Two Sets of Rules, One Workforce
If you employ drivers in the UK, you need to understand two overlapping sets of regulations that govern how long they can work. Getting them confused, or ignoring one in favour of the other, is one of the most common compliance mistakes we see in transport and logistics businesses.
The first set is the EU drivers' hours rules, retained in UK law after Brexit. These govern driving time specifically. The second is the Road Transport (Working Time) Directive, implemented through the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005, which covers total working time, not just time behind the wheel.
Both apply simultaneously. As an employer, you need to comply with whichever is more restrictive at any given point.
EU Drivers' Hours Rules
The EU drivers' hours regulations (Regulation (EC) No 561/2006, retained in UK law) apply to most commercial drivers of vehicles over 3.5 tonnes or passenger vehicles carrying more than nine people.
Daily Driving Limits
- Maximum 9 hours of driving per day
- This can be extended to 10 hours no more than twice per week
- A "day" is the period between daily rest periods
Weekly Driving Limits
- Maximum 56 hours of driving in any single week
- Maximum 90 hours of driving across any two consecutive weeks
Breaks
- After 4.5 hours of cumulative driving, a driver must take a break of at least 45 minutes
- This can be split into two breaks: the first at least 15 minutes and the second at least 30 minutes, taken in that order
Daily Rest
- A regular daily rest period is at least 11 consecutive hours within each 24-hour period
- This can be reduced to 9 consecutive hours no more than three times between weekly rest periods
- A split daily rest is also permitted: 3 hours plus 9 hours, totalling 12 hours
Weekly Rest
- A regular weekly rest is at least 45 consecutive hours
- This can be reduced to 24 consecutive hours, but the reduction must be compensated by an equivalent period of rest taken en bloc before the end of the third week following
The Road Transport Working Time Directive
The Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005 apply to all "mobile workers" in road transport, not just drivers. This includes anyone who travels as part of their job in the transport sector, such as crew members, driver's mates, and trainees.
What Counts as "Working Time"
Under these regulations, working time includes:
- Driving
- Loading and unloading
- Assisting passengers boarding and alighting
- Cleaning and technical maintenance of the vehicle
- Any work carried out in connection with the vehicle, its passengers, or its load
- Waiting time where the driver must stay with the vehicle
- Administrative work related to the job
Periods of availability (where the driver is not required to remain at the workstation but must be available to answer calls) are not counted as working time, provided the driver knows about them in advance.
Key Limits
- 48-hour weekly limit: Average weekly working time must not exceed 48 hours, calculated over a reference period of up to 17 weeks (or up to 26 weeks if agreed in a workforce or collective agreement)
- No opt-out: Unlike the standard Working Time Regulations 1998, mobile workers in road transport cannot sign an individual opt-out. This is a critical difference from most other sectors
- Night work: If any work is performed during the night period (00:00 to 04:00), total working time must not exceed 10 hours in that 24-hour period
- Breaks: A working period of more than 6 consecutive hours must be interrupted by a break of at least 30 minutes. If total working time is between 6 and 9 hours, the total break time must be at least 30 minutes. If working time exceeds 9 hours, total break time must be at least 45 minutes
Where the Two Sets of Rules Overlap
This is where employers often get caught out. A driver might be compliant with the EU drivers' hours rules on driving time but still breach the Working Time Directive on total working hours.
Example: A driver completes 9 hours of driving (within the daily limit), but also spends 2 hours loading and unloading, plus 1 hour on vehicle checks and admin. Total working time is 12 hours. If this pattern continues through the week, average weekly working time could easily exceed 48 hours, even though the daily driving limit was never breached.
The lesson for employers is clear: tracking driving time alone is not enough. You need to monitor total working time for all mobile workers.
Your Obligations as an Employer
Record Keeping
You must keep records of working time for each mobile worker for at least two years. This includes:
- Total daily working time
- Periods of availability
- Breaks taken
- Night work periods
For driving time, tachograph records (digital or analogue) are the primary method of recording. For other working time, you need separate systems to capture loading, unloading, maintenance, and admin time.
Monitoring and Enforcement
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) enforces drivers' hours and tachograph regulations through roadside checks and depot visits. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and local authorities may also enforce working time requirements.
Penalties for non-compliance are significant:
- Employers can face unlimited fines for working time breaches
- Drivers can face fines of up to £300 per offence for drivers' hours breaches
- Serious or repeated breaches can lead to loss of your operator's licence, which effectively shuts down your transport operation
- Working time offences can also result in improvement or prohibition notices
For a broader view of how working time fits alongside the other HR issues facing the sector, see our guide to HR challenges in transport and logistics.
Managing Agency Drivers
If you use agency drivers, remember that you are responsible for ensuring they comply with working time limits while at your site. The difficulty is that agency drivers may also be working for other hirers during the same week. You should:
- Ask agency drivers to declare any other driving or work commitments
- Include working time declarations in your agency agreements
- Monitor total hours worked at your site
- Keep records of all working time
For more on managing agency workers in logistics, we have a dedicated guide.
Practical Steps for Compliance
Audit your current arrangements. Review your rotas, shift patterns, and tachograph data. Are any of your drivers regularly hitting or exceeding the 48-hour average? Are you capturing non-driving working time?
Update your contracts. Employment contracts for drivers should reference both the EU drivers' hours rules and the Road Transport Working Time Regulations. Make it clear what counts as working time and what your expectations are.
Train your managers. Depot managers and transport planners need to understand these rules. They are the people making day-to-day decisions about routes, shifts, and workload that directly affect compliance. Our HR training service covers working time compliance for transport managers.
Implement tracking systems. Whether it is tachograph analysis software, a time-recording system, or integration with your HR software, you need a reliable way to monitor total working time, not just driving time.
Get specialist HR advice. Working time compliance in transport is more complex than in most sectors. An outsourced HR consultant with logistics experience can audit your current setup, identify risks, and put the right processes in place.
How Rebox HR Can Help
We work with haulage companies, courier firms, freight forwarders, and logistics businesses across the UK. Working time compliance is one of the most common issues our transport clients ask about, and it is an area where getting it wrong can have serious consequences for your business, your operator's licence, and your drivers.
If you are unsure whether your current arrangements are compliant, or if you need help building contracts, policies, and rotas that meet both sets of regulations, book a free consultation and let us take a look.
