Member Advice Centre

Professional drivers conduct should be appropriate whilst at work and at all other times. Vocational drivers should tell their employer immediately if they are found guilty of any motoring offence, with a duty on the operator to report all motoring offences committed in any vehicle to the Traffic Commissioner.

Whilst there may be restrictions on any action the employer can take against their employee for a scenario such as this, it may still have implications on their employment, for example, more frequent driver licence checks due to an increased risk from the higher number of points on the licence.

Logistics UK have produced a Fact Sheet, with an accompanying animation sprint covering notifiable offences for both GB and Northern Ireland operators that can be downloaded and used however members see fit. The links to these can be found here.

Four weeks of statutory holiday (20 days), sick leave, maternity, paternity, parental and adoption leave cannot be used to reduce the average working time over a reference period. Any absence of these types must be recorded at eight hours per day, or if a full week of these types of leave is taken, 48 hours must be recorded.

Mobile workers with more than 20 days annual leave can record the extra days as zero hours, meaning those can be used to reduce the average working time.

The prescribed figures do not have to be included for other types of leave, such as jury service, union duties, or disciplinary suspension, meaning they can also be recorded as zero hours and do not contribute towards the working time calculations.

Logistics UK have produced a briefing note on compensating for absences and how this affects the working time calculations, the link to which can be found here.

For a brake test to be meaningful you must aim to apply at least 65% and no less than 50% of the design axle weight to each axle.

If a report states that there is an insufficient load to an axle, whilst the overall result may state the vehicle has passed, it raises questions as to whether the test was meaningful.

We would also suggest calculating how much weight has been applied to each axle before taking further action as the brake testing software might flag an insufficient load if below 65% but still above 50%. However, if any axle is below 50% then the above still stands and our understanding is that the asset should be retested to get a meaningful result.

Logistics UK have produced a compliance guide on understanding your brake test report. The Traffic Commissioners used the original version as part of their continued professional development, so we hope that our members will benefit from it too. The link to the guide can be found here.