Hours breaks and rest

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

hi all ive been trying to get my head around all the drivers hours,breaks and rest periods:

drive for 4.5 hours take a break of 45 minutes?

drive for 9 hours a day extended to 10 hours, TWICE A WEEK?

daily rest of 11 hours which can be reduced to 9 hours.

drive for 56 hours 1 week does that mean you can only drive for 34 hours the next?as i believe it to be 90 hours in a fortnight?

weekly rest of 45 hours.
are these correct?

Do the eu drivers regulations matter more than the wtd regulations,or is it a case of keeping an eye on both sets of regulations whilst driving?

thanks for advice and replies
scotty. :smiley: :smiley:

2

scottythegeordie:
hi all ive been trying to get my head around all the drivers hours,breaks and rest periods:

drive for 4.5 hours take a break of 45 minutes?

drive for 9 hours a day extended to 10 hours, TWICE A WEEK?

daily rest of 11 hours which can be reduced to 9 hours.

drive for 56 hours 1 week does that mean you can only drive for 34 hours the next?
as i believe it to be 90 hours in a fortnight?

weekly rest of 45 hours.
are these correct?

The break can be split into two periods, one of at least 15 minutes followed by one of at least 30 minutes. You can no longer split breaks into three periods of 15 minutes.

Daily rest can be reduced from 11 to 9, three times per week.

56 hours driving in week 1 means 34 max in week 2. NOT ONLY THAT, you
must have only driven 34 hours in the previous week. It is a ROLLING FORTNIGHT.

Drivers may split their daily rest into two periods totalling 12 hours.
If they do, the first period must be at least 3 hours and the second at least 9 hours.
You cannot split daily rest into more than two periods.

Within SIX FULL DAYS from the end of their last weekly rest,
drivers must start another weekly rest. This must be 45 hours
but it may be reduced to 24 hours once per fortnight. Any
reduction in weekly rest must be “paid back” in a block within
three weeks.

3

scottythegeordie:
drive for 4.5 hours take a break of 45 minutes?

Yes that’s correct.

If you wish the 45 minute driving break can be split into two parts the first of which must be at-least 15 minutes break, the second part must be at-least 30 minutes break, and they must be taken in that order.

scottythegeordie:
drive for 9 hours a day extended to 10 hours, TWICE A WEEK?

Yes that’s correct.

scottythegeordie:
daily rest of 11 hours which can be reduced to 9 hours.

A regular daily rest period is 11 hours and must be completed within 24 hours from the start of the shift.

No more than three times between weekly rest periods (not per week) you may reduce the daily rest period to no less than 9 hours.

scottythegeordie:
drive for 56 hours 1 week does that mean you can only drive for 34 hours the next?as i believe it to be 90 hours in a fortnight?

Correct, the weekly driving limit is 56 hours.

In any two consecutive weeks the total driving time must not exceed 90 hours.

scottythegeordie:
weekly rest of 45 hours.

Correct again.

A regular weekly rest period is 45 hours and must be started no later than six 24 hour periods (144 hours) from the end of the last weekly rest period.

The weekly rest period can be reduced to no less than 24 hours every second week, however the reduction must be paid back by the the end of the third week following the week in which the weekly rest period was reduced.

scottythegeordie:
Do the eu drivers regulations matter more than the wtd regulations,or is it a case of keeping an eye on both sets of regulations whilst driving?

It’s a case of complying with both sets of regulations but the drivers hours regulations are more important than the WTD.

4

I would say that the majority of drivers who comply with the EU regs will by default also comply with the RTD regs

Authorities and companies check on EU regs but it seems only companies bother about the RTD

5

A cheeky little trick to tick the WTD box is if you split your 45 min break, have 2 half hours then you will be more than likely covered from getting any WTD infringements, or just ignore it & stick to the only rules that matter which is the driving ones.

6

Silver_Surfer:
A cheeky little trick to tick the WTD box is if you split your 45 min break, have 2 half hours then you will be more than likely covered from getting any WTD infringements, or just ignore it & stick to the only rules that matter which is the driving ones.

