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Rest periods

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Q If I start driving at 6am does this mean that I must take a 45 minute break at 10.30am

R Only if you have been driving all the time.

Q Once I have completed four and a half hours driving can I go straight on to other work - loading or unloading for example.

R No once you have completed four and a half hours driving you must take a break before undertaking any other work.

Q Do any other conditions apply to four and a half hour driving periods.

R Yes during a break you cannot carry out any other work. Also, once you take 45 minutes break you commence another driving period, whether you have driven for four and a half hours or not.

So if you drive for 2 hrs and then take 50 minutes rest, you now commence another driving period. You do not have to take another break after a further two and a half hours driving.

Q Do the breaks only apply to driving.

R No. You need to take breaks in relation to driving time and working time under the following legislation. Details can be found in our Drivers hours Legislation section.

DIRECTIVE 2002/15/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 11 March 2002 on the organisation of the working time of persons performing mobile road transport activities

Q Can I take a rest period in a moving vehicle whilst some-one else is driving.

R Yes. Please read the following.

GUIDANCE NOTE 2 Recording the travelling time of a driver to a location that is not the usual place (Also includes multi manned vehicles)

Q What daily rest do I have to take

R In each period of 24 hrs you must have a rest period of 11 consecutive hours, this can be reduced to 9hrs three times between two weekly rest periods - called a daily rest reduction.

Q Can reductions be on consecutive days

R Yes.

Q Can I take my daily rest in a vehicle.

R Yes. Provided it is fitted with a bunk and is stationary.

Q Is there any other way that I can take a daily rest period

R Yes you can have what is called a split daily rest (see Drivers hours Legislation ), which involves splitting the daily rest into 2 periods, the first of which must be at least 3 hours and the second of at least 9 hours.

Q If I take less than 11 hours rest is it a rest reduction.

R Not necessarily, you could qualify for a split daily rest - see above, which does not count as a reduction.

Q What happens if I go below 11 hours daily rest and I am unable to qualify for a split daily rest.

R Then it is a daily rest reduction, even if you take 10.59.

Q Is there any difference with the amount of daily rest reduction I can take at base or away from base.

R No, you are able to take the same amount of reduced daily rest whether at, or away from base.

Q Do I have to take any other type of rest

R Yes. In any two consecutive weeks a driver shall take at least:

— two regular weekly rest periods, or

— one regular weekly rest period and one reduced weekly

rest period of at least 24 hours. However, the reduction shall be compensated by an equivalent period of rest taken en bloc before the end of the third week following the week in question.

A weekly rest period shall start no later than at the end of six 24-hour periods from the end of the previous weekly rest period.

Q Does weekly rest have to be a Saturday or Sunday.

R No. It can be any day of the week. However it cannot be any longer than 6 x 24 hour periods from the finish of your previous weekly rest before your next weekly rest.

Q Does the weekly rest have to be at the end of the week.

R No. where a weekly rest goes over two weeks it can be attached to either week. So for example if you start a weekly rest at 12.00 mid-day on Saturday and resume work at 06.00 hours on the following Monday, because it goes over mid-night on Sunday it can be the weekly rest for either week.

Q If I start a weekly rest of 90hrs in one week and finish it in the following week, can I split it between the two weeks and have 45 hours for each week.

R No unfortunately you cannot split weekly rest. No matter how long it is, it can only be the weekly rest for one week.

Q How do I compensate weekly rest.

R You must attach the equivalent period of the reduction, to a rest period of at least 9 hours, before the end of the third week following the one where the rest reduction occurred.

Remember the end of the week is 12.00 midnight on the Sunday. So if you get to the third week, following the reduction, before you are able to compensate this reduction, you must be able to take a weekly rest + the number of hours you reduced by as compensation - all of which must occur before midnight on that Sunday

Q Can weekly rest be made up on the weekend prior to the third week and be taken into Monday instead of 12.00 pm Sunday.

R Yes weekly rest reductions can be made up by attaching them to a weekly rest, which travels over into Monday. But this can only occur on the first and second weekend after the rest reduction was taken. If you get to the end of the third week after the reduction then it can only be made up by attaching it to a weekly rest where both must occur mid-night of that week, because midnight is the end of the third week.

