O' Will you please clarify the legal position with regard to the following?
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As a local authority we use a digging machine for the repair and maintenance of roads within the borough. When this machine is working, part of the road is cordoned off so that the public do not have access to the area being repaired. Do the drivers' hours regulations apply in this case as they do when working elsewhere than on a road?
Is time spent at the controls of this machine with the engine running solely for the purpose of operating the auxiliary machinery counted as actual driving time?
AWe consider that a digging machine working on a cordoned-off section of the road may, for the purposes of the drivers' hours regulations, be considered to be working "off the roadand therefore the time spent in such driving is not counted as 'driving' for the purposes of calculating the total amount of driving undertaken in the day. The final decision is, however, a matter for the courts to decide should a case of that nature ever come before them.
When solely operating the auxiliary equipment of the machine the time spent in such operation is not counted as driving time.