I just finished a 12 hour booking which overran to 12h45m.
My questions are…
IF I go over 12 hours, does it kick off another 6hr period of breaks?
IF I go over 12 hours, do I need more than a 45 min break?
I’ve googled this extensively and can’t find an answer. I’ve not experienced this in training and as it’s been a rough old week, so decided that I didn’t want to ask a manager.
My planned shift ran from 1900 to 0700.
I took a 45 min break at 0050 to 0135.
My manager asked me to do a double drop on last run and after that I realised that I’d be back at the depot around 0720.
Based on the 6hr rule and fearing an infringement, and having briefly searched for the answer without success, I pulled over, put my tacho on rest and did a deep dive during an additional 15 min break, without finding an answer. My feeling based on current knowledge is that I can’t work 6hrs without a break, BUT if I finished my last break at 0135, could I have driven until 0735. Do the rules just look at time blocks? …if that makes sense.
The 6 hour rule is continuous throughout the working day, that is to say that at no time during the shift should you exceed 6 hours working time without a break of 15 minutes or more.
So for the 6 hour rule you must have a break of 15 minutes before exceeding 6 hours working time from the start of the shift and again before exceeding 6 hours working time from the end of the last break
If you do more than 12 hours working time during a shift you need a total break/breaks of 45 minutes or more, but at not point should you do more than 6 hours working time without a break of 15 minutes.
So it can sometimes mean having more than 45 minutes break in a long shift but it’s only necessary if it’s needed to comply with the 6 hour rule.
So the answer to both of the questions is “no not necessarily”.
From 01:35 to 07:20 is 5 hours 45 minutes so if you finished work when you got back to base then legally you could have got away without having another break.
Think of 6 hours since start of shift, then 6 hours since last break.
(If you use poa then this doesn’t work accurately though)
If you had a break ending 01:35 and were getting back to base at around 07:30 then you are heading to go over 6 hours again once parked/washed/fuelled/debriefed, so was a good choice to stop and get a 15 in.
As long as you keep to the wtd rules for breaks and have enough drive time to complete a shift, you could legally only need 45min of break (as 15 then a 30) in a 15hr shift.
No worker should do more than 6 hours working time without a break of 15 minutes. (commonly known as the 6 hour rule)
So for the 6 hour rule a 15 minute break should start:
No later than 6 hours working time from the start of the shift
And
No later than 6 hours working time from the end of the last break.
Total breaks in each shift should be:
Up-to 6 hours working time.
No WTD break is legally required.
If the total working time in the shift is more than 6 hours but not more than 9 hours.
A total break/breaks of 30 minutes is required, this can be taken in 2 parts of 15 minutes each and at-least 15 minutes of the 30 minute break should be taken before going over 6 hours working time.
If the total working time in the shift is more than 9 hours.
Total break/breaks should be at-least 45 minutes and at no point in the shift should you do more than 6 hours working time before having a break of at-least 15 minutes.
Breaks and POA do not count as working time.
Breaks for the working time regulations (RT(WT)R 2005) can be split into separate breaks of at-least 15 minutes each and cannot be taken at the immediate start or end of the shift.
Driving breaks count as breaks for the RT(WT)R and where appropriate breaks for the RT(WT)R count as driving breaks.