15 then 30 would cover it

7

cheers guys for your replies,much appreciated.just needed confirmation everything was sinking into my brain ready for when i eventually get out onto the road. :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

8

scottythegeordie:
cheers guys for your replies,much appreciated.just needed confirmation everything was sinking into my brain ready for when i eventually get out onto the road. :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

You could always make up daily and weekly senarios then ask if its legal

9

ROG:
15 then 30 would cover it

Really?

How does that work for a 13 hour day then, ROG?

10

Contraflow:

ROG:
15 then 30 would cover it

Really?

How does that work for a 13 hour day then, ROG?

Depends on what exactly was done in that 13 hours

Legal example =
Work 30 mins
drive 2.25 hours
break 15 mins
POA 45 mins
work 30 mins
drive 2.25 hours
break 30 mins
that now leaves 6 hours till end of shift

11

…and how about without using POA?

12

As this thread was started by someone trying to learn the regulations I will point out that it’s not advisable to use POA unless you have to.

If you get paid for breaks use break instead of POA, the reason being that the digital tachograph wrongly counts POA as break and wrongly resets the driving time on the tachograph if you book 45 minutes of POA.

This has led several people to wrongly believe that they could do another 4½ hours driving before requiring another break, when in fact they had not had a 45 minute break but had 45 minutes POA.

13

@tachograph thanks for your posts mate very helpful.
@ROG here goes:

mon driving 9 hours
tues driving 9 hours
wed driving 9 hours
thurs driving 10 hours
fri driving 10 hours
sat driving 9 hours so the total driving hours would be 56.so i would have to drive 34 hours the next week.

24 hour period.if i worked a 13 hour shift (driving,breaks and other work) that would mean i would have to have a 11 hour rest,unless i was working a 15 hour shift then that would be a reduced rest of 9 hours.

weekly rest - so i could also have a weekly rest of 45 hours unless it was a reduced weekly rest of 24.

think its all sinking in. :open_mouth: :open_mouth:

14

scottythegeordie:
24 hour period.if i worked a 13 hour shift (driving,breaks and other work) that would mean i would have to have a 11 hour rest,unless i was working a 15 hour shift then that would be a reduced rest of 9 hours.

Doesn’t have to be an 11 hour rest after a 13 hour shift, you could take a 9 hour daily rest if you have one available and then go again. A new 24-hour period begins on completion of a daily rest period and the total shift time + daily rest time does not always have to total 24 hours. Begin shift, and new 24-hour period, after daily rest, shift of 13 hours, rest of 9 hours - begin new 24-hour period, 22 hours after starting previous one.

If you work 1 minute over 13 hours you are using a reduced rest period regardless of how much rest you then take.

15

poxy driving hours,i used to just stick it on break everytime i pulled up and hoped for the best

pull on bay,on break for a few hours
handball,on break for a few hours :blush:
in a queue outside morrisons,on break

16

scottythegeordie:
mon driving 9 hours
tues driving 9 hours
wed driving 9 hours
thurs driving 10 hours
fri driving 10 hours
sat driving 9 hours so the total driving hours would be 56.so i would have to drive 34 hours the next week.

Well you don’t have to drive 34 hours the following week, it’s not compulsory but it would be the legal maximum :smiley: :wink:

Also you could only drive 56 hours in a week if you hadn’t driven more than 34 hours the previous week.

It’s important to remember that it’s any two weeks that must not be over 90 hours driving.

scottythegeordie:
24 hour period.if i worked a 13 hour shift (driving,breaks and other work) that would mean i would have to have a 11 hour rest,unless i was working a 15 hour shift then that would be a reduced rest of 9 hours.

Again at the risk of seeming pedantic, you don’t have to have an 11 hour rest just because you’ve done a 13 hour spread-over, you could have a reduced rest period if you’ve got one available.

A new period of 24 hours begins when you’ve finished either a regular daily rest period or a reduced daily rest period.

