The EU rules (Regulation (EC) 561/2006) apply to drivers of most vehicles used for the carriage of goods (including dual-purpose vehicles) where the maximum permissible weight of the vehicle, including any trailer or semi-trailer, exceeds 3.5 tonnes and where the vehicle is used within the UK or between the UK and EU and EEA countries and Switzerland.
It is not necessary for a vehicle or its trailer to be laden for it to be in scope of the EU/ AETR rules.
Driver
A ‘driver’ is anyone who drives a vehicle, or is carried on the vehicle in order to be available for driving if necessary.
Vehicle
A “vehicle” is defined as being a motor vehicle, tractor, trailer or semi-trailer or any combination of these. It includes trailers that cannot carry goods, such as generators, compressors etc.
Goods
The term “goods” includes goods or burden of any description. It does not include parts of a vehicle or trailer’s fixed equipment manufactured as part of the vehicle or trailer and which enable the extension of the fixed equipment. It also does not include ballast used for the purpose of road testing a vehicle or for MOT or annual test purposes provided, the ballast is a non-commercial load.
Non-commercial carriage is defined as any carriage by road, other than carriage for hire or reward or on own account, for which no direct or indirect remuneration is received and which does not directly or indirectly generate any income for the driver of the vehicle or for others and which is not linked to professional or commercial activity.
A trailer (including anything permanently attached to it) is not “goods” unless it being wholly carried on a vehicle or another trailer.
Vehicle operations that take place wholly off the public road or vehicles that are never used to carry goods on a public road are out of scope. Journeys that are made entirely off road are out of scope of any drivers’ hours rules however under EU/AETR record keeping rules, drivers who carry out any EU/ AETR regulated work must record all periods of off-road driving as ‘other work’.
Additionally drivers who are employed to drive vehicles which would normally be in scope of EU/ AETR rules but who never carry goods or passengers in the course of that employment (and for agency drivers this means each individual placement) are not considered to be within scope of the regulations. For example, this covers operations such as:
It does not apply to journeys to position a vehicle as part of an ongoing journey, which is in scope of the EU/AETR rules.
Driving Time
‘Driving time’ is the duration of driving activity recorded, either by the tachograph or manually when it is broken.
Even a short period of driving under EU rules during any day by a driver will mean that they are in scope of the EU rules for the whole of that day and must comply with the daily driving, break and rest requirements; they will also have to comply with the weekly rest requirement and driving limit.
Duty Time
Duty is all periods of work activities such as driving and other work. It also includes periods of availability (POAs) unless the driver is able to take a break or rest period that complies with EU drivers’ hours rules during the POA (See recording other work for more information). A POA does not however count towards a driver’s working time total under The Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005 (see Annex 2 for more information on working time rules).
Breaks and rest periods do not count as duty.
Time spent working in other employment regardless of the occupation type or volunteering when there is an obligation to undertake duties cannot count as rest and must be counted as duty. This includes, but is not limited to:
Breaks and Driving Limits – please visit the page within this section marked Driving and Breaks.
Daily and Weekly Rest Periods – please visit the page within this section marked Rest Periods.
Journeys involving a Ferry or Train – please visit the page within this section marked Rest Periods.
SUMMARY OF EU LIMITS ON DRIVER’S HOURS
The current limits on drivers’ hours as specified by the EU rules are summarised below.
Breaks from driving
A break of no less than 45 minutes must be taken after no more than 4.5 hours of driving. The break can be divided into 2 periods – the first at least 15 minutes long and the second at least 30 minutes – taken over the 4.5 hours.
Daily driving
Maximum of 9 hours, extendable to 10 hours no more than twice a week.
Weekly driving
Maximum of 56 hours.
Two-weekly driving
Maximum of 90 hours in any 2-week period.
Daily rest
Minimum of 11 hours, which can be reduced to a minimum of 9 hours no more than 3 times between weekly rests. May be taken in 2 periods, the first at least 3 hours long and the second at least 9 hours long. The rest must be completed within 24 hours of the end of the last daily or weekly rest period.
Multi-manning daily rest
A daily rest of at least 9 hours duration must be taken within a period of 30 hours that starts from the end of the last daily or weekly rest period. A 9-hour daily rest is however a reduced daily rest period and subject to the limit of 3 times between weekly rest periods. For the first hour of multi-manning, the presence of another driver is optional, but for the remaining time is compulsory.
Ferry/train daily rest
A regular daily rest period (of at least 11 hours), or weekly rest periods, may be interrupted no more than twice by other activities of not more than 1 hour’s duration in total, provided that the driver is accompanying a vehicle that is travelling by ferry or train and has access to a sleeper cabin, bunk or couchette.
Interrupting a regular weekly rest in this way is only permitted where the ferry or train leg of the journey is scheduled for 8 hours or more and the driver has access to a sleeper cabin.
Weekly rest
A regular weekly rest of at least 45 hours, or reduced weekly rest of at least 24 hours, must be started no later than the end of a six consecutive 24-hour period from the end of the last weekly rest. In any two consecutive weeks, a driver must have at least two weekly rests – one of which must be at least 45 hours long.
A weekly rest that falls across 2 weeks may be counted in either week but not both. Any reductions must be compensated in one block by an equivalent rest added to another rest period of at least 9 hours before the end of the third week following the week in question.
AETR RULES
Journeys to or through the countries that are signatories to the AETR Agreement see list EU, AETR and EEA countries are subject to AETR rules. AETR rules apply to the whole journey, including any EU countries passed through.
The AETR rules are in most respects the same as the EU rules however where there is divergence, this has been detailed in the relevant section (sections 1.1, 1.6, 1.7 and 1.10).
The same exemptions that apply to EU journeys, detailed in Section 1.1, also apply to AETR journeys – see Exemptions. The national derogations detailed within the Exemption & Derogations within this section do not apply to AETR journeys as they only apply on UK territory.
For more information, refer to the AETR agreement.
Source – DVSA
