I am currently working self-employed through an agency on a regular contract. Due to other commitments the nights I work are (usually) wednesday thru sunday
Now, on this particular contract they have a trunk to Scotland which involves around 9hrs 30mins driving.
My question is, how many could I do between wednesday & sunday?
The reason I ask is last week I did the run on wednesday and friday and they wanted me to do it again on sunday, which in my reckoning is 3 times in one week. They said its OK because sunday is the start of the new week. I said yes but I haven’t had a weekly rest so its still my “driving” week so didn’t think I could do it.
My argument was, say for instance a driver was working on a 4 on 4 off rota and his shifts fell on fri-mon, according to what the company say, he could do a 10 hour drive all 4 days, providing of course he didn’t do any on his previous shifts.
In the end we agreed to disagree and I did a shorter run, but who was right?
Driving time rules are from sunday midnight to sunday midnight
Assuming that no shift from last sunday midnight had over 9 hours of driving time then you could do 9.5 hours of driving on wednesday, friday and sunday shifts PROVIDING the driving time over the 9 hours on the sunday night shift was actually done during monday (after midnight sunday)
That would be extending the driving time during monday so only one more extension left before next sunday midnight
Awaits to see if I got that right from those that are more clued up than me …
DS074:
I am currently working self-employed through an agency on a regular contract. Due to other commitments the nights I work are (usually) wednesday thru sunday
Now, on this particular contract they have a trunk to Scotland which involves around 9hrs 30mins driving.
My question is, how many could I do between wednesday & sunday?
The reason I ask is last week I did the run on wednesday and friday and they wanted me to do it again on sunday, which in my reckoning is 3 times in one week. They said its OK because sunday is the start of the new week. I said yes but I haven’t had a weekly rest so its still my “driving” week so didn’t think I could do it.
My argument was, say for instance a driver was working on a 4 on 4 off rota and his shifts fell on fri-mon, according to what the company say, he could do a 10 hour drive all 4 days, providing of course he didn’t do any on his previous shifts.
In the end we agreed to disagree and I did a shorter run, but who was right?
You can extend your daily driving time to 10 hours twice a week (that’s a fixed week not a working week).
Whether the 10 hours driving time that’s done on Sunday night Monday morning would count for the Sunday or Monday is what counts for this question.
The regulations state that the 9 hours daily driving time can be extended to 10 hours twice a week so I would say that it’s the time of the extension that’s relevant, if you commence the tenth hour of driving after midnight Sunday the daily driving time will have been extended on the Monday of week 2 so would count as an extension to a 10 hour driving day for the second week which would allow you to do what you said but not every week.
DS074:
I am currently working self-employed through an agency on a regular contract. Due to other commitments the nights I work are (usually) wednesday thru sunday
Now, on this particular contract they have a trunk to Scotland which involves around 9hrs 30mins driving.
My question is, how many could I do between wednesday & sunday?
The reason I ask is last week I did the run on wednesday and friday and they wanted me to do it again on sunday, which in my reckoning is 3 times in one week. They said its OK because sunday is the start of the new week. I said yes but I haven’t had a weekly rest so its still my “driving” week so didn’t think I could do it.
My argument was, say for instance a driver was working on a 4 on 4 off rota and his shifts fell on fri-mon, according to what the company say, he could do a 10 hour drive all 4 days, providing of course he didn’t do any on his previous shifts.
In the end we agreed to disagree and I did a shorter run, but who was right?
You can extend your daily driving time to 10 hours twice a week (that’s a fixed week not a working week).
Whether the 10 hours driving time that’s done on Sunday night Monday morning would count for the Sunday or Monday is what counts for this question.
The regulations state that the 9 hours daily driving time can be extended to 10 hours twice a week so I would say that it’s the time of the extension that’s relevant, if you commence the tenth hour of driving after midnight Sunday the daily driving time will have been extended on the Monday of week 2 so would count as an extension to a 10 hour driving day for the second week which would allow you to do what you said but not every week.
Now I would disagree with that. I would say that, the shift started on Sunday evening, counted fully as a driving period from week 1, and therefore you would not be able to do more than 9 hours, if you have already done 2 x 10 in that week. Your next fixed week would start 24 hours after you started work on sunday evening…I am sure somebody will tell me I’m wrong, but hey!
truckerjon:
I am sure somebody will tell me I’m wrong, but hey!
And you might have guessed it would be me.
truckerjon:
Now I would disagree with that. I would say that, the shift started on Sunday evening, counted fully as a driving period from week 1, and therefore you would not be able to do more than 9 hours, if you have already done 2 x 10 in that week. Your next fixed week would start 24 hours after you started work on sunday evening.
The fixed week always starts at the same time and has no relation to when you start work on any given day, 00:00 Monday - 24:00 Sunday. I know there is no such time as 24:00 but it is the easiest way to explain it. That is always the same whether you start work on a Sunday, a Monday a Wednesday or any other day…
As has been said you can extend your driving time from 9 to 10 hours twice a week so if his Sunday night shift started at say 19:00 he would not be making use of one of his two allowed extensions until after midnight when a new week has started. People get confused by referring to 10 hours rather than extending the driving limit. 9 hours 1 minute is an extension but it isn’t 10 hours.
The driving period for that shift will not count wholly for week 1, or week 2, driving periods don’t count for particular weeks, just extensions to the normal 9 hour limit count for a particular week. Have a look at what a digital tacho does with the driving time at 00:00 GMT on a Monday if you are driving. It will count the driving done on that shift so far toward the 56 hour limit for the week just ended, week 1, and the driving for the remainder of the shift toward the limit for week 2.
tachograph:
You can extend your daily driving time to 10 hours twice a week (that’s a fixed week not a working week).
Whether the 10 hours driving time that’s done on Sunday night Monday morning would count for the Sunday or Monday is what counts for this question.
The regulations state that the 9 hours daily driving time can be extended to 10 hours twice a week so I would say that it’s the time of the extension that’s relevant, if you commence the tenth hour of driving after midnight Sunday the daily driving time will have been extended on the Monday of week 2 so would count as an extension to a 10 hour driving day for the second week which would allow you to do what you said but not every week.
Now I would disagree with that. I would say that, the shift started on Sunday evening, counted fully as a driving period from week 1, and therefore you would not be able to do more than 9 hours, if you have already done 2 x 10 in that week. Your next fixed week would start 24 hours after you started work on sunday evening…I am sure somebody will tell me I’m wrong, but hey!
In the quotes below taken from regulation (EC) 561/2006 note that the weekly driving time has nothing to do with when daily or weekly rest periods are taken, a week is clearly stated to be from 00:00 Monday to 24:00 Sunday and the “weekly driving time” is the driving time between those two times regardless of when a daily or weekly rest period begins or ends.
(The quotes below are taken directly from “Regulation (EC) No 561/2006”)
‘a week’ means the period of time between 00.00 on
Monday and 24.00 on Sunday;
‘weekly driving time’ means the total accumulated
driving time during a week;
Article 6 below makes it clear that the 9 hours daily driving time may be extended to 10 hours twice a week, you cannot extend a 9 hour driving period until you’ve reached 9 hours driving time, so if this is after midnight Sunday you wont have extended the daily driving period until the Monday which is in the week following the one in which the shift started.
The daily driving time shall not exceed nine hours.
However, the daily driving time may be extended to at most
10 hours not more than twice during the week.
