A drivers breaks question

I’ve been driving for almost 20 years but I’ve come across a situation I’m completely not sure about:

I thought it might be ok but the more ‘uninonised’ of our drivers suggested to NOT do it, insist another driver takes over, just in case.
So, here we go:

Normally we only work an hour or two outside of shop hours as a multi drop high street delivery but occasionally we are asked to work outside of normal hours.

This was the week in question.

Monday 0100 - 1400 (13 hours work, 11 hours break)
Tuesday 0700 - 1500 (8 hours work, 10 hours break)
Weds 0700 - 1600 (9 hours work, 9 hours break)
Thurs 0600 - 1600 (10 hours work, 9 hours break - that’s three reduced breaks)

Friday was the problem, was asked to start noon and work until approximately 10pm.

So as my 24hour day is starting at 1am for this week, we can see I had 9 hours between 1600Thu and 0100Fri.
Do I need to work BETWEEN daily breaks or would the break between 0100Fri and noon on Friday count as a legitimate 11 hour break so that I could do that noon-2200 shift?

Having never encountered this situation before I wasn’t sure but couldn’t find anything on google to suggest I couldn’t.

Does anyone have anything they could suggest should it come up again?
Cheers in advance

This might help

gov.uk/government/publicati … cles-in-gb

Hours & Rules

animal:
This might help

gov.uk/government/publicati … cles-in-gb

Hours & Rules

I did read that, and numerous others but none seem to say its not allowed. None show an example where two daily rest breaks are attached to each other and definitively say allowed or disallowed.

Therein lies my question :slight_smile:

JagMaz:
I’ve been driving for almost 20 years but I’ve come across a situation I’m completely not sure about:

I thought it might be ok but the more ‘uninonised’ of our drivers suggested to NOT do it, insist another driver takes over, just in case.
So, here we go:

Normally we only work an hour or two outside of shop hours as a multi drop high street delivery but occasionally we are asked to work outside of normal hours.

This was the week in question.

Monday 0100 - 1400 (13 hours work, 11 hours break)
Tuesday 0700 - 1500 (8 hours work, 10 hours break)
Weds 0700 - 1600 (9 hours work, 9 hours break)
Thurs 0600 - 1600 (10 hours work, 9 hours break - that’s three reduced breaks)

Friday was the problem, was asked to start noon and work until approximately 10pm.

So as my 24hour day is starting at 1am for this week, we can see I had 9 hours between 1600Thu and 0100Fri.
Do I need to work BETWEEN daily breaks or would the break between 0100Fri and noon on Friday count as a legitimate 11 hour break so that I could do that noon-2200 shift?

Having never encountered this situation before I wasn’t sure but couldn’t find anything on google to suggest I couldn’t.

Does anyone have anything they could suggest should it come up again?
Cheers in advance

I think you are complicating the 24 hour rule, you are having plenty of rest between duties, so there are no worries at all, the 24 hour rule applies from the start of any single duty, your hours of work do not come close to having to worry about it.

If you want to perform quick calculations of your working pattern visit → drivinghours.com/playground/

From there you can enter all your start and end times, don’t need to worry about breaks or poa, as it’s rest periods you are concerned about, it will display any warnings if there are any for you to worry about

The daily rest 24 hour clock starts at the end of a rest period

A rest period can be say 20 hours where only the first 10 hours count as rest for the regs if the shift was 14 hours long with the other 10 hours just as extra rest

Just to make it a bit clearer.

JagMaz:
Monday 0100 - 1400 (13 hours work, 11 hours break)
Tuesday 0700 - 1500 (8 hours work, 16 hours break)
Weds 0700 - 1600 (9 hours work, 14 hours break)
Thurs 0600 - 1600 (10 hours work, 14 hours break)

Héraultais:
Just to make it a bit clearer.

