1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180 
Take the digitach plunge!
Page 14
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Making the move to digital tachograph has had far reaching consequences for LGV driver L Radicles driving style, fuel consumption and stress levels.
I hate having to backtrack; it's embarrassing. But I said farewell :o my beloved paper discs last week and lost my digitach virgInity. And once I'd gone through the shock, denial, anger and sadness thing, I decided that digital tachographs aren't that dreadful after all. They just make you think.
In a dock queue, I've always stopped my timer between -noves and made it through a busy term bal in under 10 minutes' driving. I was therefore apoplectic to discover that the same :ask with a digitach ate twice that amount of time. At one point I .wen managed to perform that infamous trick of completing 20 minutes "driving in 10 minutes"spread'.
But by Thursday I had thought about it a Pit and started Deing more sensible, only moving up when the vehicle in front -lad come to rest, instead of creeping bit by bit, caterpillarstyle. While my recorded driving was still greater than my stopwatch showed, it now matched my spreadover, and was actually afar representation of what I'd done. After all, when you're at the wheel and paying attention you are driving -even if you aren't moving an inch.
Traffic jams are a lot less stressful when you control the vehicle roperly and move slowly and smoothly forward instead of eapfrogging. I ran north via the notorious M1 queue on Friday. I ad altered my driving style to such an extent that my stopwatch reasured more driving than the tacho did. Oh, and I used a lot ess fuel in the process.
Stopping and opening doors before backing on to a bay eats a minute or two. But it isn't hard to position yourself so you can )pen them after booking in and get into place in one smooth rianoeuvre. And I admit that sliding a skeletal with a 20ft box )fl it can take up a valuable five minutes. Except that all the Ion-moving periods are when you are doing things to the trailer, which could be classed as 'driving', so that's fair again. And if iou use your head when doing a changeover you don't lose nuch at all. Just walking around the side to check the trailer lumber will save you time, for starters.
I haven't done a multi-drop run this week, so I may yet discover some problems there, but all in all I'm pleasantly surprised.
That, and shocked by the amount of extra time I've been :ireating for myself in the past through blind cheek. The game's Jp, boys and girls... best we get over it.
"I had altered my driving style to uch an extent that my stopwatch measured more driving time than the cho and I used a lot less fuel"