A formal update of tacho guidance has been implemented by the DVSA, following a campaign by the Road Haulage Association (RHA).

The RHA has previously highlighted difficulties for drivers surrounding the regulation relating to keeping 28 days of driving records.

As a result, the DVSA has now acted, following weeks of uncertainty surrounding the issue.

Firstly, it was announced block entries and evidence forms (attestation) were being accepted by DVSA.

However, now an official update has been announced on the Gov.uk website.

Specifically, the new documents relate to Section 3 and Section 4 of the guidance.

Section 3 states that non-EU/AETR work, such as secondary employment should be recorded.

Therefore, this ‘other work’ needs to be proven on either a tachograph chart, a printout or through manual input.

Meanwhile, Section 4 changes relate to common rules of tachograph use.

For example, drivers must now keep a full record of periods of other work and availability in a week when ‘EU-regulated driving takes place’.

In addition, drivers undertaking ‘international journeys’ should keep full daily records for the previous 28 days.

Importantly, those records include including days and weeks in which no EU-regulated driving took place.

This is because enforcement agencies in other countries may have different requirements for how to record activities for the previous 28 days.

For rest and other days off, officials confirmed that evidence forms for drivers’ hours records are still available.

These should be accepted in the context of journeys involving EU member states.

Tacho guidance welcomed
RHA managing director, Richard Smith, was pleased with the overall outcome.

“This is a welcome step to deal with a bureaucratic mismanagement of monitoring driver rest and breaks,” he said.

“We can – and should – do more to make compliance with the rest and recording of time rule for commercial drivers easier.

“Therefore, RHA will continue to push the UK government for change to the legislation to remove some of the administrative burden. especially for occasional drivers.”