. Weekly rest compensation

Q. In the 1st week I take a reduced weekly rest period of 24 Hours. I wish to compensate for this by adding the 21 Hour reduction, to my weekly rest period in the 3rd following week. I therefore take a weekly rest period of 66 Hours in the third following week.
If I do it this way I believe this is legal, however what I am not sure about is if the whole of the 66 Hour rest period has to be taken before Midnight on the Sunday of the 3rd following week, or could part of the 66 hour weekly rest period start in the 3rd following week and end in the 4th following week?

R. Under Article 8 (6) 0f REGULATION (EC) No 561/2006 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 15 March 2006 its states:

In any two consecutive weeks a driver shall take at least:

Two regular weekly rest periods, or
One regular weekly rest period and one reduced weekly rest period of at least 24 hours. However, the reduction shall be compensated by an equivalent period of rest taken en bloc before the end of the third week following the week in question.

‘A week’ means the period of time between 00.00 on Monday and 24.00 on Sunday.

Article 8 (7) states:

Any rest taken as compensation for a reduced weekly rest period shall be attached to another rest period of at least nine hours.

Taking 6 & 7 together

1. The compensation must be attached to rest period (daily or weekly)

2. It must be compensated before the end of the 3^rd week.

Therefore if you are attaching compensation to a weekly rest period it must be a full weekly rest or a reduced weekly rest (if you have the availability) and both the weekly rest and compensation must occur before midnight.

Under Article 8 (9)

A weekly rest period that falls in two weeks may be counted in either week, but not in both.

You can therefore take a weekly rest which traverses 2 weeks, but this does not apply when you are attaching compensation to a weekly rest period.

Q. Can your employer tell you when and where to take your rest period (45mins unpaid)?

i.e., start work 7pm. First run is local, 1hr driving, and 3hrs duty. So at 10pm you are back at depot waiting for 2nd run. You may still have 4hrs driving and 9hrs duty to do, can your employer insist you take your break at 10pm while waiting for 2nd run as it suits him? Though as a driver its possibly better to drive for another 2-3hrs before taking a break. I thought the idea of enforcing the 45 min break after 4.5 hrs was to protect the driver, and so the driver could take a rest when he/she feels tired, not at the employers whim because its better for their 'business needs'.

R. Very difficult one really. The legislation says 'the driver shall,' when referring to the rest periods to be taken during, or following a four and a half hour driving period. I would say therefore that it is the driver's responsibility when to take a break as long as he does not drive over four and a half hours and your point about the driver taking the break when he feels tired does seem to be relevant.

However it does to some extent depend on what the terms of employment are and even if they do stipulate when you must take your breaks I do not think that they would stand up if you were to say that you stopped because you felt fatigued, especially where you are working during the night, as long as you did not take excessive breaks.

Q Does weekend rest have to be compensated for in 1 block at home, or can weekly compensation be made up away from home.

R The weekly rest must be in one block that is equivalent to the total amount that was reduced and can be made up at or away from base.

Q. I drive an HGV and I would like clarification on the daily rest issue. I think the rest period begins when I finish my daily duty, I remove the chart and insert another one 11 or 9hrs later or more if I'm making up reduced daily rest. But I’ve been told that the daily rest must be shown on the same chart that I used that day to Record driving and duty.

R. I’m afraid that the daily rest area of drivers hours is some of the most complicated legislation in the regulations. It does not start when you finish your daily duty.

There are three ways in which you can fail to take a daily rest.

a. You must take your daily rest within a 24 hour period which starts when you re-commence duty following a daily or weekly rest, not between charts. You can have 11 or 9 hours off between charts and still commit this offence.

b. You can also fail to take a daily rest if you do not take sufficient rest between charts

c. You can take less than 11 hours rest more than 3 times between two weekly rest periods.

The legislation refers to driving periods and not days.

If you fail to take sufficient rest between two charts, as in example (b.) the driving period is all of the duty on both charts. So the driving period starts when the first chart begins and ends when the second chart finishes. If you drive for 8 hours on the first chart and 7 hours on the second chart the driving for that driving period is 15 hours, believe it or not.

As regards recording the daily rest being recorded on the same chart as the daily duty, you can record this at the beginning of the next days chart, or at the end of the present day’s chart, provided that you do not use the chart for a longer period than it was intended.

