Hi Eeva,

For the exact reason you mention above we require all of our metro Christchurch drivers to fill out log books always, even if some weeks they do not meet the criteria just so we always have what we need and no one has to remember to work this out.

If you do want them to only fill it out sometimes you must keep a record of their whole working week when this happens. i.e. Even if they are only going outside the 50kmh once in their working week that whole week needs to be recorded in order to prove they have not exceeded the hours within this week- even if the work is not all driving or driving outside 50kmh it still counts.

The NZTA say if you are required to fill out a logbook (which this person is required to do on occasion)- you must produce your logbook to an enforcement officer to inspect, if requested, starting from the last 24-hour rest time up to the present time.

We struck the same problem with an office worker who sometimes drives a truck when we are short staffed. On these weeks he must record all time worked- in the office, and driving for the whole work week as all of this time counts towards their hours.

Hopefully this provides some clarity

It may be worth applying to NZTA for a specific exemption from the logbook requirements for this person / role (under Section 30ZA), especially if it is only a single trip every few weeks (and assuming it would not be much more over the 50km radius). Otherwise I would expect that the driver would need to comply with the logbook rules for the whole work period that the >50km trip occurred in as per Amber's post.

Although I don't know how easy / difficult the process to apply for an exemption is, and there doesn't seem to be much information about the process for applying for one on NZTA's website.

We struck the same problem with an office worker who sometimes drives a truck when we are short staffed. On these weeks he must record all time worked- in the office, and driving for the whole work week as all of this time counts towards their hours. — Amber van Polanen

How do you manage this in practice Amber? I am assuming that this worker could be pull onto a driving shift with little notice (e.g. turn up in the morning and told they are needed to drive today) - do they just retroactively record the required previous days work time (from memory?) in their logbook before leaving the depot?

Hey Matt,

Yes correct, it can be a bit painful however this person is on an hourly rate which makes it a lot easier. So he already records his work hours its just a matter of transferring them to the logbook. I am not sure about the exemption either, we have quite a few drivers that could probably fit into that category but for the sake of simplicity we just keep it the same across all driving teams.
We also find it helpful when drivers move into linehaul if they are already used to doing this.

Some people fill out a sheet per day or some people write something like this at the top of the first day of driving page:
" 12/08/22 - 14/08/22 Office Work 16 hours

Eroad does electronic day log book on their app. It was easy to clock in and out with the app, and it is NZTA approved. But I think they are getting rid of that. It was easy because it automatically transfers the time, location, rego, odometer onto that e log book without having to grab a pen, ruler and the log book. One click and you are on the clock or off the clock. It even reminds you when you are due for your break, so you can start looking for a rest area before the time is up.

We have the same problem with once in a while going out of the 50km radius zone. The drivers on the road don't know where they might be travelling next. They have to go back to their timesheets to find out where they were since the last 24hr break to fill in the previous days.