tinyurl.com/g2apk
So it's not just vehicles fitted with tachographs that are coming into the spotlight where drivers hours are concerned!!
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Long overdue IMO. Truckers have to abide by tachos, everyone else should as well.
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Indeed, There is a growing disquiet about the driving hours of reps, salesmen and service engineers.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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speaking as the owner of a company that has service engineers and sales reps, i do agree that driving could be an issue, but this is something that should be properly managed between employer and employee. Im not sure it should necessarily be legislated against directly (although penalties for the individual who has an accident because they are over-tired should be severe.) Small businesses have enough to deal with.
If my lot are going a long distance, i will offer a hotel stay, but some of them (myself included) would prefer to drive home if practical I take full responsibility for my actions and do not drive if too tired and i expect my staff to do the same.
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If my lot are going a long distance, i will offer a hotel stay, but some of them (myself included) would prefer to drive home if practical I take full responsibility for my actions and do not drive if too tired and i expect my staff to do the same.
You'll potentially get into a lot of trouble if anything goes wrong. It's YOUR responsibility to ensure that your staff don't drive excessive distances/time (and that they're in suitable vehicles, suitably insured and maintained etc) and you should issue strict instructions to them AND monitor that they're being adhered to.
You're most at risk of prosecution in a small company. Big companies usually away with this stuff because the line of responsibility is unclear, so it's much easier for the authorities to go after small businesses.
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However, the driver in question had worked, yes worked, 76 hours out of the previous 96. That's extreme, in anybody's book, and pure bad management, hence the conviction.
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ablandy, where do you draw the line between it being managed by the company and where it will be managed by legislation? Already vehicles over 3.5t have to be fitted with a tacho, and any commercial driver should abide by the british domestic driving hours, but in reality how many van drivers do adhere to those rules? You may well want to drive home after a long day, but that does not make it safe to do so. There have been times in the past I have had a long day and wanted to get a hotel but the company I worked for would not pay, so have had to drive home. Properly enforced legislation would prevent this situation. Other times I have had to spend the night in the cab of the truck when I was only 30 minutes drive from home, I felt perfectly ok to drive this distance but the law stopped me doing it.
I am all for the law becoming far tougher wih regard to any form of commercial travelling.
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just lost a great long reply. Nuts
in brief, our journeys are normally max 3 hours each way. Anything over 4 and they have to stay in hotels. So nothing like the kind of journeys commercial drivers have to cover.
Legislation cannot take into account all external influences and ability, so is not relevant. An 18 year old, just passed test driving 2 hours can be a lot more dangerous than a 35 year driving 6 ( based on personal experience)
I dont have answers, but i do have opinions.
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oh and to add, i do think the company was very wrong and deserved to be fined.
Agree about bad management
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in brief, our journeys are normally max 3 hours each way. Anything over 4 and they have to stay in hotels. So nothing like the kind of journeys commercial drivers have to cover.
The journeys may only be 6 hours traveling a day, but how much work do they have to do once on site? Many companies would expect the engineer to do a full days hard graft once on site, that means they are driving back very tired.
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Thats pushin it a bit. Given an 8 hour working day and 6 hours travel in that case, thats a 14 hour day.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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I meant to add, thats ok as a one off, or an infrequent basis, but if the empoyees in anway feel forced to do that kind of working day, by direct or indirect pressure from management, or that kind of pressure to do that is endemic within the organisation then you could be in deep do do in the event of going pear shaped.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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ok, since this seems to be about my company:
usually travel 1 hour-ish to site. Work all day then go home. Staff on average leave home at 8 and get home by 6.
Very occasionally we hvae to do longer trips, but mostly only to do service calls, which take on average 1 hour. If it was an install with a full days work, they would stay.
Satisfied im not an evil boss now?
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having read tvms last, i agree whole heartedly.
And would you believe the staff actually like their jobs
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