Welcome to Our Business
Our continued growth
As part of our continued growth in the recruitment Industry.
I would like to announce two new appointments to our recruitment team.
Mr Mark Sims.
Mark has joined us to assit the growth of our Industrial & Engineering sectors of the business with
15 years experience in the Construction and Engineering Industry Although he is new to the recruitment Industry he has already proven to be an industry profesional since his appointment and shows great promise for 2012 and beyond.
Mr Samual Smith.
Sam has joined our operational team as a Junior Member with experience in the recruitment industry at a Junior Level, Sam will be supporting our Lincoln and Nottingham office with the daily operations and will prove to again be a great asset to our team for 2012 and Beyond.
Welcome, Mark & Sam to the team!
Brian Smith, Nottingham Branch Manager
Career Opportunities
Our continued growth
Due to the continued growth of our business, throughout our branch network we have vacancies for both experienced Recruitment Consultants and suitable candidates looking for their first opportunity to work within recruitment.
If you would like an opportunity to work with one of the East Midlands longest established and most successful, independent employment businesses and develop your full career potential please contact David Bridge by email at david@qsrecruitment.com
2011 Drivers Legal Update from QS Recruitment.
RESPONSIBILITIES FOR ROADWORTHINESS
O Licence Holders and drivers of vehicles have a legal responsibility to ensure that the vehicles they use on the road are maintained in a safe and roadworthy condition at all times. It is an offence to use an unroadworthy vehicle on the road, and as VOSA has recently highlighted, overloading and braking defects are in the top five of the most common Graduated Fixed Penalty (GFPs) offences. In addition to the driver receiving an on the spot fine and possible penalty points, GFPs also have an influence on the Operators’ Compliance Risk Score (OCRS) and a poor score is likely to result in an operator being called to a Public Inquiry before a Traffic Commissioner to explain themselves.
It is therefore essential that drivers appreciate the importance of doing daily vehicle checks – for many the possibility of prosecution or GFPs is enough reason to take time to walk around the vehicle at the start of a shift.
Written records of these daily checks also need to be kept and filed by the operator – these are known as the defect reports. Nowadays Traffic Commissioners expect to see a ‘nil’ defect reporting system in place.
Tachodisc produce a range of daily vehicle check and defect report books and has recently created a detailed Daily Vehicle Check wall poster to be a daily visual reminder and aid for drivers.
DIGITAL TACHOGRAPHS
NEW LAW FOR NON-EU AETR CONTRACTING COUNTRIES
From 1st January 2011, any vehicle from a Non-EU AETR contracting country entering an EU country, which was registered after the 16th June 2010, will have to be fitted with a digital tachograph.
Tachodisc confirms that this will mean the driver and vehicle will come under EU and AETR legislation concerning the use of a digital drivers’ card and a digital tachograph in the vehicle. It will also require the digital tachograph to be calibrated and a drivers’ card to be used.
Karen Crispe, Tachodisc’s Managing Director, and who also attends the CORTE meetings for the Implementation of Digital Tachographs said: “If a driver or vehicle from an AETR country crosses an EU border and is stopped and found to be infringing on the legislation by the local enforcement bodies, local penalties will be applied.”
This directive follows a delay/reprieve that was due to come into force on the 16th June 2010.
The European Agreement Concerning the Work of Crews of Vehicles Engaged in International Road Transport (AETR) sets drivers' hours rules for international trade. The agreement covers more than 40 European states and includes other countries such as Russia, Turkey, Croatia and the Ukraine.
DRIVER CPC - THE CLOCK IS TICKING
2011 must be the year LGV operators and drivers start seriously considering the options available for Driver CPC, if they haven’t already.
The deadline for completing the required 35 hours of training is 10th September 2014; this might seem a long way away now, but when you consider many thousands of PCV drivers are facing having to cram in the required hours before their deadline on 10th September 2013, the demand for courses over the next of couple of years will be high. Training organisations are expecting a huge uptake, fuelling rumours about price increases and accessibility.
