Tachograph Help Needed
Discussion
If anybody could please give me a clear answer I would be grateful 
I am setting up a vehicle relocation business and will be driving a VW Amarok or similar, along with a trailer. GVW with loaded trailer will exceed 3500kg and, of course, this will be for business use.
It appears that I will need to fit the vehicle with a tachograph but Google isn't quite answering all of my questions. A 9 hour daily driving limit would not be ideal when trying to serve clients, especially on UK motorways. When unladen, my vehicle/trailer weight will fall short of the 3500kg limit, so would I only be committed under EU regs when carrying a vehicle?
Also, the tow vehicle would act as a personal vehicle as well as business, so where would I stand with that?
Thank you in advance for answering my most basic of questions. Word from somebody in the industry would be perfect.
I am setting up a vehicle relocation business and will be driving a VW Amarok or similar, along with a trailer. GVW with loaded trailer will exceed 3500kg and, of course, this will be for business use.
It appears that I will need to fit the vehicle with a tachograph but Google isn't quite answering all of my questions. A 9 hour daily driving limit would not be ideal when trying to serve clients, especially on UK motorways. When unladen, my vehicle/trailer weight will fall short of the 3500kg limit, so would I only be committed under EU regs when carrying a vehicle?
Also, the tow vehicle would act as a personal vehicle as well as business, so where would I stand with that?
Thank you in advance for answering my most basic of questions. Word from somebody in the industry would be perfect.
NotfamousMartin said:
If anybody could please give me a clear answer I would be grateful
I am setting up a vehicle relocation business and will be driving a VW Amarok or similar, along with a trailer. GVW with loaded trailer will exceed 3500kg and, of course, this will be for business use.
It appears that I will need to fit the vehicle with a tachograph but Google isn't quite answering all of my questions. A 9 hour daily driving limit would not be ideal when trying to serve clients, especially on UK motorways. When unladen, my vehicle/trailer weight will fall short of the 3500kg limit, so would I only be committed under EU regs when carrying a vehicle?
Also, the tow vehicle would act as a personal vehicle as well as business, so where would I stand with that?
Thank you in advance for answering my most basic of questions. Word from somebody in the industry would be perfect.
Not sure where to begin but I fear you would be DVSA's dream come true if pulled!I am setting up a vehicle relocation business and will be driving a VW Amarok or similar, along with a trailer. GVW with loaded trailer will exceed 3500kg and, of course, this will be for business use.
It appears that I will need to fit the vehicle with a tachograph but Google isn't quite answering all of my questions. A 9 hour daily driving limit would not be ideal when trying to serve clients, especially on UK motorways. When unladen, my vehicle/trailer weight will fall short of the 3500kg limit, so would I only be committed under EU regs when carrying a vehicle?
Also, the tow vehicle would act as a personal vehicle as well as business, so where would I stand with that?
Thank you in advance for answering my most basic of questions. Word from somebody in the industry would be perfect.
Obviously you do have a couple of 10 hour drives if it helps?
As for unladen, well, it depends on how you view your working role, you see the tachometer isn't just there for your driving hours, it's there for your whole working day so it would be viewed that whilst you might be unladen you may be seen as working if you are on your way to collect, another twist would be if you are working from home so therefore what would be seen as still working or commuting home? For me, if the trailer is attached then you are working.
If you started work in the morning and had to drive for 2 hours to collect a car, then spend 3 hours delivering it then you can't expect anyone to accept the first 2 hours don't count towards your working day/driving time simply because you didn't have a load, otherwise you could drive for as many hours as you like to collect a car but then happily drive for a further 9 hours with breaks legally, I don't think so.
It's a real can of worms, if it were me I would use the tacho as it should be used for the full period of work, that includes driving, shift times and WTD , especially due to the recent crackdown on WTD by the DVSA.
As for personal use, you would probably be best keeping a log of the vehicle use in order to prove things, especially if others have access to the vehicle.
Whilst it is unlikely you will be pulled, from my experience you can clearly see when checkpoints are running a targeted day for certain vehicles be they HGV plant, removals, lutons with sleeper pods or cars and vans pulling trailers for work purposes especially low loader transit style vans because they know they will be close to axle weights due to heavier modern cars......
NorfolkInClue1 said:
Not sure where to begin but I fear you would be DVSA's dream come true if pulled!
I fear you'd be correct! Thank you very much for your advice, it has really cleared things up It's a good job I checked- I hadn't even considered train weight and just assumed a GVW of <3500kg meant I didn't need a tacho...!
Thanks again.
You would need to use the tacho any time the trailer was attached unless you could absolutely prove you were not using it in conjunction with your business.
Without the trailer you would be free to use the vehicle as you wish, however if you are doing anything in conjunction with your business you would need to keep a written record of your driving and working time. In practice you could likely just not bother as the chance of being stopped is highly unlikely, however you may be requested to produce records to cover the unallocated mileage (ie mileage used without a tacho) if stopped or visited by the DVSA.
While towing you would be subjected to EU Driver Hours regulations and all the delights that comes with. As you would be doing this for Hire and Reward you would also need an O Licence, which brings with it a whole new bunch of hoops to jump through as well as cost.
Without the trailer you would be free to use the vehicle as you wish, however if you are doing anything in conjunction with your business you would need to keep a written record of your driving and working time. In practice you could likely just not bother as the chance of being stopped is highly unlikely, however you may be requested to produce records to cover the unallocated mileage (ie mileage used without a tacho) if stopped or visited by the DVSA.
While towing you would be subjected to EU Driver Hours regulations and all the delights that comes with. As you would be doing this for Hire and Reward you would also need an O Licence, which brings with it a whole new bunch of hoops to jump through as well as cost.
As others have said if working then the rules apply , in theory once your driving for work falls under the tacho rules the rest of your driving connected with work falls under the work and driving rules for that week . Getting caught breaking the rules would be difficult but if you do apart from the costs you then go on DVSA's naughty list and will get a tug more frequently .
Gassing Station | Commercial Break | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff