get the forms checked by the local DVLA in a dismal office that is about as welcoming as a visit to a closed prison. I take my passport details, my completed form, my grumpy picture, a sworn statement from my neighbour saying that I am me (well, who else would own up to a photo like that?) and a cheque for £38. I get good news, and save £20 as I do not need to have a photocard licence to make the digital driver card application! Apart from the nigh on £3000 costs, the disruption of being unable to do revenue earning work during our busiest period was very stressful but, fortunately, there may be a clause in the legislation I can use; If engaged in horticulture I can travel up to 100km from home to carry out work on site and not need a tacho. However, East Anglia, where I am based, has been baked bone hard and dry to 600mm below the surface, and I had to put off local autumn maintenance jobs left right and centre while awaiting some rainfall.
A further consequence of being a digital driver in the VOSA/DVLC/ Police database is that I have to account for all my working hours in a log book, except when I have my digital card in the tachograph. Yes,that means every working hour, including time in front of my PC doing accounts, quotes and such like at home. The total hours are then limited by ‘drivers rest hours legislation’, just so I that am not too fatigued to spend between five and ten hours each week driving to and from site with a loaded trailer. VOSA clearly have no choice but to trust me to record my ‘away from vehicle’ working hours, but need a tacho for my driving hours. Hmmmm. My new digital tacho was fitted by an
approved tacho fitting agency and I had no say as to where it should placed. The
agency chose to fit it low down in the centre console behind the gearstick. In operation the tacho flashes error messages, speed violations and the like, to the driver whilst he is driving, and the system requires the driver to
acknowledge the message by rummaging about for the ‘OK’ button. The distraction caused by looking down to read the messages, and to reach down and forwards to acknowledge them, requires the driver to look away from the road and move to a position where he has less than full control of the steering wheel. This is manifestly unsafe and I shall be doing no such thing when driving. Hmmmm.
It is also impossible to use the tachograph speed readout instead of the vehicle speedometer because, to regularly check the speed on the tacho, it requires looking downwards and moving position as described above, whereas the vehicle speedo can be read at a glance.
Should the tacho speed and the vehicle speedo differ significantly in calibration, then speed violations may well be recorded despite staying within the speed indicated on the vehicle speedometer
The tacho is set for 56 mph, or its kilometre equivalent, to record speeding violations when towing but, of course, the speed limit for a vehicle of this type with trailer is 60mph or the 100kph that my analog tacho indicates as overspeed. When I asked for this installation error to be corrected the fitting garage required a further £200 calibration fee. Needless to say, I refused to pay and the error remains.
The tacho senses when a trailer is attached, but it continually requires acknowledgement of overspeed when travelling at a perfectly legal 70mph without a trailer. At night, the continual flashing in the cab that results from spurious overspeed messages is a nuisance and a driving distraction. So, it has been ‘retrofitted’ with a length of black insulation tape across its display screen for use whenever the trailer is disconnected.The tacho will be recording perfectly legal speeds up to 70mph as a series of violations. It does the same when there is no driver card in its slot, and records that the vehicle has been used without a driver card in situ. This is an offence only if the trailer is attached. Just collecting the Navarra from the tacho fitters has caused thirty speeding violations, and a prolonged period of driving, without a driver card in the tacho, to be incorrectly and irremovably recorded.
HGVs have speed limiters fitted that
prevent overspeed. No such device is present on the Navarra so, to avoid overspeeds but drive at a reasonable pace that does not see me continually being passed by HGVs, I am constantly checking that I am not exceeding 60mph. My judgement of speed is good enough to maintain my speed, plus or minus a few mph, with an occasional check of the speedo, but the tacho flags every instance of overspeed lasting more than one minute, the time to travel one
mile at 60mph. This is important because, when the
tacho record is downloaded, the software automatically produces a warning letter for the driver for each and every overspeed. The company is obliged, by the regulations, to issue these letters to the driver in order to enforce compliance. This is a nightmare to administrate as the office staff have no idea when the rules apply, i.e. whether the overspeed was recorded with or without a trailer and if it was over 100kph. Further complications arise because I adjust the air pressure in the rear tyres of the Navarra according to the load being transported. This interferes with the calibration of the tacho and so, every time I change tyre pressures (as laid down in the vehicle makers handbook) I should, according to the tachograph regulations, get the tacho recalibrated at a cool £200 per go! This requirement is absolute nonsense as the vehicle would never be out of the calibration workshops. I am faced with the rather stark choice - drive with tyres that are unsafe because they are below the manufacturer’s recommended pressures for the loads being carried - an offence in itself - or drive with tyre pressures that invalidate the calibration of the tachograph, another offence. Quite what VOSA will make of the
records kept in the tacho itself - of thousands of speeding violations and numerous extensive periods of driving without a driver card in place - I hate to think. I will probably be required to make yet another manual entry in my log just to drive the Navarra when it is out of scope of the tacho regulations. Hang on. If I am driving out of scope of the tacho regulations I have no need to touch the tachograph or make any records whatever and I cannot be compelled to do so. Period. Hey, don’t blame me for this utter mess, I neither wrote the rules nor did I make VOSA apply their present interpretation. This is an ill thought out piece of legislation rushed through to comply with European legislation that was designed, primarily, to ensure HGV drivers do not suffer excess fatigue at the wheel and do not break speed limits. With an HGV, the tacho is required at all times and, clearly, the tacho regulations and tachos themselves were designed for an HGV, not a dual use pickup truck with a towball. This mess resulted from the poor drafting of primary legislation and is just a bit more than over the top for a company whose drivers cover, on average, less than 2,000 miles each month between them.
All those using a 4x4 and a big trailer commercially - and there must have been well over 150 examples serving Saltex and, no doubt, there will be similarly at Harrogate - be warned. A visit from VOSA can significantly damage your wealth. Complete ignorance of the legislation is absolutely no defence, but full compliance with the regulations is demonstrably impossible when using this sort of dual use vehicle.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132