Any time you do a shift of more than 13 hours it has to be a reduced daily rest period because you cannot fit an 11 hour rest period into the 24 hour period, and anything less than 11 hours is a reduced daily rest period.

scottythegeordie:
weekly rest - so i could also have a weekly rest of 45 hours unless it was a reduced weekly rest of 24.

Sorry I don’t know what you mean :blush:

17

tachograph:

scottythegeordie:
mon driving 9 hours
tues driving 9 hours
wed driving 9 hours
thurs driving 10 hours
fri driving 10 hours
sat driving 9 hours so the total driving hours would be 56.so i would have to drive 34 hours the next week.

Well you don’t have to drive 34 hours the following week, it’s not compulsory but it would be the legal maximum :smiley: :wink:

Also you could only drive 56 hours in a week if you hadn’t driven more than 34 hours the previous week.

It’s important to remember that it’s any two weeks that must not be over 90 hours driving.

scottythegeordie:
24 hour period.if i worked a 13 hour shift (driving,breaks and other work) that would mean i would have to have a 11 hour rest,unless i was working a 15 hour shift then that would be a reduced rest of 9 hours.

Again at the risk of seeming pedantic, you don’t have to have an 11 hour rest just because you’ve done a 13 hour spread-over, you could have a reduced rest period if you’ve got one available.

A new period of 24 hours begins when you’ve finished either a regular daily rest period or a reduced daily rest period.

Any time you do a shift of more than 13 hours it has to be a reduced daily rest period because you cannot fit an 11 hour rest period into the 24 hour period, and anything less than 11 hours is a reduced daily rest period.

scottythegeordie:
weekly rest - so i could also have a weekly rest of 45 hours unless it was a reduced weekly rest of 24.

Sorry I don’t know what you mean :blush:

sorry tachograph i should of worded it better.weekly rest is normally 45 hours but can be reduced to 24 hours,but in any two weeks you must have two weekly rests which one must be 45 hours.thanks again for your replies guys. :grimacing: :grimacing:

18

Contraflow:
…and how about without using POA?

OK … legal 13 hour shift for both tacho and RTD regs without using POA

work 30 mins
drive 3 hrs
work 2 hrs
break 15 mins
drive 1.5 hrs
break 30 mins
drive 2 hrs
work 1 hr
drive 2 hrs
work 15 mins

TOTALS for the 13 hrs
work 3 hrs 45 mins
drive 8 hrs 30 mins
break 45 mins

19

scottythegeordie:

tachograph:

scottythegeordie:
weekly rest - so i could also have a weekly rest of 45 hours unless it was a reduced weekly rest of 24.

Sorry I don’t know what you mean :blush:

sorry tachograph i should of worded it better.weekly rest is normally 45 hours but can be reduced to 24 hours,but in any two weeks you must have two weekly rests which one must be 45 hours.thanks again for your replies guys. :grimacing: :grimacing:

Yes that’s correct :slight_smile:

In any two consecutive weeks when working to EU regulations you must have either two regular (45 hour) weekly rest periods, or at-least one regular and one reduced weekly rest period.

Any weekly rest period that is less than 45 hours but not less than 24 hours is a reduced weekly rest period.

20

I tend to remember the 24 hour period in this way …
End any rest period and new 24 hour period starts and at the same time it ends the previous 24 hour period which a reset of the 24 hour period
That is like taking 45 mins of driving time break which resets the 4.5 hour driving time clock

Weekly rest rules I remember like this …
At least every other fixed week must have a 45 assigned to it
A weekly rest must be at least 1 minute in the fixed week it is assigned to
A weekly rest can only be used once

A reduced weekly rest is any thing from 24 to 1 minute less than 45 hours
Payback for any reduced weekly rest must be paid back in full before sunday midnight of week 4 if the reduced was in week 1

Weekly rests assigned to a fixed week can be at the start, end or middle of a fixed week

There can be many weekly rests in a fixed week but only 1 needs assigning to that week and the others will not need compensating for but they are still weekly rest periods which reset the 144 hours (6x24 hour periods) max time between weekly rests

This is my personal way of remembering