UK (Euro) tachometer laws. The tacho card is inserted in a slot (some trucks won't move without it) it records hours, speed and distance.
As a driver you cannot drive more than 90 hours in a 14 day period. You can only drive 10 hours for 2 days in each 7 day period. Otherwise its 8 hours all other days. Each day requires you to have a minimum of 1 hours rest while on duty. This can be taken in 15 min intervals or all at once. A minimum of 8 hours rest is required while off duty (no clocking off then clocking on again). So if you start at say 6am your tacho needs to show that you haven't driven since 10pm the previous day. Idle time (loading and unloading, stationary in traffic jams) is not counted towards driven hours. (freakin stupid if u ask me. Your still working).
All UK trucks are governed to 55MPH (annoying as hell if trying to overtake and even more annoying to motorist stuck behind u) but you can freewheel down hill 
Get caught breaking any tacho laws and its anything up to 1,000 quid fine. The driver is responsible for vehicle safety. That's all aspects of it no matter what. No blame put on the company if something is wrong. Same with load weight (gets tricky without being weighed) and load safety. You can be fined for speeding months and months later than the date of offence on your tacho card. Tacho cards are for life lol.
I've had wheel nuts come loose so 4 hours waisted until a mechanic certified the studs safe and replace me nuts (wheel nuts). Had a pheasant bust my windscreen (windshield) and had to drive all the way back to base like that. Cheeky *&^% manager asked me to drive it like that the next day. Of cause I said no but being as I was an agency driver I wasn't asked to drive for them again... tossers. The worst was being stuck on the motorway in crawling traffic for 8 hours after already doing 7 hours (someone was killed in a crash so the police close down the lanes to collect all evidence). Your supposed to book into a motel or bed and breakfast or have someone collect you or have another driver take over. When your stuck with no hope of getting off the motorway what can you do? Long an short I started work at 6am (got up at 5am) and didn't get back to base until 11.55pm (got home 40 min later). The boss wanted me in again at 6 am. Soon told him what he could do with that. If the ministry checked back through my records I'd get an instant 1k fine for busting tacho hours. Points on my license which would prolly get me fired from the job....even though the situation was unavoidable.
i think brian said he was responsible for his own loaded weights. he also mentioned though, about shifting the trailers rear axles, which i think he said made it show differently on the scales if he was close to the load limit?
it sounds like your trucks(lie it seems everything over there) are totally govt. regulated? with the qualcom system werner had in place, they took logged hours pretty seriously.
if he went over by more than 15 minutes(they allowed that slack in case of traffic problems) he was fined by the company. the truck would physically move if he wasn't logged in, but there had better be a dam good excuse for it....or serious fine.
maintenance was his responsibility, but the company paid for it. if he stopped at one of werners servie areas, he had no money out of pocket. if he had to go to a service area other than theirs, then he had to usually pay at least part, and get reimbursed.
as i said, their trucks were governed to 65mph. i don't believe all companies in the us do that.....and i don't think there's any laws governing governing......
i think he said he was allowed up to 10 hours in a 24 hour period, but then was required a min. of 8 hours off.
what i DO know, is that i feel bad for most of the guys that drive these things. the majority of people driving cars, aren't really driving them....they're more like passengers, with the steering wheel in their hands. they do REALLY stupid crap around trucks.
i've seen people pass, pull directly in front, and then de-accelerate VERY fast......i've seen them ride right where i know the trucks blind spot is........seen em tailgate.........
