Hi folks,
need a wee bit advice,
if my working day is going to exceed 12 hours, how many breaks do i need for that? I know i need 15 for 6 hours and 30 for 9, also 45 for 4.5 hours of driving. Just want to keep myself straight if i go over 12 hours working.
Thank you
there are three parts to the rtd (wtd)
you cannot work for more than 6 hours with out at least a 15 min break.
If working a 6-9 hour shift you need a break or breaks totaling at least 30 minuets.
if working more than 9 hours you need a break or breaks totaling 45 minuets.
a break is defined as 15 minuet segment ie 14 minuets isnt a break and 29 minuets is a 15 minuet break.
to answer your question if you do over 12 hours you need a break or breaks totaling 45 minuets however you can not break the 6 hour rule ie if you had 45 min break in the first 6 hours you will need another break of at least 15 minuets to clear the 6 hour rule if doing more than 12 hours.
its worth mentioning that it is good practice/ recommended to make sure you go over the time required by a minuet or so ie a 15 min break should show 16 on the tacho or a 45 min break should show 46 etc.
This does not replace the need for a 45 min break to clear driving time.
Thank you,
I will have a 15 min break after say 4 hours, then a 30 closer to the 6 hour mark. That would be my 45 and clear me to go over the 12 hours without infringments? Also would reset me driving time.
I had heard of some people getting infringents despite taking 45 mins, but like you say they must have taken their breaks too early?
If i take my breaks near the end of the 6 and 9 hours then i should be ok.
Thanks again.
If you refer to the 6 hour mark as from start of shift, then if you have had 15 at 4 hrs in, wtd is no concern for a while more, might just be drive time that comes up 1st.
You could put in a 15hr day with only 45min of break if push came to shove.
6am start
11:30 15 min break
Next break for wtd only due 17:45
Take a 30 at 17:30
Hard 15hr max end of shift 21:00, only 3 hours after last break.
Hope its right, head not 100% today…sure a correction will follow!!
its correct as far as i can see…
i prefer to count my breaks as working time. that way i haven’t got to remember a bunch of random times. ie if i start at 7pm i know i need 15 by 2am and another 30 by 7am which is irrelevant for me personally because i have either been on a bay getting tipped by then or had to reset my driving time.
It’s vital that you don’t get your minuets mixed up, the authorities take a dim view if you attempt to pass this off as a legitimate break 
While we have some modern experts here perhaps, as a long (21 years) retired driver, I could ask a question about driving times and breaks.
I have got into an arguement on a general forum with a numpty who thinks that HGV drivers should only drive for a maximum of 3 hours before taking a break.
Obviously this is nonsense and I have told him so, but when I last drove a lorry I had to take a 45 after 4.5 hours driving (or split into 15s I think but it doesn’t matter in this case) and so on but I don’t know if that is still the case and don’t remember what the maximum driving day was and what and when breaks were needed within it.
Anybody got the truth before I go back and put my foot in it?
Without the details, you are correct that he is a numpty.
Briefly up to 4hr30 driving at a stretch. 45 break (45 in a block, or 15+30) resets the 4-30.
9hrs daily, (between daily rests) but 10 allowed twice per fixed week.
rough’n’ready guide only
Thanks, pretty much as I thought.It was thread about electric cars and he had stated that his car will do 3 hours before needing a charge which could take up to 40 mins. He then said that he thought it was dangerous to drive more than 3 hours driving before a break.
I’m sure you saw the overheads on the French autoroutes that advised taking a short break every 2 hrs? If not pushed for time that seems sound advice, especially for those who are not habitually doing long distance, and likely find driving more of a drain.
Nope, but then I hardly ever use the A-routes and never the peages unless someone else is paying. But I am sure it is good advice just as 1 hour or 3 or 5 is too.But dangerous? Just being on the road is dangerous and if on one of these multiple breaks you have a meal, even more dangerous again.
just to expand on @franglais i know what he meant but for the sake of clarity in case this moron comes back at you the second half of the 45 min break has to be at least 30 min. You cant have a 30 min then a 15.
the guy is clearly trying to justify why he spent an absolute fortune on a car that wont do more than 200 miles with out wasting 45 min charging the thing
I didn’t know that, or didn’t remember it, has it always been a 30 minute minimum the 2nd time, perhaps because I always took the full 45. 
im not sure when it changed i assume when ever it stopped being able to have 3 15’s
Oh right, but as I said, if it was during my time, I wouldn’t have noticed it.
The split break rule changed to 15 minutes then 30 minutes around 2006-2008 ish.
I believe it was changed because under the old rules it was possible to drive for nearly 9 hours with only a 15 minute break.
Drive for a couple of minutes and have 30 minutes break.
Drive for 4 hours 28 minutes and have a 15 minute break.
Drive for 4 1/2 hours then have a 45 minute break.
If I have this correct,starting at 4am (7pm finish time max hrs allowed)…+6hrs (other work plus driving)+ 10am…so the 15min break applied before 10am even though you may have driven 2hrs. Let’s say you take a 15 at 8:45am then back on the clock at 9am,so +6hrs will be 1500hrs,and you have probably done 3 and a half hours of driving aswell around 1400hrs. Take a 30min break. That then clears your first 4.5hrs of driving,BUT,you have one hour of driving left over,which can go onto the rest of the day. So after 1430 back on the clock,plus 6hrs is 8:30pm,but allowed to work up to 7pm (15hr day). So,between 2:30 pm and 7pm you need another 45 minute,split or combined
That would only be needed for driving time, not wtd.
I expect most of us find the nature of the work we do means that either drive time comes up first to dictate when a break is needed, or wtd, if you don’t travel that far in a day but have significant other work duties during the shift.
Beware though if drive time is usually the first concern, if you have a delay somewhere adding a couple of hours extra, you don’t overlook the wtd.
Depending on how your firm manages your hours / pay, you may be fine to chuck the tacho on break any time that you are not performing any work, regardless of if you need to take a break soon or not.
That’s how I came to miss it then as I retired at the end of 2002, but as I said before, I rarely took less than a full 45. Didn’t always do a full 4.5 before it either.
It is just over an hour from here to top side of Limoges where I joined the A-route. If I had an early Monday morning rdv in Paris I used to leave here at 10pm Sunday (would have preferred to go much earlier Sunday but not allowed in France). Then get to the first services and go to bed for an hour on a 45+, that would get me all the way to Paris without another break.
Daft idea, that Sunday ban, I always used to tell friends to avoid driving Monday mornings because half my mates would be too tired to concentrate.