Vehicle documents, drivers' hours and record keeping
Vehicle documents
Document questions test whether you know what must exist, what must be carried, and who is responsible for it.
Driver side: a full category D (or D1) licence, a Driver CPC qualification card (DQC) if driving professionally, and a current medical entitlement.
Vehicle side: registration certificate (V5C), certificate of insurance (third-party cover minimum), vehicle excise licence, the annual PSV test certificate (MOT), and the plating certificate showing gross and axle weights.
Operator side: a PSV operator licence, categorised as restricted, special restricted, standard national or standard international. Standard licences require a nominated transport manager. The operator licence disc must be displayed in the vehicle, and the operator must keep maintenance records and notify the traffic commissioner of changes.
Other items: the tachograph calibration plaque and calibration certificate (calibration every two years), and for some services a section 19 or section 22 permit instead of an operator licence.
At the roadside you must be able to produce documents; where you cannot, you may be given a set period (commonly seven days) to produce them at a police station.
Traps: confusing the PSV test certificate with the plating certificate; thinking the operator licence is carried by the driver rather than displayed; forgetting that insurance must cover the use being made of the vehicle.
Worked example: a school minibus is run by a charity under a section 19 permit. There is no operator licence to display, but the permit, insurance, test certificate and driver's D1 licence are all still required.
Drivers' hours and record keeping
Two rule sets exist and the first exam skill is knowing which applies.
EU/AETR rules cover most international work and large vehicles. Key numbers: a 45-minute break after no more than 4 hours 30 minutes of driving, split as 15 minutes then 30 minutes (order matters); daily driving of 9 hours, extendable to 10 hours twice a week; 56 hours in a week; 90 hours in any two consecutive weeks; daily rest of 11 hours, reducible to 9 hours three times between weekly rests; weekly rest of 45 hours, reducible to 24. Records - analogue charts, digital card data, printouts and manual entries - must be carried and produced, and retained for at least 28 days by the driver, with operators keeping records for a year.
GB domestic rules apply to many purely domestic bus and coach services: a maximum of 10 hours' driving in a day, a maximum duty day of 11 hours, and a break of at least 30 minutes after 5 hours 30 minutes of driving. Records go in a log book rather than a tachograph where no tachograph is required.
Traps: confusing duty time with driving time; splitting the 45-minute break the wrong way round (30 then 15 is not valid); assuming the 10-hour daily driving extension applies every day.
Worked example: a driver has driven 4 hours 30 minutes and takes 30 minutes' break, then 15 minutes. This does not satisfy the rule - the 15 minutes must come first.
Rule of thumb: breaks counteract driving, not duty. Waiting time is not driving, but it is not automatically rest either.