Q I am a technical salesman for a firm selling a
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range of hydraulic truck readers. An important part of my duty is to iemonstrate the truck loader to my .?ustomers. Our demonstration machine is mounted on a 13-ton gvw truck, for which
hold an hgv licence. On average, I would expect to drive the truck for 10 to 15 hours uer week, although on some occasions, I would not drive for periods of 10 to 14 days, and on other occasions I may be away on un extended demonstration tour of seven to 10 days. 1 am provided with the FTA I RHA Driver 's Record Book.
Am I required by law, to complete record sheets for days when I am not driving the truck? Am I required by law, to answer sections 2, 3, and 7, and if so should my answers relate to my hgv driving duty, or to my complete working duty including office work and sales duties? If I am out in my car on the company's business from 9.00 am until 9.00pm, which is quite conceivable, what time on the following day am I entitled to (a) attend the office, and (b) commence demonstration duties to the truck?
AYou are not required to keep a record sheet in respect of any working day on which you do not drive a vehicle to which the regulations apply (ie goods vehicles). However, if on a day following a non-driving day you drive a heavy goods vehicle and therefore complete a record sheet it will be necessary for you to show the time of finishing work on the preceding day even though this was a day on which you did not have to complete a record sheet.
You are required on days when it is necessary to complete a record sheet. to fill in section 2 (last working day ended) 3 (start of working day) and 7 (end of working day). The answers given to these questions must relate to your complete working day including office work and sales duties and must not be restricted solely to the times you spend driving heavy vehicles.
On days when you do not drive a heavy vehicle, such as those you have described when you are out in your car from 9.00arn to 9.00pm, you do not have to observe the drivers" hours regulations in respect of driving or rest periods. If one such day is followed by a similar non-hgv driving day there is no restriction on the time when you can restart work at the office. However, if such a day is followed by a day on which a heavy vehicle is driven, the law requires
that you must have had 11 hours rest preceding the start of that working day. Therefore the earliest you could start work (ie arrive at the office and be officially under the control of your employer) on the second day would be 8.00am. You could commence demonstration with the truck from 8.00am onwards.
QWe have recently opened a new trailer rental depot in London, and as yet we do not have any maintenance facilities of our own.
We have been advised by the GLC that we can register our tractive unit as a private vehicle and tax it for £25.00 per year. This allows us to use it on the road with our own trailers as long as we do not carry any goods at all. Could you please advise as as to whether we require an 0 licence for this operation? Does our driver have to maintain log sheets for this?
The driver will be part-time initially and will of course hold a Class 1 hgv licence, and his duty will be mainly local work, but with an occasional journey to collect or deliver one of our trailers from another branch.
ANo 0 licence is required to operate the tractive unit in the manner described in your letter. Section 60 (1) of the 1968 Transport Act which covers this subject states that ". • . no person shall . . use a goods vehicle on a road for the carriage of goods . .. except under a licence . . ." (0 licence). You are obviously not carrying goods so you are exempt from the need for an 0 licence.
Whether or not drivers' records have to be kept by drivers of such a vehicle depends on the driving time and distance involved.
If the total time spent by a driver driving the vehicle on any one day is not more than four hours and the vehicle is not driven outside a 25-mile radius of its operating centre then no records need to be kept by that driver for that day. If, however, either of these limits are exceeded the driver will have to keep a record for that day.
QCould you indicate what I should read to get some background to the Industrial Relations Act?
AWe suggest you start initially with a copy of the Act itself which in its full title is the Industrial Relations Act 1972, available from HMSO price £1.15. A Code
of Practice has also been published by the Secretary of State for Employment as required by paragraph 2 of the Act. This too is available from HMSO price 15p.
Explanations of many facets of the Act and a guide to the Act itself are available in booklet form, free of charge, from local employment offices of the Department of Employment. The following booklets are available: A Guide to the Industrial Relations Act (PL 485 /1R2). Registration (PL 484 /IR1). The Act outlined (PL 486 /1R3). Rights of the Individual (PL 48711R4). Agency Shop Agreement (PL 488 /1R5).
A number of books are on the market covering this subject, including: An Employer's Guide to the Industrial Relations Act (Kogan Page price £1.80). The Times Guide to the Industrial Relations Act (The Times price £2.50).
Butterworth and Co (Publishers) Ltd has published a work called Harvey on Industrial Relations. This is in the form of a main book which will be updated at intervals by the provision of loose inserts. The price of £11.50 includes the main book, the binder and the first service issue. At the time of purchase, the purchaser is registered for future supplements as and when they are published and these will be charged for separately.
QMy husband is an owner-driver for a readymixed concrete firm and has been told by an official of the company that he can work 14 hours a day by booking off work while waiting to discharge his load.
My husband disagrees with this as he is still with the vehicle while waiting to unload. Is this permissible by law?
AUnder new exemptions to the drivers' hours rules which recently came into
force it permissible for drivers delivering to sites to spend 14 hours on duty daily provided that of these 14 hours only 10 hours are spent at the wheel actually driving the vehicle. The term on-duty in this case means from the time he started work in the morning until the time he clocks off at the end of the day. If he deducts the amount of time spent driving from the 14 hours this indicates the amount of time he can then spend doing other work or waiting to load or unload except that he must take a statutory +-hour break not later than 51 hours after starting duty, and another later in the day.