Any laws on travel wthout break or overnight stay

Any laws on travel wthout break or overnight stay

Author
Discussion

carboy2017

Original Poster:

707 posts

85 months

Tuesday 22nd October
quotequote all

I'm new in the job and still on probation and we have a client who is 210 miles away and it takes 4h 15m without any breaks to go there on a good day (not factoring in traffic delays)

My employer wants some of us to go and meet the client and return the same day without any accommodation as they don't want to mess up the project budget, but I feel that type of driving without an overnight stay is not safe as your tired and not sharp enough

Is there any laws which prevent this type of things happening?


Evanivitch

22,075 posts

129 months

Tuesday 22nd October
quotequote all
I don't believe there's a law applicable to driving a car when the driving is not a core part of your duties.

I would suggest getting a copy of your company driving policy.

And if there are multiple people going suggest a hire car and you put multiple people on the hire car insurance and split the drive.

MOMACC

358 posts

44 months

Tuesday 22nd October
quotequote all
The thing is you will stop for a break.
2 hours in and you'll likely need a toilet / refreshment stop so this will break up the journey.

I do similar sometimes I do there and back in a day, leave at 6am, client visit 11-1, lunch, home for 7pm. It's a long day but sometimes preferable to the night out.

On Monday I drove 250 miles, hotel for the night, few beers, good meal and 2 site visits today followed by the 5hr drive home, coffee and a piss halfway back.

Tell the gaffer to hire a car or provide a fleet car and split the driving between you. A hotel plus food for a few of you soon adds up.

Cyder

7,115 posts

227 months

Tuesday 22nd October
quotequote all
We frequently drive ~ 200 miles (4 hours) from our site to the manufacturing site.
Company rules are if travelling solo you must stay overnight, if you want to do a day trip then you must share the driving.
Personally I'm quite comfortable doing the day trip solo but others aren't.

KAgantua

4,243 posts

138 months

Tuesday 22nd October
quotequote all
Tell them you dont feel comfortable doing it

alscar

5,389 posts

220 months

Wednesday 23rd October
quotequote all
How long is the meeting and just how small is the budget that a one night Premier Inn stay will harm it ?!
I had to frequently fly to the US and then go straight into meetings.
I also see you mentioned probation so I guess you might also need to show willing.
As said already break up the initial journey.

GreatGranny

9,340 posts

233 months

Wednesday 23rd October
quotequote all
Sod that!

They should have thought about that when pricing up the project.

When I used to visit sites or other offices (pre Covid) even 2 hours away I used to stay overnight.

No way I'm setting off at 5am and returning at 9pm!

CrgT16

2,111 posts

115 months

Wednesday 23rd October
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If it was the odd occasions and meeting late morning not running into lunch it wouldn’t bother me. Drive up meet client then stop sometime halfway for a decent lunch and be back at the office by 5. Very doable but not often.

C5_Steve

4,825 posts

110 months

Wednesday 23rd October
quotequote all
There's a couple of aspects of the working time regulations that may come into effect I believe (or are worth considering). Techincally, travelling outside your normal working hours doesn't count as "work", so check when you're expected to be setting off/back. The big one though is you're entitled to an 11 hour uninterrupted rest period (not working) in a 24 hour period of time. So, if you're spending let's say 10 hours just travelling, you'll only be able to spend 3 hours working at your destination.

On a basic level, it sounds extremely tight to be asking you to do that in a day and not say be able to drive up the night before, stay in a nearby hotel and then attend and drive back the next day. You'll be knackered the day after!

mikeiow

6,219 posts

137 months

Wednesday 23rd October
quotequote all
MOMACC said:
The thing is you will stop for a break.
2 hours in and you'll likely need a toilet / refreshment stop so this will break up the journey.

I do similar sometimes I do there and back in a day, leave at 6am, client visit 11-1, lunch, home for 7pm. It's a long day but sometimes preferable to the night out.

