, please spend more than £50Description
Pickup & Trailer Drivers’ Hours & Tachographs Training
Hitch a single car trailer to a pickup and you are driving a goods vehicle combination over 3.5 tonnes. The drivers’ hours and tachograph rules that apply to lorries now apply to you, on ordinary UK work. This online course takes a pickup and trailer driver from first principles to confident daily practice.
About this course
Written for pickups towing car trailers on UK roads
Most infringements on pickup and trailer work are not deliberate. They come from a driver who was never told that the trailer changed the rules: no tachograph fitted at all, solo driving with the card out, loading a car counted as the break, or an exemption relied on that does not actually fit the work.
This course fixes that. It explains how combination weight is assessed, which exemptions genuinely apply and which do not, the assimilated drivers’ hours limits on towing days, the GB domestic rules on exempt days, and how the two fit together in one week. It then covers the tachograph itself: which unit your pickup needs, driver cards, the mode switch, the OUT setting for solo driving, manual entries, and what the business has to download, keep and analyse.
Course content
What the course covers
Which rules apply
Why a pickup and car trailer is over 3.5 tonnes in law, where the plated figures come from, the exemptions pickup drivers ask about, and how to tell whether today is in scope.
Driving limits and breaks
Daily and weekly driving limits, the break requirement and how it may be split, and the record-keeping that has to sit behind it.
Rest periods
Daily rest, reduced and split rest, weekly rest and compensation, and what rest means for a driver whose vehicle has no sleeping facilities.
Tachograph operation
Which tachograph your pickup needs, driver cards, mode switching, periods of availability, the OUT setting for solo driving, manual entries and the country prompt.
The transport office
Records a driver must carry at the roadside, driver card and vehicle unit download intervals, data retention, and what infringement analysis is looking for.
Enforcement
DVSA roadside checks, prohibitions and fixed penalties, operator responsibility for driver infringements, and how a poor record affects an operator’s licence.
Who it’s for
Drivers, dealers, recovery operators and small businesses
The course assumes no prior knowledge. It suits dealer delivery and collection drivers, motor traders, recovery operators, race and show car transporters, and trades who tow plant on a car trailer. It is also written for the business owner, who in a small operation is often the driver as well, covering the fitment, download, retention and analysis duties that fall on the operator.
Running HGVs, or towing abroad? See our HGV Drivers’ Hours & Tachographs course, which covers UK and European driving in full.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
Does this course count towards Driver CPC?⌄
My pickup is under 3.5 tonnes. Why do I need this?⌄
Is this suitable for a brand new driver?⌄
Does it cover the operator side?⌄
How long does the course take and what do I get?⌄
Get your drivers confident on the rules
£25 per learner, fully online with an instant certificate. Training a whole fleet? Volume pricing is available, call us and we’ll set your team up with completion tracking.
