From what I remember/understand you can’t work ‘‘in 7 consecutive 24 hour periods’’
So I did:
Mon, Tue - off
Wed. 00:30 (don’t remember the exact time but it’s not that relevant)
Thu - 01:00
Fri - 01:00
Sat - 00:30 - finish 10:00
Then I’m in
Sun - 22:00
Mon- 21
Tue - 23:59/00:00
Wed - off
I was offered an extra shift for the upcoming Wed night (let’s assume enough daily rest after the Tue 00:00 start) but I declined based on my understanding about the 7 days in a row HOWEVER I didn’t realize there are 24+ rest hours between the finish of my Sat shift and the beginning of the Sunday shift, doesn’t that count as a weekly rest (albeit a reduced one) and doesn’t that reset the consecutive working days count?
You cannot do work in seven 24 hour periods without a weekly rest period but it is possible to do some work on 7 consecutive days, the rule is that after no more than six 24 hour periods (144 hours) you must start a new weekly rest period.
A weekly rest period is a regular 45 hour weekly rest period or a reduced weekly rest period of no less than 24 hours.
A weekly rest period resets the six periods of 24 hours.
The 36 hour rest period between Saturdays and Sundays shifts counts as a reduced weekly rest period and resets the six 24 hour periods.
So based on the fact that you started work at 22:00 on Sunday after a reduced weekly rest period of 36 hours you would need to start a new weekly rest period no later than 22:00 the following Saturday.
Thanks, I didn’t realize at the time that there was actually a full day off between Sat night to Sun night since I’m so used to starting early morning I automatically counted the Sun as consecutive to Sat.
Learning the hard way as usual. Anyway nice to see you’re still around, Tachograph and thanks for the help.
Another question this time regarding weekly rests, what defines the working week if the rest is in the middle of the week? Ie. would the following be legal and when should I take the 2nd full 45 hour rest ?
Week 1
Sun 18:30 into Mon
Mon, Tue, Wed- rest (full)
Thu - work
Fri - work
Sat - work
36 hour rest (reduced)
Sun - work
Mon - work
Tue - work
Wed - finished 11:30 night off
Thu - off but 38 hours rest total
Fri - work
Sat - work
Sun - work
Mon - off
Tue - work
Wed, Thu off (full rest)
Somehow I feel the last Sun should be off so it would be a full rest with the Mon beofre the start of the calendat week but I’m not sure
i dont see an issue provided that it is described as below:
if you dont count the first reduced rest before starting work on the second sun you then do 6 days work then have a reduced on the thurs then full rest at the end (wed/thurs).
edit to add i am assuming your first full rest starts when you finish your sunday shift sometime monday morning and you dont start work again till the thursday
Week 1 starts with a regular weekly rest period.
The reduced weekly rest period in week 1 doesn’t count for anything other than to reset the six periods of 24 hours between weekly rest periods if needed.
Without know the start time for Thursday week 1 It’s not possible to say whether or not the reduced weekly rest period in week 1 is needed.
Week 2 is a 38 hour reduced weekly rest period that will require 7 hours compensation to be had within the next 3 weeks.
Week 3 is a regular weekly rest period.
A week for the drivers EU regulations is 00:00 Monday to 24:00 Sunday,.
A working week is generally described as the time between weekly rest periods regardless of when the weekly rest peirod starts or finishes.
You must have a weekly rest period in each week.
You must have a regular weekly rest period at-least every second week.
The time between weekly rest periods (the working week) cannot be more than six periods of 24 hours (144 hours).
A weekly rest period that crosses 2 weeks (Sunday night Monday morning) can be counted for either week but not both.
I still don’t get it…could you - in a simplified way, say that 3 weeks would be any 21 days enclosed within 2 full weekly rest periods, with sufficient reduced weekly rests in between to prevent more than 6 consecutive work days?
Example: 1st week - Wed, Thu off then fri, sat, sun, mon work, tue off,
2nd week - wed, thu, fri, sat work but 24 hours off until start on Sun/sun work, mon, tue, wed, thu, fri work - now would I need a full rest or can it be reduced??
