EU Drivers Hours...Weekly Rest Periods

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS
1

Please correct me if I am wrong in my understanding of EU Regs…

*As I understand it we must take 45hrs weekly rest, but in a fortnight we may reduce that rest to 24hrs.

*If we elect to reduce the 2nd consecutive weekly rest we must pay back the hours (45-24=21hrs owed rest), which would be 21 hours by the end of the 3rd week. This must be either on the back of a daily rest, or the back of a 45hr weekly rest.

*45 hrs rest is also not allowed to be taken in the cab, so you can not arrive at a location and sit for 45hrs in your cab prior to starting a fresh week.

Next question, the drivers working week. This starts the day that you start in the working work and does not necessarily have to mean a Monday.

This information is repeated from the latest guidance taken from the UK Gov. Website.

My brother is also a driver working for a well known unnamed company in the UK on event work (Motorsport), I do not believe his schedule to be legal.

Now if you care to check the working schedule below of which I will list 3…! Please tell me if you think they are legal…!!! These are the Stints to Europe said company, there was a 45hr weekly rest taken prior to each stint.

STINT #1
Week 1
M- Off
T- Work
W- Work
T- Travel to Europe
F- Travel to Europe
S- Arrive Europe
S- Rest day
Week 2
M- Rest day (Tuesday was the 1st day in the previous work week)
T- Work
W- Work
T- Work
F- Work
S- Work
S- Work
Week 3
M- Rest (Sleeper bus to another euro destination and this would be a reduced Weekly rest)
T- Work
W- Work
T- Work
F- Work
S- Work
S- Work
Week 4
M- Rest (Reduced rest to 24hrs)
T- Return UK
W- Return UK
T- Return UK
F- Return UK
S- Rest (weekly rest)
S- Rest (weekly rest)

The weekly rest is however not within the 3 week period (please correct me if I am wrong) and neither is the company allowing the staff to take their missed weekly rest hours due to the job they are assigned…?

STINT 2
Week 1
M- Work
T- Work
W- En route Europe
T- En route Europe
F- En route Euope
S- Arrive location/work
S- Rest (started work on Monday so this would be reduced rest?)
Week 2
M- Rest (24hrs added to weekly rest, so reduced rest has been repaid)
T- Work
W- Work
T- Work
F- Work
S- Work
S- Work
Week 3
M- Work
T- Work
W- Work
T- Work
F- Work
S- Work
S- Work
NO WEEKLY REST HAS NOW BEEN TAKEN FOR 13 DAYS!
Week 4
M- Drive back to UK
T- Rest
W- Work
T- Work
F- Work
S- Work
S- Work
Week 5
M- Rest
T- Work
W- Work
T- Work
F- Work
S- Work
S- Work
Week 6
M- Rest
T- Work
W- Work
T- Work
F- Work
S- Work
S- Work
Week 7
M- Work
T- Work
W- Work
T- Work
F- Work
S- Work
Week 8
M- Rest
T- Drive back to UK
W- Work
T- Work
F- Work
S- Weekly Rest
S- Weekly Rest (back to work Monday!)

From what I can see, this 2nd stint is no where near legal■■?

2

All fine, you’ve been given decent info.

For clarity you can easily alternate 45/24/45/24 as long as you can get that compensation in. But rarely in practice IRL will you only get the bare minimum 24 hours. For example: work five days, then work Saturday until 6pm, starting again Monday 6am, there’s 36 hours rest, so you’re only short of nine hours, not 21.

1 Like
3

Cheers mate, I am going to post 3 schedules and feel free to tell me if they are illegal as I believe that they are.

4

I’ll leave the analysis of full schedules to other contributors, except to say that if you’re going into Europe, you can do two reduced weekly rests on the trot, but the next weekend you have to be back in the UK (assuming it’s a UK based company and that’s where you started from) and get all that compensation squared away before doing any more reduced rests ( EU 2020/1054 Regulation - 2020/1054 - EN - EUR-Lex)

5

Sleeper bus?
I believe that ships and trains are OK for rest periods but are buses?

Further the rules state that is allowed if accompanying your vehicle. Does that allow being moved around to different vehicles? Plus only max of two interruptions to the movement which must be of at least 8hours.

1.6 Weekly rest periods.

6

Well spotted. I would expect not. Gov.uk doesn’t explicitly say that as far as I can see, but other sites giving their analysis tend to state clearly “You cannot have a rest period in a moving vehicle.” Most likely because you can’t be wearing a seat belt, which Road Traffic Act 1988 would cover.
Can You Take a Break In A Moving Vehicle? - Tachomagic

7

No agency staff move the units/trailers from 1 country to another in this instance.

8

I did not know that, thanks, either way that’s not going to happen as we spend min 4 weeks abroad with stint #2 being 2 months operating in Europe!

9

90 out of 180 days in the Schengen zone? UK passport?
UK vehicles? Cabotage?

Lots going on here.

10

Then it appears whoever you plan to be working for will simply be running bent, so I have nothing more to add.

Good luck with the French and German authorities, they’re not soft and fuzzy as our DVSA are. They carry guns, aren’t afraid to draw down on you if you upset them (like being unable to produce a CMR), and issue hefty on-the-spot fines far higher than our DVSA “Graduated Fixed Penalties”, and don’t give a fig for “dog ate my homework” excuses. Also, they really are not bothered if you have to be incarcerated “at their pleasure” prior to going to court.

11

Although the 2nd stint would see the staff back working in the UK during week #4 before headed back out to Europe. However, the rest day would be back at base and in the cab from what I can see prior to moving to the UK event location.

12

Lots that I expect our friend is entirely unaware of, so to help him out:

This thread seems very much like a “test post”

13

It is no coincidence that Fly By Night have shiny new number plates.

14

You would need to start the European leg with a fresh slate, not having just done a reduced.

If you plan to be working for some kind of event company, (rock gigs, outside broadcast etc) as a friend of mine did, he soon found out they ran as if “the rules don’t apply to us”… Well, they do, and he knew his stuff better than they did (qualified TM and a driver), so he binned them off for the sake of his licence.

Caveat emptor…

1 Like
15

Its not but before I take this further I wanted some advice from other experienced drivers to make sure I understood correctly, perhaps I should mention the said company drive what were green and white units and are subbed to Formula 1…!

16

I’m sure someone here will have worked for who you’re hinting at and can give you chapter and verse, but what you’re indicating work-wise is either (i) a bit different in practice to that what you’ve described, or to quote the Arctic Monkeys (ii) “It’s all not quite legitimate…”

1 Like
17

From what I have seen on here, F1 is vastly different to the job ten or twenty years ago.
Drivers are shipped around all over the place and just swopped in and of vehicles all the time and rarely get to do much other than drive or sit around a long way from any action.

But it is different than bog-rolls at your local RDC! :grinning:

18

And if they’ve told you’re “self-employed” while driving their trucks, but you don’t have your own O-licence, and they’ve told you “we’re exempt from those rules”, the Beatles want a word in your shell-like:

19

When not driving, they are fitting tyres for Pirelli F1/2/3, no flying out and flying back with that lot.

20

So, at the end of week 3 you drive into the UK having had 14 days on duty?
I find it hard to believe that anyone wishing to keep a vehicle on the road would countenance that.
If caught on the Euro side of the channel, apart from the obvious driver penalties that Zac has mentioned the vehicle will be parked up, just as it would here.