Cadwell Parker:
Hi there and thanks for reading my first post on here.
I need some clarification on the daily limit on total working hours, or spreadover. As I recall from when I was starting driving the limit is 15 hours and there’s no restriction on the number of 15 hour days you can work in a week as long as you take the correct daily rest periods, IE 9, 9, 11, 9, 11. My boss is telling me I’m only allowed to do 3x15 hour days in a week and am limited to 13 hours on all other days in that week, unless a split break is taken (3 hours in the day + 9 after 15 hours spreadover). Admittedly it’s been 25 years since I started working as a driver and things might’ve changed since then.
I’ve been looking through the rules here
http://www.fta.co.uk/export/sites/fta/_galleries/downloads/drivers_hours/vosa_rule_on_drivers_hours_tachographs.pdf
but can’t see anything relating to this mentioned so can anyone here tell me who’s got it right?
Thinking about it it might be that TPTB want to make the working week fit into a set number of hours so if for example you start at 0600 on Monday you’d have to book off for a weekly rest by 2100 the following Saturday. If you were doing things my way you could end up not finishing for the week til sometime early on Sunday morning which I guess could mess with their idea of a fixed working week.
My thinking is that if there’s nothing in the rules about it then it shouldn’t matter how many 15 hour days I do but he says he’s had bother from the tacho analysis people he uses and they are flagging more than 3 15 hour days in a week as an infringement so can anyone tell me what the score is?
Cheers 
Your boss is correct, but to be precise you can only do three 15 hour spread-overs between weekly rest periods without using split daily rest periods.
Given that a regular daily rest period of 11 hours has to be completed within 24 hours from the start of the shift it’s apparent that you can only do a 13 hour spread-over from start of shift to end of shift (13 + 11 = 24).
The daily rest period can be reduced to no less than 9 hours 3 times between weekly rest periods, again the 9 hour rest period must be completed within 24 hours from the start of shift which leaves a possible 15 hour spread-over (15 + 9 = 24) 3 times between weekly rest periods.
The regulations don’t actually state that you cannot work a 15 hour shift more than 3 times between weekly rest periods but the daily rest requirements make it impossible without having split daily rest periods.
Page 20 from the link you provided says:
A driver must take a daily rest period within each period of 24 hours after the end of the previous daily
or weekly rest period. An 11-hour (or more) daily rest is called a regular daily rest period.
A driver may reduce his daily rest period to no less than 9 continuous hours, but this can be done no more than three times between any two weekly rest periods; no compensation for the reduction is required. A daily rest that is less than 11 hours but at least 9 hours long is called a reduced daily
rest period.
(EC) 561/2006:
Article 8
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A driver shall take daily and weekly rest periods.
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Within each period of 24 hours after the end of the
previous daily rest period or weekly rest period a driver shall
have taken a new daily rest period.
If the portion of the daily rest period which falls within that
24 hour period is at least nine hours but less than 11 hours,
then the daily rest period in question shall be regarded as a
reduced daily rest period.
-
A daily rest period may be extended to make a regular
weekly rest period or a reduced weekly rest period.
-
A driver may have at most three reduced daily rest
periods between any two weekly rest periods.
