QUERY ON HOURS
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recently had a discussion with my boss, and I'm afraid he is ignorant of the rules governing breaks, weekly driving hours and general tachograph rules.
I may be mistaken in my interpretation of the rules, but I don't think my boss's interpretation is right either.
Am I right in saying that a driver's time sheet can be demanded by the Department of Transport, in corgunction with his tachographs? If this is true what will the Department of Transport be looking for and what can be the consequences for breaking the rules?
How long do time sheets/clock-cards have to be kept for?
I also told my boss that if a driver has worked 60 hours in five days, he is close to running bent, and that he should not be asked to drive or work on the sixth day. Is this correct? Or is my boss, who basically told me that there are no rules governing work time, there are only rules governing driving time, correct?
Is it correct to say that if you get caught working (other work) while your tacho is switched to rest you run the risk of being summonsed for infringement of the rules? Can you also clearly state the hourly rules for a week's work as the law interprets them, because some of the rules are so ambiguous that different people have different ways of reading them.
One last thing, i think it's about time the RHA and the government got together with haulage firms, by which I mean bosses and drivers, to draw up a new set of tachograph rules that are interpreted the same way by bosses, drivers, the Department of Transport and the police. This would save one hell of a lot of petty infringements.
A concerned driver.
If your boss wants a definitive guide tell him to check out our Law on the Road tape ( CM1925 October)—Ed.