For information on daily rest and the 24-hour period see information sheet 5 in tachochart.com

Q If a driver is working a Sunday his first working day of his week but the last day of the legal week, he has got only a 13hr day left & he gets delayed on the motorway by an accident & he run's over his 13 hr day to safely get to a parking area, does he have to take a 11hr daily rest period or can he reduce to a 9 hr with no penalty as I can't find a ruling on this matter. Trying to keep the working day within a 24 hr period.

R If you have taken a correct weekly rest up to starting work on Sunday you can now have three daily rest reductions before your next weekly rest.

Also he can put forward the defence that he exceeded his duty to find a safe parking place and he should take an 11 hour daily rest before he restarts.

Q If I reduced my daily rest on Friday, Saturday Sunday and again on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Can you please tell me if this is actually legal.

R No. You can only reduce daily rest 3 times between two weekly rests.
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Daily rest

Q My boss gets me to take a 9-hour rest at home between shifts; I was under the impression that the minimum rest taken at home was 11 hours.

R In each period of 24hours you are required to take 11 hours rest. This may be reduced to 9 hours 3 times between two weekly rest periods. The reductions can be taken either at base or away from base and can be on consecutive days.

Remember that just by taking 9 hours between shifts does not mean that you have taken a daily rest. The 9 hours must occur within the 24 hour period, which starts after a weekly or daily rest.

Enforced reduced daily rest

Q I work for a leading Supermarket Company who repeatedly try to get us to reduce our daily rest periods. We recently had a visit from the company that do the tacho analysis for our company. At this meeting we were told that the driver cannot be forced to reduce his daily rest.

Q1. Is this true?

Q2. If true, I would guess that any more than a 13-hour day forces me to reduce. What say you.

The follow on from this would mean that I could refuse to exceed a 13 hr day. The justification being that I do not wish to reduce my daily rest period.

R The legislation is quite clear in that during a 24-hour period the driver must take a daily rest period of 11 consecutive hours. It then goes on to say that it may be reduced down to 9 hours three between two weekly rest periods, the operative word being may.

There is nothing under the tachograph regulations, which empowers an employer to force drivers to reduce their daily rest. However you should examine the terms of your employment contract, which may require that you work a specific number of hours, which includes such reductions.

Also before you stick rigidly to an 11 hour daily rest, it may mean that on occasions where you wish to come home, you will have to stay out overnight.

Anything over a 13 hour working period is, as you say, a daily rest reduction. (Except where split daily rest conditions apply)

Planned reduced daily rest

Q Is it permissible for a company to plan a driver’s day at 15 hours or is the extended day 3 times weekly to compensate for delays.

R You can plan a driver’s day for 15 hours on three occasions each week. It does not have to be due to an emergency or unforeseen circumstances.

Working 7 days non stop

Q Can you drive 6 days (lgv) and work for the same company on the 7th day (not driving but paid) effectively working 7 days a week with no rest. Can you advise?

R The simple answer is no. After 6 x 24 hour periods since your previous weekly rest you must have a regular weekly rest or reduced weekly rest.

Working every Saturday

Q. I work from 7.15am to 4.45pm Monday to Friday and every sat 8 till 12 every week. my company are saying that i have to lose one off these sat for a weekly rest so its one on one off. Is this correct. my rest period is always at home and also i only drive about 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours a day. you

R. Yes, they are right. The legislation states:

In any two consecutive weeks a driver shall take at least:
— two regular weekly rest periods, or
— one regular weekly rest period and one reduced weekly rest period of at least 24 hours.

However, the reduction shall be compensated by an equivalent period of rest taken en bloc before the end of the third week following the week in question.

The only way that you could work every Saturday would be to have 45 hours off from when you finish on alternate Saturdays. i.e. restart at 09.00am on Monday every other week. The 1.45 minute reduction on the weekend where you restarted at 07.15 on the Monday, would easily be made up with your daily rest the following week.

Q Can you help me I work for a large firm and every week is the exact same I start work at 01.00am on Monday morning and finish about 10.30am I stop and have my daily rest everyday but my question is I stop at 10.00am on Saturday and start again on Monday at 01.00am which means my weekly rest is only 39hrs every week. My manager tells me to reduce my rest on Monday to compensate for the time that I owe from the weekend and I am being told to do this every week which means that I am only getting 39hrs every week is this legal as my manager says it is your help in this matter is most appreciated.