On Monday I drove 250 miles, hotel for the night, few beers, good meal and 2 site visits today followed by the 5hr drive home, coffee and a piss halfway back.

Tell the gaffer to hire a car or provide a fleet car and split the driving between you. A hotel plus food for a few of you soon adds up.
With the exception of trying to tell the gaffer something whilst on probation: this!

A decent chunk of my career was like that….customers all over the Country, sometimes (quite often in the early days) a long day had to happen.

Do people these days expect to work no more than 7-8hours occasionally in jobs that involve meeting customers?
Sure, if it was every week I might have baulked, and did on occasion suggest I might want a stopover - always agreed.

Time4another

270 posts

10 months

Wednesday 23rd October
quotequote all
Not impossible or illeagal assuming the meeting is under 4hrs. Just make sure you take enough breaks and enough hours between finishing a shift and starting the next.

Have a read at the working time directive.

Regularly drive 4hrs to a customer then do an 8hr shift.

geeks

9,731 posts

146 months

Wednesday 23rd October
quotequote all
Trains and taxis not a possibility? This is what I do when I get forced up north for a 2 hour in person meeting. Generally work on the way up and watch crap I have downloaded to my iPad on the way home, much more chilled.

z4RRSchris

11,517 posts

186 months

Wednesday 23rd October
quotequote all
i often fly overnight on a sat / sunday and start work straight off the plane, then pull 12-18 hour "working" days in some random country.

its part of the job, unlucky / lucky

Muzzer79

11,054 posts

194 months

Wednesday 23rd October
quotequote all
Time4another said:
Not impossible or illeagal assuming the meeting is under 4hrs. Just make sure you take enough breaks and enough hours between finishing a shift and starting the next.

Have a read at the working time directive.

Regularly drive 4hrs to a customer then do an 8hr shift.
You "regularly" drive 4 hrs for an 8hr shift?

So, for example, leaving the house at 0500, getting to the customer at 0900, leaving at 1700 and arriving home at 2100?

That's mental. I hope you're paid by the hour. Handsomely.

MustangGT

12,284 posts

287 months

Wednesday 23rd October
quotequote all
A company I used to work for capped a day at 11 hours including travel time. This was under company H&S guidelines to ensure nobody drove whilst tired, thus leaving the company open to claim.

chrisch77

697 posts

82 months

Wednesday 23rd October
quotequote all
As noted already you need to familiarise yourself with the company travel policy, as the 'project' direction may not be acting in line with company policy. Given that the travel alone is likely to take longer than a standard working shift then I would expect any decent sized company to have a policy to deal with such a scenario. If I were travelling solo in this situation (I frequently do this to attend my company site) then I would look at trains as an alternative, but if there are multiple attendees then sharing a car is likely to be considerably cheaper for the project budget, so hire hire with multiple authorised drivers seems the best option.

119

9,520 posts

43 months

Thursday 24th October
quotequote all
Truck drivers can do 8+ hours driving a day so I can’t see why you couldn’t do it in a car.

GreatGranny

9,340 posts

233 months

Thursday 24th October
quotequote all
z4RRSchris said:
i often fly overnight on a sat / sunday and start work straight off the plane, then pull 12-18 hour "working" days in some random country.

its part of the job, unlucky / lucky
It's part of your job and it's hardly typical.


MustangGT

12,284 posts

287 months

Thursday 24th October
quotequote all
119 said:
Truck drivers can do 8+ hours driving a day so I can’t see why you couldn’t do it in a car.
Truck drivers are not expected to put in an 8 hour day in the office alongside the driving.

Evanivitch

22,075 posts

129 months

Thursday 24th October
quotequote all
MustangGT said:
119 said:
Truck drivers can do 8+ hours driving a day so I can’t see why you couldn’t do it in a car.
Truck drivers are not expected to put in an 8 hour day in the office alongside the driving.
That would be very illegal.