Download: Rules on Drivers' Hours and Tachographs

New rules came into effect on 11 April 2007. There are many minor changes.

Getting Familiar With The Drivers Hours Law And Tachograph Information

If your profession is driving and that you are tasked to carry either passengers or goods (think: truck driver) or if you are running a certain business that operates trucks or those commercial vehicles like buses and vans, you should be aware of the so-called “drivers hours” especially if you’re within the EU countries. This is also known as the drivers' working hours or driving hours, which is a certain set of regulations governing the working hours of those professional drivers within the European Union. The new law came about on April 11, 2007. You should check out information regarding this topic if you are indeed planning to be a professional driver or want to get involved in the business operating trucks and similar vehicles.

Learning About Breaks & Driving Limits

The drivers’ hours law is a broad topic and can be confusing at times but we’ll at least take a look at it in a nutshell. Let’s start with the driving time and the breaks that a driver under the driving hours rules must follow. The required nonstop driving time is 4.5 hours or less. The driver must immediately take a break after 4 hours and a half of driving. That’s the rule. The minimum amount of time permitted for a break is 45 minutes. This can be broken down to two breaks. You should remember though that the recommended distribution of breaks is this: first break – 15 minutes, second – 30 minutes. Doing it vice versa is illegal.

Daily & Weekly Driving Limit

Under the EU drivers’ hours rules, 9 hours is the maximum amount of hours for daily driving time. This can be extended to 10 hours but only twice a week. An example is when you drive for 4.5 hours, then take a 45-minute break and then finish your day of work by driving again for another 4.5 hours. When it comes to the weekly driving time, the maximum limit per week (Monday to Saturday) is 56 hours. Let’s say you allot 9 hours of work for 4 days and 10 driving hours for 2 days. Keep in mind that the latter is already the maximum permitted time under the said law, which is 10 hours twice a week and no more than that.

Information On Drivers Rest Periods

Included in the drivers hours law are provisions regarding drivers rest periods. The regular daily rest period is 11 hours or perhaps more. A period of at least 45 consecutive hours is considered a regular weekly rest period. Aside from the things already mentioned, you should also explore details on multi-manning and ferry-crossing.

Exploring The Tachograph

You will encounter information about the tachograph and certain tachograph rules one way or the other if you study the EU drivers hours law. A tachograph is a device used to record details regarding driving time, distance as well as speed. Those details are used in monitoring compliance with the driving hours rules. There are known to be two kinds of tachograph – digital and analogue.

This article gives general guidance on the basics of the drivers hours and should not be regarded as a complete or authoritative statement of the law. The guidance will be updated to reflect any developments in new legislation or case law.Please refer to the publication of the full rules which can be downloaded HERE