Working Time Directive

The WTD came into force on the 23rd of March 2005 and it is the responsibility of each company to ensure that their drivers understand and comply with these regulations.  In order to prepare yourselves there are certain steps you may take now, such as using the ‘driver planner’ and the correct use of the mode switch.

Companies are required to keep working time records for 2 years after the period covered. By following these simple procedures you will comply with this regulation and only need to use this one system to store your working time records.

Driver Planner

Clients should enter such things as annual leave and sickness for each driver, which need to be taken into account when determining the average weekly ‘working time’ under the WTD

Crossed Hammers

Working time as defined in Directive 2002/15/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2002 on the organisation of the working time of persons performing mobile road transport activities, other than driving should be recorded under the 'crossed hammers' mode.

Lines on charts

Where a driver commences, or finishes work before or after recordings on his tachograph chart he should record his start and finish times by drawing a line on the front of the chart indicating his start time EDR – (End of daily rest) and finish time SDR – (Start of daily rest).  EWR and SWR should be used where the weekly rest is ended or started. It is not an offence to do this – see Terms of use.

The time between these lines and the duty on the tachograph will be read as 'crossed hammers'.  If drivers perform duty not recorded on the chart and these lines are not drawn in the total duty shown on the analysis will not represent the total in relation to 48 hour weekly ' working time '.

Incorrect use of mode switch

True analysis will be based on the correct use of the mode switch by the driver.  In order to ensure as accurate as possible the recording of his duties, the driver should set his mode to 'crossed hammers' before moving off.  This will automatically record 'driving' when the vehicle is moving and ' working time' when the vehicle stops.  He will only need to alter his mode to record 'rest', or 'periods of availability'. 

Incorrect use of the mode, not recording EDR/SDR and not using the ‘driver planner’, will produce incorrect times for the 48 hour weekly working time and therefore the accuracy of the analysis, unless you are using the data with another program which is recording sickness, holidays and total working time.