JagMaz:
Monday 0100 - 1400 (13 hours work, 11 hours break)
Tuesday 0700 - 1500 (8 hours work, 16 hours break)
Weds 0700 - 1600 (9 hours work, 14 hours break)
Thurs 0600 - 1600 (10 hours work, 14 hours break)

To be a little pedantic … its rest not break :wink:

JagMaz:
I’ve been driving for almost 20 years but I’ve come across a situation I’m completely not sure about:

I thought it might be ok but the more ‘uninonised’ of our drivers suggested to NOT do it, insist another driver takes over, just in case.
So, here we go:

Normally we only work an hour or two outside of shop hours as a multi drop high street delivery but occasionally we are asked to work outside of normal hours.

This was the week in question.

Monday 0100 - 1400 (13 hours work, 11 hours break)
Tuesday 0700 - 1500 (8 hours work, 10 hours break)
Weds 0700 - 1600 (9 hours work, 9 hours break)
Thurs 0600 - 1600 (10 hours work, 9 hours break - that’s three reduced breaks)

Friday was the problem, was asked to start noon and work until approximately 10pm.

So as my 24hour day is starting at 1am for this week, we can see I had 9 hours between 1600Thu and 0100Fri.
Do I need to work BETWEEN daily breaks or would the break between 0100Fri and noon on Friday count as a legitimate 11 hour break so that I could do that noon-2200 shift?

Having never encountered this situation before I wasn’t sure but couldn’t find anything on google to suggest I couldn’t.

Does anyone have anything they could suggest should it come up again?
Cheers in advance

The mistake you’re making is in thinking that because you started at 01:00 on Monday the 24 hour period starts at that time every day, it doesn’t because once you’ve completed a daily or weekly rest period you start a new 24 hour period.

On Monday you started at 01:00 so you had to complete the daily rest period by 01:00Tuesday.
However, you had a daily rest period then started a new shift at 07:00 Tuesday, this started a new 24 hour period and you had to have completed a daily rest period by 07:00 Wednesday (24 hours from the start of the shift).

In other words, whenever you start a new shift after a regular or reduced daily rest period or a weekly rest period you start a new 24 hour period, so the 24 hour period can start at different times each day if you start work at different times each day.

You must always complete the daily rest period within the 24 hour period from the start of the shift, but once you’ve completed the daily rest period or a weekly rest period you start a new 24 hour period no matter what time it is.


Weekly rest periods
You must start a weekly rest period no later than six 24 hour periods from the end of the last weekly rest periods.

For weekly rest periods the 24 hour period is actually a period of 24 hours, six 24 hour periods is 144 hours (6*24=144), so you must start a new weekly rest period no later than 144 hours from the end of your last weekly rest period.

You started the working week at 01:00 Monday, so you must start a new weekly rest period no later than 01:00 the following Sunday.

I just cant work out why people are continually looking for loop holes to do more and more pushing the hours regs to the max :unamused:

I see it now, thanks to Rog and tachograph for the explanations.

I re-read, re-read and re-read again the regulations and see where I went wrong, you are entirely correct, I was assuming all breaks had to be between 1am - 1am.
I understand my error now, much thanks to you both :slight_smile:

To nick2008, I’m more than happy to stick to the last 18 years of 6 or 7am start - 5 or 6pm finish but sometimes bosses get a little creative to cover the idiot sales people who just assume a truck turns up at an rdc all on its own at 3am, no driver required :wink:

Thanks again, I understand it now

JagMaz:
I see it now, thanks to Rog and tachograph for the explanations.

I re-read, re-read and re-read again the regulations and see where I went wrong, you are entirely correct, I was assuming all breaks had to be between 1am - 1am.
I understand my error now, much thanks to you both :slight_smile:

To nick2008, I’m more than happy to stick to the last 18 years of 6 or 7am start - 5 or 6pm finish but sometimes bosses get a little creative to cover the idiot sales people who just assume a truck turns up at an rdc all on its own at 3am, no driver required :wink:

Thanks again, I understand it now

Yeah I understand that fella, nothing aimed at your good self, there just seams to be an influx of questions recently givig weird and abstract questions that seem to push the boundaries to the limit.
I know its nice to know you can do it but at some point someone’s gonna ■■■■ up and stat ranting So an so said its legal, The guys on here that know their stuff have my utmost respect in their knowledge… crack on