The biggest issue is that when Driver CPC was first introduced in September 2008 for PCV drivers and September 2009 for LGV drivers, there was a significant amount of interest, but with the downturn in the economy it lost momentum. The upshot now is if drivers leave it any longer they may face competing for course spaces, have a limited choice available based on their schedule, or worse, not even be able to book onto their preferred courses.
To help operators and drivers combat this potential availability issue, Tachodisc has introduced a new Driver CPC Training Loyalty Scheme. The scheme offers companies many benefits, including the option to spread the cost with easy payment terms, fixed discounted prices during the agreement period plus the ability to schedule and priority book courses.
Legal update from QS Recruitment
PCV DRIVERS HOURS CHANGES
From 4th June 2010, The ’12-day rule’, allowing drivers on a single occasional service of international carriage of passengers to postpone weekly rest, is reinstated to the driver’s hours rules, provided specific conditions are met.
ROAD SAFETY COMPLIANCE
A DfT proposal into Road Safety Compliance includes plans to introduce six penalty points for exceeding the speed limit by 20mph and make careless driving a fixed penalty offence with three penalty points and a £60 fine from Spring 2010.
DRIVER CARD RENEWAL
Operators and drivers who ordered their first digital tachograph company and driver cards in 2005 are being reminded that they are due to expire this year. The DVLA has been in a position to supply the cards since June 2005 and their five-year life span means the first operators and drivers to have taken them, will have to renew them in the next few months. Renewal applications can be made up to three months prior to the expiry date of the cards. Cards should be issued within 15 working days of DVLA receiving a completed application. New driver and company cards will cost £19 each.
OCRS CHANGES
VOSA has confirmed that from 1st July 2010 it will extend the green band for traffic enforcement scores to includes bands 0-3 (currently just band 0 is green and bands 1-3 are amber). At the same time, the red band for both traffic enforcement and roadworthiness scores will extend to include groups 8-10 (currently only bands 9 and 10 are red and band 8 is amber). VOSA is also developing graduated points in line with the graduated fixed penalty system, which are expected to be introduced in Spring 2011. For details of the current bands and to identify the changes, see this DfT document.
Tachodisc say: Equipping drivers with the tools to carry-out effective daily vehicle checks will ultimately help operators maintain their roadworthiness score under VOSA’s Operators Compliance Risk Score (OCRS). Tachodisc’s Daily Vehicle Check and Defect Book, contains defect report forms in duplicate or triplicate and a handy daily vehicle checklist. Click here for further information
NEW OFFENCES AS A RESULT OF DIGITAL TACHOGRAPHS
The offences listed in Annex A were introduced in April 2008 as the result of the introduction of digital tachographs. Since this date, VOSA have where applicable been issuing prohibitions for these offences. The offences were included into the OCRS tables in April 2008 but with a 0 offence score. Since April 2008 operators would have seen the fact that an offence had been recorded in their OCRS reports. Once the tests were completed, the new scores were backdated until April 2008.
DRIVER CPC CARD SCAMS
The Vehicle Operator Service Agency and the Driving Standards Agency are advising drivers that they do not need to buy a card to prove they are exempt from Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) regulations. The so-called ‘Driver Qualification Exemption Card’ or DQEC is being sold on the internet for £49. VOSA have confirmed that enforcement officers would not use this card to check driver exemption, as it has no legal validity.
NEW SENTENCING GUIDELINES FOR CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER
The Sentencing Guidelines Council (SGC) has published its definitive guideline on corporate manslaughter sentencing. It sets out principles to guide courts in dealing with companies and organisations that cause death through a gross breach of care or where breaches of health and safety requirements are a significant cause of the death. The guidelines came into effect from 15 February. For further information visit www.sentencing-guidelines.gov.uk/about/index.html
Now there's an app for that!
The AskTachodisc-Mobile App was launched at the Commercial Vehicle Operator show in April, and is available to download FREE from the Apple itunes store now.
It contains a clear explanation of the Drivers' Hours rules along with guidance on how to operate tachographs from the three key suppliers.
We will send regular, free, legislative and news updates by means of the App's live RSS feed.
To order from our full range of products and services, visit the Tachodisc Store today.