Q I am self-employed and the holder of
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an hgv driving licence. I do relief driving for seven different haulage contractors and would be grateful if you could advise me on the correct method of keeping records.
At present I have log books issued by all of them. Knowing this to be wrong, would it be legal for me to use my own record books? Who should keep each torn. Out page, the person who issues the boo/c myself, or the person that I may be driving for?
AIt is quite clear from the information that you give that you are breaking the law. In order to Out the matter right there are two choices open to you.
The first is to acquire a vehicle of your own and work for the seven haulage contractors as an owner-driver — assuming of course that a suitable type of vehicle could be obtained to meet all their requirements. In this case you would have to apply for an operator's licence and provide your own record book and record book register.
The second alternative is to change your present arrangement to comply exactly with the letter of the law as laid down in regulations. This means that you must obtain a record book from your "first" employer and keep in it me , record of work done for that and any other employers.
All the other employers concerned would have to complete details on the record book, showing their name and address and operator's licence number. Each of them would be entitled to demand to see the book to ensure that you were keeping proper records and not exceeding the maximum permissible driving or working hours and that you were taking the statutory breaks and rest periods.
Completed record sheets would have to be returned to the employer who issued the book and the completed book itself containing duplicates of all the record sheets would also have to be returned to that employer. The
-first" employer who issues the record book must enter the details of the book in the Employers Register of Record Book Issues, together with the name and address of any other known employer, which in your case will mean six other names and addresses.
The term "first" employer is the one that might cause some difficulty but The Drivers' Hours (Goods Vehicles) (Keeping of Records) Regulations 1970 paragraph 3(2) contains the following statement on this matter:
-Provided that if on the date of the coming into operation of these Regulations or at any
time thereafter an employee-driver has more than one employer in relation to whom he is an employee-driver of a goods vehicle, the employer who is to issue a new driver's record book to him shall be the employer for whom that employee-driver first acts in the course of his employment on or after the said date or time."
The "said date" so far as the regulations are concerned was March 1 1970. If it should be the case that you are no longer working for any employer who was employing you on that date then your "first" employer will be the first of your current employers that you worked for after that date.