Off duty time query, down route, under CAP371
 

In the company I work for, crew are normally off duty 30 minutes after the aircraft arrives on chocks to allow for the completion of post flight duties. In the case of a night stop, can someone in Crewing tell me when the crew are officially off duty, down route, under CAP371? There are no issues regarding minimum rest and the journey to the hotel takes approximately 30 minutes.

If the off duty time is the usual 30 mins after chocks, then rest would appear to commence during the coach journey to the hotel which doesn't seem correct to me.

CAP 371, Section B, The Scheme, Definitions defines 'Positioning' as: The practice of transferring crew from place to place as passengers in surface or air transport at the behest of an operator. Additionally, 11.1 All time spent on positioning at the behest of an operator shall count as duty, but positioning does not count as a sector when calculating the FDP.

I also looked at the CAP371 definition of travelling time. To me, travelling time is the time spent in the car on the way to work which obviously doesn't count as duty. But, if the coach journey down route is categorised as positioning, i.e. at the behest of the company then this would count as duty.

What is correct?

Regards
Loco

Rest starts at the off-duty time, which in your case means rest is underway during the coach journey. Each company has there own interpretation of CAP371 and, in some cases, their own wording but the normal definition of "travelling time" is:-

'All time spent by a crew member transitting between the place of rest, and the place of reporting for duty.'

The coach journey from/to the hotel is deemed as being the same as your normal journey to work from home.