In this case, the agency driver will be classed as your employee/agent, so you will be required to notify the Traffic Commissioner.
NO E-SMOKING STICKERS
One of our drivers has questioned if we should be displaying an e-cigarette no smoking sticker along with the standard one. Are we legally required to carry any additional no smoking stickers?
Neither the legislation or HSE websites state anything specific on e-cigarettes and the following is taken from ‘The Smoke-free (Signs) Regulations 2012’.
Any person with management responsibilities for a smoke-free vehicle shall be under a duty corresponding to that mentioned in section 6(1) of the Act to ensure that at least one legible no smoking sign is displayed in that vehicle.
MOVING GOALPOSTS
We have a driver whose ADR certificate expired in April 2020. As the extension deadline is close, we are struggling to get her booked on a refresher course. Is there anything that can be done?
On 3 November 2020, the Department for Transport announced that the current extension to 30 November 2020 has been extended further.
This means that all ADR certificates that expire between 1 March 2020 and 1 February 2021 will remain valid until 28 February 2021. The driver must, however, sit a refresher course or have passed an exam before 1 March 2021. The new period of validity shall begin from the original date of expiry of the certificate.
MARKING TIME
Our driver was stopped this morning and issued a fixed penalty notice for not having full and complete records. Looking at the analysis on the driver’s card, the only gaps are for his daily and weekend rest. Could you explain why he got the fixed penalty?
On 20 August 2020 regulation EU 2020/1054 came in to force to say that all time should be recorded, including, rest, annual leave and sick leave. The information can be recorded on either a Tachograph card, an approved analogue chart or the reverse of a print roll.
TIMES CHANGE
When the clocks go forward or back does the clock on the Tachograph head unit need to be changed?
The internal clock of a digital or smart tachograph is set to Universal Time Co-ordinated (UTC). The time displayed on the clock face can be set by the driver either to local time or to UTC. However, all data will be recorded by the vehicle unit (VU) on the time set by the integral clock, which operates on UTC – this is the same as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Drivers will need to remember that UTC is one hour behind British Summer Time (BST). So, between 01.00 on the last Sunday in March and 01.00 on the last Sunday in October, drivers must account for the difference when manually inputting activity details in the digital or smart tachograph.
It is possible for drivers to set the display time on the VU to local BST, but this will not prevent the VU recording in UTC. Therefore, it is recommended that drivers leave the display time in UTC as a reminder of the difference.
TESTING TIMES
If a vehicle’s MOT and six-week inspection are due in the same ISO week, can we count the MOT as the PMI?
The PMI will still need to be conducted, even if it was MOT’d or the MOT is due, in the same ISO week.
The MOT is essentially the minimum safety standards the vehicle must meet to be considered roadworthy and only takes account for the vehicle’s condition on the day it is presented.
It will be an undertaking of your operator’s licence to inspect the vehicles at the stated intervals, eg every six weeks, and the MOT will not count as a PMI.
LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT
We have just taken delivery of our new 18-tonne truck which has a crane fitted. The crane on this vehicle projects past the front of the cab which makes the vehicle longer than our previous truck. Does the vehicle exceed the overall maximum length for rigid vehicles if you include the crane projection when measured?
There is an exception for special appliance or apparatus. The overall length of a vehicle is measured from the extreme front to the extreme rear (usually the front bumper to the rear of the loadbearing surface or chassis). Any special appliance or apparatus (such as a crane jib) projecting beyond what would otherwise be the extreme front or rear of the vehicle can be ignored when determining the vehicle’s overall length.
TIRED TYRES
Will a ban on 10-year-old tyres being fitted to HGVs soon be in place?
Banning tyres aged 10 years or older used on HGVs, buses and coaches has been under consultation for some time. There is new legislation planned to come into force in February 2021, which will ban the use of tyres aged 10 years –
or older being fitted to HGVs, buses, coaches and minibuses. This ban will apply to tyres fitted to the front axle of HGVs, buses and coaches and to the tyres on all axles on minibuses when fitted in single configuration.
