you use the tachograph?
YOU DRIVE A C+E vehicle and have used up your 90 driving hours in a fortnight by 12 midday on the Thursday of the second week. When can you drive a tachograph vehicle again?
33IS THE FOLLOWING example of a day's driving legal? One-hour drive;28minute break; two-and-a half-hour drive; 17ini nine break; one-hour drive;28-minute break; four-and-a-half-hour drive?
4YOU START WORK at 6.30am Monday and finish your week back at base on Saturday at 3pm after starting that day at 6ant. You haven't infringed any of the drivers' hours rules during your working week. You have used your three reduced rests already during the week. You also have driving hours available to you. You start hack to work after your weekly rest at 4am on Monday morning. At thc cekend you attend the local fire station as a retained fire fighter from lOpin on Saturday until 4am on Sunday. What infringements would you he creating by this working scenario?
YOU ARE A BUILDER driving a 7.5 tonne vehicle and doing your own building, ie you use what you carry. Is there an exemption from the tachograph rules?
0-licences
6YOU HAVE AN 0-licence for two vehicles and actually run two vehicles. One is broken down for a week; how long can you hire another vehicle for before you must enter it on your 0-licence?
7 YOU OPERATE UNDER a standard national operator's licence.You wish to gain work operating from Felixstowe pulling trailers that have come in front the Continent. Can you pull these trailers using vehicles on a standard national 0-licence, bearing in mind the trailers are on an international journey?
8YOU HAVE AN OPERATING centre in t..) Stamford in Lincolnshire, and your driver lives on the outskirts of Peterborough. To save some time and mileage, he parks the vehicle in the car park at the local shopping centre ju.st around the corner from your house and goes home for the night. Your driver says this is legal as he is away from hase.True or false?
0 YOU HAVE A DEPOT in Cambridge 7 and wish to open another depot in the same traffic area (Eastern) as well as another depot in the Medway area in the adjoining traffic area (South-Eastern & Metropolitan). Would you be covered for the two new depots by your existing 0-licence?
n YOU OPERATE ready-mix concrete 1..) tankers delivering concrete for a major company.These vehicles are on your 0licence. You want to start up a small delivery fleet of ready-mix tankers that carry the aggregate, sand and cement on the vehicle. These would be mixed together at the customer's doorstep, so to speak.Your friend says the tankers do not need to be on your 0-licence. True or False?
Answers
1Yes, you need a tachograph to be fitted and you must use it, as the combination is over 3.5 tonnes. Even with an empty van and an empty trailer, the van at a permissible maximum weight of 2.8 tonnes and the trailer at 2 tonnes equals 4.8 tonnes.
2After midnight on the Sunday (not necessarily after a weekly rest). tinder ECJAETR and UK domestic
rules,a 'fortnight' is any two-week period commencing at 12am on Monday and ending at 11.59pm on the Sunday,14 days later.
3It looks legal as you have taken your 45minute break in two periods,17 minutes during the 4h 30min period and 28 minutes at the end of the 4h 30min drive. However, the European Courts of Justice ruled in 1996 in a case known as'The Chapman Case' that where a driver has taken a 45-minute break either as a single break or as several breaks of at least 15 minutes during or at the end of a four-and-ahalf-hour period, the calculation provided for in article 7(1) of the regulation should begin afresh, without taking into account the driving time and breaks completed by the driver.
The first break of 28 minutes and the second break of 17 minutes equal 45 minutes, therefore the calculation begins afresh although the driver has only driven 3hr 30rnin.
A shorter answer would be to say no. it is not legal, as you have driven Shr 30nin from that point with only a 28-minute break.
4Your first infringement would be insufficient daily rest. As you started on Saturday at 6am your 24-hour period also started at 6am, and your daily rest should have been completed by 6am on Sunday. Your daily rest should have been 11 consecutive hours as
you have no reduced rests left to take. By starting at 6am and finishing at 4am the following day,your total daily rest period would be a total of two hours. Your rest between finishing your driving duties and reporting for duty at the fire station is only seven hours and therefore does not count as a daily rest period.
The second infringement would he insufficient weekly rest. As you started at 6am on the Monday, the very latest you could still be working would be the end of your sixth daily driving period, which would be Saturday at 3pm.
However, the rules on weekly rest say the weekly rest period may be postponed until the end of the sixth day if the total driving time over the six days does not exceed the maximum corresponding to six daily driving periods. You could therefore still be working within the rules for weekly rest by working to 4am on Sunday, but you could not start work again until you had had a weekly rest from 4am Sunday of at least 45 hours, which you could reduce to 36 hours. You had only 24 hours of weekly rest — from 4am Sunday until 4am Monday.
Had you not attended the fire station, you would have remained within the rules on both daily and weekly rest.
Remember: retained firelighters who drive vehicles under EC 3820 during the week are subject to the rules on weekly rest. as is any other driver working with vehicles covered by the rules, al though the RID does not class duty of a retained firefighter as working time within the Road Transport Directive.
a Yes. Providing the vehicle does not exceed ;.../ 7.5 tonnes GVW, you operate within a 50km radius of your base and driving is not your main occupation.you would be exempt from the drivers' hours and tachograph rules. Records of your mileage should be kept to account for any missing mileage.
Should you either operate outside this radius or deliver any goods to another person you would need to use the tachograph as driving would then be your main occupation. Although you are exempt from the drivers' hours and tachograph rules, you would of course still be subject to the UK domestic hours rules.
6If you already run two vehicles on an 0licence for two vehicles, you cannot hire another vehicle.To run additional vehicles you would require a margin on your 0-licence.
For example, if your 0-licence was for four vehicles but only had two vehicles in use, you could hire two vehicles for 28 days before they would need lobe entered on your 0-licence by registration.There is no period of grace allowed to operate vehicles on an 0-licence without a margin.
7 Yes, as they are on the national part of the journey. However, you would need CMR insurance to be compliant.
8False.When the vehicle is not in use, it should be parked at its operating centre. The fact that the car park is suitable is no exeuse.The use of an operating centre which not authorised on an 0-licence not only puts the 0-licence at risk through disciplinary action by the local TC, but is also a criminal offence with a maximum fine of £2500.
9 The answer here is in two parts. For the proposed depot within the Cambridge area: yes,you would be covered by your existing 0-licence. You would of course need to apply for the additional operating centre n be authorised.
Further to this, any additional vehicles on the 0-licence in the Eastern traffic area woul need to be applied for as a major variation to the 0-licence (GV81). You can have one 0licence per entity in any one traffic area, with multiple operating centres provided they are applied for correctly and authorised by the 11-affic Commissioner.
You would need to apply for a separate 0-licence for your Medway depot (GV79) as it is in a separate traffic area from your Cambridge operations.
1 n True. Among the exemptions listed
from the provisions of the Operators' Licensing System is: "A vehicle fitted with a machine, appliance, apparatus or other contrivance which is a permanent or essentially permanent fixture. provided that only the goods carried on the vehicle are suc as are required for use in connection with ill; machine, appliance or other contrivance or c the running of the vehicle:or to be mixed by the machine."
• Got too many wrong for comfort? Confuse about the detail? Contact: RHA traink manager Paul Benns on 01733 261 13 b.benns@rha.net training@rha.net or sc Commercial Motor's legal events column c page 44) for details of training seminars.