The Trucker

The Trucking Blog

Tachograph Infringements, and How to Avoid Them.

Posted on Written by Leave a Comment

Tachograph Infringements.

Tachograph infringements, what exactly are they? Unless you are an HGV Driver you may not know what a tachograph infringement is. A tachograph is an electronic device that is fitted in the cab of all commercial vehicles over 3.5 tonne GVW and is used to record driving hours.

tachograph
A typical tachograph chart as viewed in computer software.

If those driving hours are exceeded then the driver will incur an infringement on his or her tachograph driving record and may be asked to take retraining and sign a letter from his or her employer.

Examples of infringements are;

  • Exceeding 4hrs 30 minutes of continuous driving.
  • Insufficient breaks.
  • Insufficient daily rest.
  • Insufficient weekly rest.
  • Exceeding working time directive or WTD.
  • Exceeding 56hrs total driving in one week.
  • Exceeding 90hrs total driving in a fortnight.
  • Driving over 90kmph.

Digital Smart Card.

The drivers hours are recorded on a digital smart card that is held and used by the driver, it looks similar to the driver’s licence except that it is white in colour and has a smart chip attached to it.

It also contains sensitive data about the driver such as his or her photograph, drivers name, date of birth and driving licence number and is valid for a five year period.

The digital smart card is inserted into a vehicles tachograph unit usually at the start of the drivers shift or working day, it will then record what the driver is doing such as, work other than driving, driving periods and breaks taken. At the end of the day, the card is usually removed from the vehicle and downloaded into a computer, via a card reader, for scrutinisation by the driver’s employer.

If any infringements are found by the computer software, the employer is notified and will issue an infringement letter and may offer re-training. Any infringement could lead to the driver being fined. Repeat offences and too many infringements could cost the driver his livelihood.

Avoiding Tachograph Infringements.

Avoiding infringements is pretty much straight forward, you just need to work out how long you have been at work, i:e you need to remember what time you inserted your digital tachograph card and the time that you started your shift. These should marry up as you should carry out a manual entry when you insert your card into the tachograph recording equipment.

Manual Entries.

If you started work at 08:00hrs and you went to your truck and inserted your card at 08:11hrs, the display on the unit will show the time and date that card was last used, so you need to enter in manually what you have been doing since. For example; If, the day before, you removed your card at 17:51hrs and then clocked off at 18:00 hours, you will need to show a period of other work using the cross hammers symbol from 17:51 to 18:00hrs.

Tachograph_Manual_Entry
A manual entry being entered on a digital tachograph.

Then you will need to show a period of rest from 18:00hrs to 08:00hrs the next day and a period of other work from 08:00hrs to the time of insertion i:e 08:11hrs. Once this is done you are then ready to start your working day, you need to remember in your head the exact time that you started work as entered on your digital tachograph.

The Six Hour Rule.

The reason you need to remember your start time is so that you can work out when your break is due, for example; if you started work at 08:00hrs then you should aim to take a 30 minute break before 14:00hrs, six hours after you started your shift. If you reach four and a half hours driving time before your six hours is up, then you need to take your break when this occurs.

You can take a fifteen minute break break before you have reached 6 hrs duty time, but then you must take a 30 minute break before you reach 9hrs duty time.

You then also need to remember the exact time you finished your break because you will be starting another six-hour period, for example, if you finished your break at 11:30hrs then you need to take another 30-minute break or be finished working before 17:30hrs, otherwise, you will incur an infringement because you would have broken the six-hour rule.

A typical tachograph with manual entries as seen via computer software.

The Six-Hour Rule, How You Can Avoid An Infringement.

Posted on Written by Leave a Comment

Infringements Can Occur Easily.

If you don’t keep an eye on the six-hour rule, you can easily incur an infringement without even realising it until you down-load your card, and by then it would be too late.

Do not rely on the tachograph unit in the vehicle to keep an eye on your driving hours, breaks, rest periods etc, because it won’t. The only thing that it will tell you is when you are approaching four and a half hours of continuous driving, it will start to flash when you have fifteen minutes driving time left.

tachograph
A digital tachograph unit.

The Six-Hour Rule.

The most common infringement that catches drivers out is breaking the six-hour rule, drivers seem to forget that it applies every six hours of the working day, for example; if you start your duty at 06:00hrs then you need to take a break of at least 30 minutes before you have completed six hours work, or if you have reached 4.5hrs driving time before you have done 6hrs you then need to have a 45-minute break.

Once you have had your break, you will then be entering a new six hour period as the six-hour period will start over from the time your break has finished.

Example: if you started work at 06:00, then did 15 mins other work and started your drive at 06:15hrs, drove for 3hrs until 09:15hrs then you did another 2hrs other work, it would now be 11:15hrs.

Even though you would have another 1hr and 30 minutes driving time left before you reached 4.5hrs driving time, you would need to stop before 12:00hrs and take at least 30minutes rest, ideally, it would be best if you took your break from 11:15hrs and had 45 minutes.

You can also extend the six hour period to nine hours by having a fifteen minute break before the six hours is reached, but you must then take at least a half hour break beafore reaching nine hours of duty time, making a total of 45 minutes rest in a nine hour period.

Second Six-Hour Period.

When you have had your 45 minutes break, you need to remember the time that your break ended, in this scenario, it would be 12:00hrs, because now you are entering a second six-hour period and you will need to either be finished work for the day or you will need another break of at least 30 minutes before 18:00hrs.

The six-hour rule applies every six hours and in most cases twice a day as in the scenario above, and this where drivers are being caught out and falling foul of the six-hour rule and are incurring an infringement without even realising.

Modern Trucks.

Some modern trucks will tell you more about your driving hours than older trucks as shown in the image below taken from a 2018 Renault T Range dashboard.

Renault T Range dashboard showing accumulated driving time, does not show the six-hour rule.
The dash of a Renault T Range truck.

In the image above you can see the total drive period for the day is 8 hours and twenty six minutes, the drive since last break is 4 hours and 11 minutes and the total drive for one week is 34 hours and seventeen minutes and the total drive for a two week period is also 34 hours and seventeen minutes, meaning that the driver was probably off work the week before.

Also, you can see the total distance covered in the two week period. This information window does not show the six-hour rule, it is down to you to remember your six-hour working periods.

In the image below you can see the total drive time for each day and also the total daily rest time showing reduced daily rest in red.

tachograph log

The display in the T range is very useful to the driver and will help him or her stay within the rules, some other makes of trucks are not as comprehensive such as in the Mercedes Actros in the image below.

Mercedes_Actros-Tachograph -Info
The dashboard of a Mercedes Actros.

All that you can see here is the total drive period since last break, the total for the day and the week. It also shows how much break the driver has had if using a split break, there is none showing here.

Conclusion.

To avoid gaining an infringement for the six-hour rule, you need to remember the exact time that you started your shift and the exact time that you finished your break and you also need to plan ahead and figure out where in the day you need to take your breaks so you can maximise your time and avoid infringements.