Channel Crossing Delays And Drivers Hours?

[EDDIE51]

What happens about lorry drivers hours and the tachographs when they are stuck for hours in the Operation Stack queues?
I assume the tachographs still record them as 'Driving' even when they are stuck for hours?
I just saw one driver on the news who had moved 2 miles in 6 hours!

[douglas9401]

The tacho records driving when the truck actually moves. Even one turn of the wheels records a minute on the digicard, sitting still mine defaults to 'other work' and you can manually set it to rest but constant stop-start will eat up driving time.
I'm sure VOSA and the police would never look to issue fines for such a technical infringement though and will have a fair system in place.

Yes, I'm smiling.

[jourdain2]

Mr J2 used, at one time, to drive professionally and he is of the opinion that the drivers are 'in charge' of their lorries and so the hours 'worked' apply.

[sddsddean]

Under Article (or Clause) 12 of the Tachograph rules, you are allowed to make emergency exceptions to the rules as long as you note the emergency on your disc (analogue) or printout (digital). These rules are usually used if you are, say, stuck on the M25 over your 4 1/2 hour driving limit due to an accident or something. However, Operation Stack would come under Clause 12 too. As long as you are 'reasonable' in what subsequent breaks you take, the authorities should be happy (I've never had any problems when I've had to do it).

The worse problem is food, toilets and boredom! When I did european work, operation stack was quite infrequent and we had naff all. I believe nowadays they put out Portaloos (wonderful on a hot summers day!) and I heard last week of a burger van driver who was asked to do a run down the trucks and took £1500 in 3 hrs!

[EDDIE51]

^^It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good! I bet a few ice cream sellers make a killing as well! Thanks for the input.