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You are here: Home - What is Smartanalysis? - Hours Law

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Hours Law

It is the responsibility of both transport operators and drivers to ensure that they comply with the EEC drivers' hours and tachograph legislation. As a transport operator you are legally required to periodically check tachograph records and have an adequate record keeping system in place. Failure to do so can result in severe penalties and jeopardise your Operators License.

Smartanalysis provides full drivers hours analysis for EU and UK Domestic Regulations covering all aspects including double manning, ferry operations, PCV regulations and includes calculations for Daily and Weekly rest compensation. Smartanalysis identifies any reduction in daily or weekly rest and indicates the amount of rest that has to be repaid and the date by which the rest has to be compensated by.

Enforcement is for the Licensing Authorities, through the Vehicle Inspectorate's Examiners and the Police. There is at this present time a maximum fine of £2,500 for a breach of the drivers' hours rules and a maximum fine of £5,000 for failing to install or use a tachograph. Deliberate falsification of a tachograph chart can result in 2 years imprisonment or a £5,000 fine. Convictions may be taken into account by Licensing Authorities in deciding whether to grant or renew an Operator's Licence or PCV driver's licence.

Graduated Fixed Penalties

The fixed penalty system for vehicle-related offences has been used by police forces for a number of years. They provide an efficient way of dealing with a wide range of offences and the rights of individuals to challenge alleged offences in court are preserved. Each year over 3 million fixed penalty notices are issued by the police for motoring offences in Great Britain.

VOSA examiners also have the power to issue fixed penalty notices. The graduated fixed penalty system means that the amount fixed penalty will depend on the circumstances or the severity of the offence. The graduated approach is being used in the case of offences connected with the operation of commercial vehicles and for breaches of drivers’ hours rules and overloading of vehicles.

The graduated fixed penalty is proportionate to the severity of the breach or contravention. The main graduated offences cover commercial vehicle drivers’ hours and overloading offences.  The penalties are graduated to reflect:

• the length of time that a driver has spent driving, or working over the legal limit;
• the degree of shortfall below what is necessary for a prescribed period of rest;
• the degree of overloading.

The drivers’ hours offence penalty graduations reflect the seriousness and circumstances of the offence - how far the driver has exceeded the limits or failed to satisfy the requirements of the legislation e.g. the amount of rest time the driver has failed to take when required, or the amount of time spent driving in excess of the limits e.g:
 

The definitive device for recording drivers’ hours is the tachograph. A driver is required to comply with the regulations using the specified recording equipment. Subject to any statutory requirements or manipulation of the data (such as suspected tampering), examiners will take the information recorded by the tachograph and base their compliance checks on those records.

Further Information

For further information on tachograph and driver hours legislation visit UK Department for Transport pages on Working time, drivers' hours and tachograph rules in UK and Europe

Click here to sign up to Smartanalysis online tachograph analysis.