Driving hours. Am I ok doing this?

ASK THE EXPERTS SAFETY, LAW AND WORKING TIME DIRECTIVE FORUM (INTE
1

Hello :slight_smile:

I have been doing a Scotland run all this week and next week too. Great weather up there isn’t it. I saw 4 overturned lorries on the way up n down the other night. a jackknifed lorry going south this morning too near tebay. Its a jungle out there. Hope the drivers where ok.

Anyway here is my question. It takes me 4hrs and 5 mins to get up there then I do a trailer swap so by the time I’m facing home with my return trailer its upto 4hrs and 15 mins. I then put it on break and I get my head down for 1 hour.

When I come off break my driving time has reset and so I set off back. I have been driving for 2hrs and 45 mins and decide to pull in at the lakeside services (the services after tebay services)
I have been putting it on break for 1hr and so it resets my driving time again. From lakeside services it takes 1hr and 30 mins to get back to the yard.
The journey back adds up to 4hrs and 15 mins in total.

The company I work for is ok with me making this run into a 12hr shift as the guy who normally does it has always done it in around 12 hrs. The reason I have been stopping for the 45 mins is because on my previous scotland runs when I was covering before I was hitting traffic and it was finishing close to my driving time (4hrs:30mins)

So… am I legally allowed to do this with it resetting my driving time for the second time even though its within my 4hrs 30mins in total?

Thanks in advance and all the best :slight_smile:

Nige

2

So… am I legally allowed to do this with it resetting my driving time for the second time even though its within my 4hrs 30mins in total?

YES -you can reset it as many times as you like.

3

You’re okay on that.

The regs state you cannot drive for more than 4.5 hours with a minimum of 45mins of break. Not you have to get to 4.5 hours before you have a break.

Remember:
Each time you have 45 min of break your driving time restarts, even if it’s only a few minutes.

If you split your 45 min break the first can be a minimum of 15mins but the second must be a minumum of 30mins

If you have more than 45 mins. like your hour, you cannot carry that extra break time into your next driving period.

4

Thanks for that guys…Gives me peace of mind as I wasn’t sure. All the best :smiley:

Nige

5

There are two important boundaries //

Assuming your starting work after a Weekly Break or Dayly Rest Period

a) DONT exceed 15 hours working time
b) DONT exceed a total of 9 hours driving time (permitted extension to 10hrs twice in any week)

regards 2xQ

PS: See WTD requirements for breaks during working period
PPS: see EU regs regarding required breaks ( driving time )

6

DoubleQ:
There are two important boundaries //

Assuming your starting work after a Weekly Break or Dayly Rest Period

a) DONT exceed 15 hours working time
b) DONT exceed a total of 9 hours driving time (permitted extension to 10hrs twice in any week)

regards 2xQ

PS: See WTD requirements for breaks during working period
PPS: see EU regs regarding required breaks ( driving time )

By working time presumably you mean 15 hours from the start of the shift to the end of the shift including breaks ec’t :wink:
Also this is the maximum allowed and only then in certain circumstances such as reduced daily rest days or if doing split shifts.