R It is not legal because in any two consecutive weeks you can only take one reduced weekly rest (yours is 39 hours) and one regular weekly rest - 45 hours.

Weekly rest conditions

Q I have a driver who worked on the 1st week Mon, Tue Wed and Thur. Rested on Fri and then worked Sat and Sun. In the second week he works Mon, Tue, Wed Thur, Fri, resting on the Sat and Sun. Can he do this. The rest period in the first week totalled 40 hours. The driving for the whole fortnight is less than 90 hours. The point being is after the rest period in the first week, he would be driving for 7 days in a row. Although he will have his legal rest periods in each week, and within the driving limits in each week. The fact that he not doing more than 6 consecutive driving periods or days in one week, but, the 7 consecutive days cross over week 1 and week 2. Is this allowed?

R The simple answer is no. In the week commencing on the Saturday the driver committed the offence of failing to take a weekly rest after 144 hours. (6 x 24).

Maximum weekly duty

Q Is it legal for a lorry driver to do 60-65 hrs per week?

R When you say 60 – 65 hours per week I assume that you mean total shift time. A driver can have a total weekly shift time of 65 hours provided that he takes the requisite daily and weekly rest. However he/she cannot exceed 60 working time in a week, which comprises of driving and working time only, which is different from shift time. He/she cannot exceed the total driving time allowed for the week based on a total driving time of 90 in any two consecutive weeks.

Ferry and train crossings ... ?

Q Does it matter how much rest I take on land and how much I take on the train or ferry

R No. The following conditions apply to ferry crossings.

By way of derogation from Article 8, where a driver accompanies a vehicle which is transported by ferry or train, and takes a regular daily rest period, that period may be interrupted not more than twice by other activities not exceeding one hour in total. During that regular daily rest period the driver shall have access to a bunk or couchette.

Q What does it mean when it says that the rest taken on land must not be longer than 1 hour from the rest taken on the ferry or train, including customs and immigration formalities.

R It means exactly that. There can be no longer than 1 hour between the two periods of rest.

Q I am aware that rest requirements for drivers are covered in EEC 3820/85, but are you aware of any recommendations for the amount of sleep an individual driver should have over a given period?

R The regulations do not cover the amount of sleep a driver must take only the rest requirements on a daily and weekly basis and my understanding of this is to mean rest away from vehicles requiring tachographs. So you could have an 11 hour rest between charts where you maybe only had 4 or 5 hours sleep.

Q Could you please provide clarity on what time is classed as rest period? If long shifts are worked in any given week is it correct that the maximum total shifts I can do are 3x15 hr shifts and 1x 11 hr shift because I need to take at least 3x 9 hr rest periods? What I am unsure of is whether rest period can count for time waiting to unload, move or drive the truck or is this time for yourself (either in or out of the cab)?

R You can perform 3x15 hour shifts and 3x13 hour shifts between two weekly rest periods., providing that you do not exceed the driving for 6 driving periods (56 hours) and the fortnightly driving (90 hours).

The criteria as to whether time is 'waiting time' or rest depends on your ability to spend that time anyway you wish. If you are required to remain with the vehicle and are not free to dispose of your own time then strictly speaking this duty should be recorded under the box. However if it is going to be over 15 minutes and you are not required to remain with the vehicle it can be a break.

Q The driver stops the tacho is on rest but goes in to find the cafe full or closed so has only stopped for 10 mins. Has still plenty of driving time left so goes on to next rest stop. This could happen again so has got more than one rest less than 15 mins. So they cannot be counted as rest but will they be counted as duty work or part of driving. In fact is there a time limit on this say drive 5mins rest 5mins is this equal time drive and non-driving or does any short rest count as drive. This does in fact happen on a multi drop setup with call next to each other and the van boy non driver goes in to pick up while driver gets out for smoke or use his phone etc.

R All stoppages less than 15 minutes can be recorded as rest as long as the driver does not undertake any other work. They will not however count as breaks. On multi drop situations where the driver is making a delivery these stoppages should be recorded under crossed hammers.

