DRIVERS’
HOURS RULES
Section 1:
EU rules on drivers’ hours
The EU rules (Regulation (EC) 561/2006) apply to drivers of most
passenger vehicles constructed or permanently adapted to carry more
than nine people including the driver, used for the carriage of
passengers within the UK or between the UK and other EU and EEA
countries and Switzerland. Vehicle operations that take place off
the public road or vehicles that are never used to carry passengers
on a public road are out of scope.
A driver is anyone who drives a vehicle or is carried on the vehicle
in order to be available for driving.
Exemptions and derogations
The following table contains a list extracted from the full list
of exemptions in the EU rules and refers to those exemptions that
might apply to passenger-carrying vehicles regardless of where they
are driven within the EU (see also ‘Unforeseen events’ on page 18).
Note: In some cases, it may be necessary to refer to case law for
definitive interpretations.
The
EU rules grant member states the power to apply derogations
to further specific categories of vehicles and drivers
while on national journeys. The following derogations
have been implemented in the UK.
Note: In some cases, it may be necessary to refer
to case law for definitive interpretations.
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In
addition, the following vehicles are exempt from the EU rules
in GB after the European Commission granted a special authorisation:
• any vehicle that was manufactured before 1 January 1947; and
• any vehicle that is propelled by steam.
If it is exempt from the EU rules due to the provisions listed
above then the vehicle will usually be in scope of the GB domestic
rules when travelling in GB
Driving
‘Driving time’ is the duration of driving activity recorded either
by the recording equipment or manually when the recording equipment
is broken.
Even a short period of driving under EU rules during any day by
a driver will mean that he is in scope of the EU rules for the
whole of that day and must comply with the daily driving, break
and rest requirements; he will also have to comply with the weekly
rest requirement and driving limit.
Breaks and driving limits
Breaks
After a driving period of no more than 4.5 hours, a driver must
immediately take a break of at least 45 minutes unless he takes
a rest period. A break taken in this way must not be interrupted.
For example:
Alternatively,
a full 45-minute break can be replaced by one break of at least
15 minutes followed by another break of at least 30 minutes. These
breaks must be distributed over the 4.5-hour period. Breaks of
less than 15 minutes will not contribute towards a qualifying
break, but neither will they be counted as duty or driving time.
The EU rules will only allow a split-break pattern that shows
the second period of break being at least 30 minutes, such as
in the following examples:
A
driver ‘wipes the slate clean’ if he takes a 45-minute break (or
qualifying breaks totalling 45 minutes) before or at the end of
a 4.5-hour driving period. This means that the next 4.5-hour driving
period begins with the completion of that qualifying break, and
in assessing break requirements for the new 4.5-hour period, no
reference is to be made to driving time accumulated before this
point. For example:
Breaks
may also be required under the separate Road Transport (Working
Time) Regulations 2005. See Annex 2 on page 43 for further details.
Daily driving limit
The maximum daily driving time is 9 hours; for example:
So,
for example, any time spent driving off road between a parking/rest
area and a passenger-loading area prior to travelling out onto
a public road would constitute driving time. But it would be regarded
as other work where all the passengers were picked up and dropped
off on the same off-road site.
Weekly driving limit
The maximum weekly driving limit is 56 hours, which applies
to a fixed week (see below).
The
following is an example of how a driver’s duties might be organised
in compliance with the rules on weekly and two-weekly driving
limits:
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