Tachos & employers

[Plastic chicken]

I've been a driver for many years now, but I've never had a decent answer to this question: has anyone out there been accused of skiving/dawdling/hanging it out, etc. etc. by their employer, on tachograph evidence? Can an employer legally/morally do this, or is the tachograph strictly & exclusively to ensure adherence to the law?
Just curious..!

[cossy400]

Im tracked, ive only had him once in 2 yrs ring me up when i was on my 45 min break.

Asking if all was ok, it was mainly my error thou as i ended up parking down a side road as i remembered at last minute that i started at 5am rather than 6 as per normal.

A bloke i know who has road sweepers, heard a rumour from a new boy as to what the other drivers "told" him what they got away with (sitting it out in laybys etc to get more hours in) so he had trackers fitted to oversee what was going on.

needless to say after a month of "watching them" 3 of them got called in and left with there cards.

Appears they were not just booking down the odd extra hour, if memory serves me right one of the worse was booking 4 extra hours some days.

[jagracer]

Plastic chicken said:

I've been a driver for many years now, but I've never had a decent answer to this question: has anyone out there been accused of skiving/dawdling/hanging it out, etc. etc. by their employer, on tachograph evidence? Can an employer legally/morally do this, or is the tachograph strictly & exclusively to ensure adherence to the law?
Just curious..!

It used to happen quite often in our place, it just depends on the management style at the time, I always found that telling them to do one worked wonders.

[R0G]

Plastic chicken said:

I've been a driver for many years now, but I've never had a decent answer to this question: has anyone out there been accused of skiving/dawdling/hanging it out, etc. etc. by their employer, on tachograph evidence? Can an employer legally/morally do this, or is the tachograph strictly & exclusively to ensure adherence to the law?
Just curious..!

The employer can use the digicard/analogue records in order to ask this question but I am curious as to what they are actually saying in relation to those records ..... are they saying you drive too slow for example?

[4key]

We are also on tracker, but you really have to be taking the piss for them to pull you up on it. We get told if the job is urgent or if we are going to have a busy day, if that isnt the case then we can do stuff at our own pace.

A couple of the supermarkets are nightmares for this though, every route has been planned and pre driven and you have to stick to that route. If you get there too early they check you for speeding and if you get there late you get a barrage of questions, its why you sometimes see their drivers crawling along dual carriageways at 35mph

[chilistrucker]

i'm lucky, never been asked.

[Jimbo.]

I used to work in the transport office of a large supermarket.
If a driver came back "too fast", no-one bothered: far too many variables: clear roads, small loads, stores removed from the run.
If a driver was v. late (either still out on the road, or when returning to the yard), was scheduled for a second trip and didn't have a damn good reason, then yes, the tracking and tachos were checked. Piss taking was easy to spot: off/on at every junction, taking the long way home, hanging around for 30 minutes at every stop for no reason etc, etc.
If an agency driver was suspected of hanging it out, then again, tracking, tachos, loading sheets etc. Would nail 3-4 a week this way, easy.

Drivers weren't expected to break the sound barrier nor, more importantly, the law. Take 60 minutes instead of 45? No biggie. Take a 3hr "break" not 1 mile from the yard (claiming "slow loading and traffic")? Best call your agency, Mr. Ski...