Do Skip Lorries Have Tachographs

Do Skip Lorries Have Tachographs

I have a few friends who are skip hire owners and I must admit that when they told me they would be operating tachographs for their drivers I thought it was a joke. In fact, initially I laughed at the idea but then after speaking to them more about the issue and learning more about it, my mind quickly changed as I realised that requiring them to have tachograph records of their drivers’ hours was actually forcing them to make sure that they did operate safely.

Do Lorries Have Tachographs

The DfT's guidance states that there may be circumstances where the operator of a skip vehicle can prove that the driving activity is not compensable. This condition will apply when the skip is being driven solely for private purposes, i. e, no fee is levied to transport the skip to or from a site or to or from premises. The section on exemptions sets out. Many hauliers haven't considered the implications for their business of the new 'Skip Load' law that came into force on 6 April, 2014.

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We explain exactly which types of 'Skip Vehicles' require a tachograph and how to stay on the right side of the law. So how does the skip operator know when they need to tachograph? The interpretation is that if the driver has been engaged in any activity on behalf of the skip hire company then it is work activity and should be subject to EC law. You should know that the use of tachographs in goods vehicles is covered by the Transport Act 1984, which requires drivers to keep records of driving times.

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There is no doubt lorry drivers are highly skilled and professional people who undertake very demanding work, often under difficult conditions. But while every care is taken to ensure the highest standards of driving, a relatively recent additional requirement has been introduced: tachographs or similar digital recording equipment. This came in to force in October 2001 in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I have spent the past few years of my working life as a driver on a skip lorry.

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Another driver I worked with recently told me that I should never have accepted that job, because we drove around just doing waste management and he was sure that driving trucks for this purpose didn't breach EC rules. He believed you could drive much longer distances without tachographs than any other type of road haulage. A "skip" is a type of lorry specifically designed to carry wheeled construction waste. It does not have a tachograph fitted ("commercial vehicle") as no journeys are made, it is used by individual homeowners or small businesses (and so has to comply with other regulations but not EC drivers' hours).

The fitment of tachograph recording equipment is a legal requirement. However, if you’re driving light motor vehicles such as cars, then you do not need to be carrying the driver card and technical documentation with you. I am writing to query if a skip lorry used for the purpose of removing waste from my property can be exempted from the EC drivers' hours rules. I wonder, why do we recycle some items, and not others? Where does my recycling end up? And is recycling even worth it? For me, these are the questions I’m exploring as part of a project I’ve started.

The London skip hire market dictates that the majority of assignments require delivery on a 24 hour basis. The most common form of transport is usually an articulated lorry. Skip lorries are usually open top and are traditionally operated by one driver in the interest of cost saving for you, the client. There will often be two loaders at the worksite, allowing for a reduction in staffing costs, again benefitting you, the client. These factors mean that tachographs are essential to UK law enforcement agencies and HMRC.

UK Law requires all vehicles carrying goods or persons for reward to be fitted with recording equipment which accurately records information relating to vehicle movements such as entry and exit of the vehicle from defined location posts. Also as case law is still being made on what exactly is a 'skip' vehicle the onus is likely to be on the driver to prove that they were not skip vehicles but other lorries. In other words, I'm not sure it's worth the risk and stress of attempting it unless you already know your regular client will accept that you can't fill in your card.

Skip lorries have to be fitted with tachographs. If the vehicle is in use for the carriage of goods, the driver has to make sure that a tachograph is attached. This is specified by the EU Regulation that details the measures taken against cabotage truck drivers who operate within the haulage industry in Europe. Here from the  LAWGOV2  website, Regulations to the  Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986  make it an offence for any person who is the driver of a skip vehicle on a journey on a public road to.

The rules on recordable moving image and sound recordings were introduced under the Employment Rights Act 1996 to provide evidence of working practices and to prevent employers from mistreating or discriminating against their staff. The Farm Vehicles (Hours of Work) Regulations 1983, as amended by the Farm Vehicles (Working Time) Regulations 1993 provides exemptions for some specialised vehicles such as fire fighting, ambulance service and was also amended in 1996 to include refuse collection vehicles including skip lorries.