Chart checks
Page 26
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Let's face it: to most operators tachographs ..dare a pain in the neck. They have a very low priority when they have to be checked. In fact, if you can find anyone to take interest in the analysis you are very fortunate.
I have been checking tachos for many years for a number of small operators. Not one operator is keen to act when offences are pointed out. They trot out the usual excuses: "1 thought you could do that" or "I hear what you say and I know you are right—but..." or "We did not tell the driver to do that", usually knowing that the instructions given to the driver told him to get there at all costs.
Then, of course, you get the tacho chart with no name on it in the middle of a batch. Operators say they can't understand why the driver omitted to put his name on it. On checking the hours from the previous tacho it is very obvious that if the driver did so he would have committed hours offences.
You also get a strange driver's name appearing who suddenly is a "part-timer"; or in the middle of a continental journey a second driver turns up from out of the blue. This is explained away as "a mate who went with him".
Drivers' excuses are not much better. Ifs amazing how many times the same driver never manages to find a place to park, usually when he has done over 10 hours' driving. If truth be told they either run to please themselves or the schedule is so tight that they have no Option.
When you agree to analyse tachograph charts you are always told: "I want you to let me know anything you come across that is not right. If you suspect a particular driver is on the fiddle I want to know."
But as soon as you point out errors you are fobbed of with excuses or, "I haven't got time now—see me when I get back". And of course, they don't come back.
It's worse still with medium-size operators because the transport manager has so much to do that it is impossible for him to give you any time at all.
You often hear advice from the Traffic Commissioner to the errant operator that "you should get your tachographs analysed by an independent organisation". This well meaning advice is a waste of time.
Unless the operator is prepared to study the analysis and check that it is correct against the actual tacho sheet he might as well keep his money in his pocket.
The same applies to the large operator who is quick to tell the TC how good he is at having his tachos regularly analysed. The results are usually filed away in the bottom drawer.
It never ceases to amaze me that any operator will employ drivers full or part-time without testing their knowledge of the tachograph regulations. 1 have lost count of the times when drivers who have had years of experience say: "I have always done it like that and nobody has told me it was wrong." This is often on the simplest centre-field details.
Until a better system is brought in, the present method will be abused by both operators and drivers. Analysing tachographs is merely a cosmetic exercise.
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