Q If I start work at 18:00 fuel my vehicle, then drive around to the yard next door (which takes about 2mins, of which 10secs are on a public road) collect my paperwork, hitch up to my trailer and have a 20min break. Then drive for 3hrs 30mins swap trailers, then have a break of 30mins. Then drive 3hrs 30mins back to the depot.
I always thought that you had to drive for an hour before any break counted, but other drivers on my shift say that this is legal. I would be grateful if you could clarify this for me.

R It doesn't matter how long you drive on roads open to the public. The 10 seconds as you state place you on a public road and therefore subject to EU regulations. In the example you quote you take 20 minutes break after commencing driving for 10 seconds followed by 3hrs 30mins driving. This is legal because you would have been able to drive for 4 hrs 29 mins 50 seconds in theory, before having to take a 25 minutes break. Having driven for this 3 hrs 30 minutes you then take a break of 30 minutes, which gives you over 45 minutes and you are therefore able to drive for another 4 and a half hours, before taking another break.

You don't have to drive for 1 hour before you can take a break. You can take a break after any amount of driving, up to four and a half hours.

Q I'm a hgv driver ... just a question I (we) the drivers would like to have cleared up....... we work nights and trunk mainly ... there's a few qualms about our working times allotted to the runs which we do.... we get sent to certain places and end up unloading and being re-loaded at a main branch near Birmingham....the allotted times i refer too include our 45 minute breaks ..during which we are either on a bay or waiting to go onto a bay ...or even while were docked on a bay which could take 1-4 hours b4 we are loaded.... can this be classed as our official 45 minute break or are we in our rights to take a break away from the aforementioned places and take a break on route to our next destination ,or base whichever one it is to be?

R Drivers can take breaks anywhere really, but the criteria is as follows:

‘break’ means any period during which a driver may not carry out any driving or any other work and which is used exclusively for recuperation;

In the part of the question where you say you are on a bay, or waiting to go onto a bay, it is quite possible that this may well not be a break if you are required to remain at your post to resume driving, or carry out other work and could be classed as being a period of availability, to be recorded under the box, not bed.

The crux of the matter is whether or not you could, if you wished, leave the vehicle and do what you want for 45 minutes. If you have to remain with the vehicle in order to move it onto a bay then it is not a break.

As for being docked on a bay for 1-4hours, again you would have to apply the criteria of whether or not you could leave the vehicle if you so wished, or are you required to remain there to resume driving, or other work.

24 hour period

Q Please could you clarify a couple of points regarding duty time rest time within a 24 hr period?

What is a 24 hr period.

I believe it to be a period starting at the commencement of duty and finishing 24 hrs later if this is true would a duty time exceeding 13 hrs automatically mean that the rest would be reduced for that period even if the finishing time for this shift and the start time of the following shift was 11 hrs

e.g. Start of shift after full weekly break Monday 0600hrs until 1900hrs (total duty time 14 hrs) daily rest from 1900hrs until 0600 hrs Tuesday

does this example constitute a reduction in daily rest in respect of the 24hr period

R. A 24-hour period starts following a weekly or daily rest and you are correct that even if there is 11 hours between shifts it is the rest within the 24 hour period which could be the daily rest (where shift exceeds 13 hrs).

In the example the daily rest would be 19.00 - 06.00 = 10 hrs, even though there may be 11 hours off between shifts and this constitutes one daily rest reduction.

6 Day rule

Q Please explain the 6 day rule . Does it mean 6 working days or 6 days whether working or on holiday.

R There is no 6 day rule, just 6 x 24 hour periods, which means that you must commence a weekly rest after completing 144 hours since your previous weekly rest.

This means if you start work at 6am on Monday you must commence your weekly rest no later that 6am on the following Sunday. If you finish at 7 am on the Sunday, you will fail to take a weekly rest. Remember it must commence 144 hours after you start at the beginning of the week.

Split rest days

Q can your employer make you split your rest days e g, one day off on Monday one day off on Thursday.

R You can split your rest days each week, as long as one of them is sufficient to count as a weekly rest, (45 hrs regular weekly rest or a 24 hours reduced weekly rest) and there are no more than 144 hours between each weekly rest. Any weekly rest reductions must be made up in accordance with the regulations.