3rd week must end with a full rest beginning on Wed
I’m just a dumb driver, haha - you want me to drive truck? Ok, I drive truck. These complex concepts confuse me, 1 time you count your driving hours in a fixed week (00:00 monday til 00:00 sunday so you use the calendar week) another time your working week is not really within the calendar week then you have the 60 hours per week but are they within a calendar or work week again no idea…
that would be 2 reduced weekly rests on the trot so one of them has to be counted and one not. if you count the first one then he will do more than 6 days work without a rest (reduced or weekly) if you dont count the first one it is fine.
you cant have 2 reduced rests consecutively so in laymans terms a reduced rest has to be braceted by 2 full rests.
week 1 ..mon tues wed thurs fri and sat sun off (full weekly rest)
week 2 ..mon tues wed thurs fri sat sunday off (reduced rest)
week 3 mon tues wed thurs fri and sat sun off (full weekly rest)
is fine
week 1 ..mon tues wed thurs fri and sat sun off (full weekly rest)
week 2 ..mon tues wed thurs fri sat sunday off (reduced rest)
week 3.. mon tues wed thurs fri sat sunday off (reduced rest)
not fine
The fixed week rules:
no driving for more than 56 hours (90 in 2 fixed weeks)
no working for more than 60 hours
driving for more than 9-10 hours twice
must have a weekly rest period (either reduced or full)
working week rules.
the period between 2 weekly rests (either 2 full or 1 full and 1 reduced)
reduced daily rest no more than 3 times
no more than 6 24 hour periods between weekly rests
a working week must be bracketed between either 2 full weekly rests or 1 full and 1 reduced weekly rest.
weekly rest rules:
a reduced weekly rest must be bracketed by 2 full weekly rests.
a reduced weekly rest must be compensated for before the end of 3 weeks following the reduced rest
compensation can be added on to either a daily or weekly rest
There is no regulation that says you cannot have two or more consecutive reduced weekly rest periods as long as you have at-least one regular weekly rest period every second week.
To paraphrase the regulations when driving within the UK, they state that you must have a weekly rest period every week and you must have a regular 45 hour weekly rest period at-least every second week.
You can have as many reduced weekly rest periods as you like as long as you have at-least one regular and one reduced weekly rest period in any two consecutive weeks.
Lets say you have two consecutive reduced weekly rest periods in the same week, only one of them will count as the weekly rest period for that week because you only need one in a week, but they are both still weekly rest periods and they will both reset the six periods of 24 hours.
In the post by @ets he had both a regular weekly rest period and a reduced weekly rest period in week 1, only the regular weekly rest period is counted for week 1 and the reduced weekly rest period is used simply to reset the six periods of 24 hours, he then had a reduced weekly rest period on Thursday of week 2 which counts as the weekly rest period for week 2.
No, for the EU regulations a week is 00:00 Monday to 24:00 the following Sunday, therefore 3 weeks is 00:00 Monday to 24:00 Sunday of the third week.
It’s important to differentiate between a week and a working week.
A working week is not mentioned in the regulations but what people generally refer to as a working week is the work periods between weekly rest periods.
For instance, if you work 08:00 Wednesday to 18:00 the following Tuesday then that is your working week.
The weekly rest period rules say that you must have a weekly rest period in every week (a week being Monday to Sunday).
In every 2 weeks you must have at-least one regular 45 hour weekly rest period and one reduced weekly rest period.
In other words you must have a regular weekly rest period at-least every second week and a reduced weekly rest period in alternative weeks.
These are minimum requirements so you can have additional weekly rest periods.
Here you’ve had 2 weekly rest periods in the same week, the reduced weekly rest period cannot be used for the second week because it fall wholly in week 1 (a week being Monday to Sunday), therefore it is used to reset the six periods of 24 hours allowing you to work another 6 consecutive days had you wanted to.
Well it looks like week 1 would probably be a reduced weekly rest period and a regular weekly rest period at the end of week 2, so yes it’s legal.
This is simply not correct, there is no rule that says a reduced weekly rest period must be bracketed by 2 regular weekly rest periods.
Whilst it’s true that anyone having only one weekly rest period a week would generally need to have a regular weekly rest period in the weeks before and after the reduced weekly rest period there are times when you can have two consecutive reduced weekly rest periods.
In the example below there are two consecutive reduced weekly rest periods and it is perfectly legal because in week 1 there are both regular and a reduced weekly rest periods followed by a reduced weekly rest period in week 2.
To confirm that depending on the circumstances it can be legal to have two consecutive reduced weekly rest periods here’s an example direct from the DVSA guide.
so how many hours do they have to pay back? 18, 21 or 39
from the dvla A reduced weekly rest period A reduced weekly rest is a rest period of at least 24 but less than 45 continuous hours. It must be compensated for by an equivalent period of rest taken in one block before the end of the third week following the week in question. The compensating rest must be attached to a period of rest of at least 9 hours – in effect either a weekly or a daily rest period.
See this is the diagram that Tachograph posted (from the gov uk site) from which I derived my layman’s description of ‘‘21 days within 2 full rests with enough rests inbetwween to not allow for more than 6 work days in a row’’ even though they also say you can’t have 2 reduced rests in a row
