Staying legal - HGV Driver Hours and Rests [Infographic]

As an employer of HGV drivers there are some rules that you need to abide by for driver’s hours and rest periods. A failure to comply with these rules and result in a fixed penalty of up to £300, a graduated deposit of up to £1500, or you could even be summoned to court.

We have put together a useful infographic to act as a quick reference reminder of the legal HGV driver hours and rest periods based upon information from the Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency.

Download our HGV Driver
Hours and Rests Guide PDF

Share this Image On Your Site

<p><strong>Please include attribution to Bluedrop Services with this graphic.</strong><br /><br /><a  href='https://www.bluedropservices.co.uk/blog/181/HGV-driver-hours-and-rest-infographic/'><img src='https://www.bluedropservices.co.uk/resources/HGV_Driver_Hours_and_Rest_Infographic.jpg' alt='HGV Driver Hours and Rest' width='580' border='0' /></a></p>

A break for HGV drivers is considered as a period when a driver may not carry out any driving or any other work and dedicates the time purely to recuperation. It can be taken in a moving vehicle though, providing that driver is not undertaking any work.

HGV Driver Hours and Rest

When it comes to Heavy Goods Vehicles ‘Driving Time’ comes under EU rules, and after a period of no more than 4.5 hours driving time, a driver must immediately take a break of at least 45 minutes and a break taken in this way must not be interrupted.

As an alternative to a full 45 minute break, this can be replaced by a 15 minute break followed by a later break of 30 minutes.  The EU rules only allow a split break pattern where the second break is at least 30 minutes. If the second break was under 30 minutes, this would be illegal.

The daily driving limit is usually 9 hours, however, twice a week this can be increased to 10 hours. A maximum weekly driving limit is 68 hours from 00.00 on Monday to 24.00 on Sunday. Over a two-weekly period the maximum driving time is 90 hours.

Daily Rest

In terms of daily rest a driver must take this within each 24 hours after the previous daily or weekly rest. An 11 hour or more daily rest is required. Alternatively a driver can split a regular daily rest period into two parts. The first must be at least 3 hours taken at any time and the second must be at least 9 hours coming to a total of 12 hours.

Reduced Daily Rest

A reduced daily rest period can be taken no more than 3 times between any two weekly rest periods, and no compensation is required for this.

Weekly Rest Periods

A driver must start a weekly rest period no later than at the end of six consecutive 24-hour periods from the end of the last weekly rest period. A regular weekly rest period is at least 45 consecutive hours.

Alternatively, a driver can take a reduced weekly rest period of a minimum of 24 consecutive hours. If a reduction is taken, it must be compensated for by an equivalent period of rest taken in one block before the end of the third week following the week in question. The compensating rest must be attached to a period of rest of at least 9 hours – in effect either a weekly or a daily rest period.

If you would like more information on driver hours or fleet insurance for your business, conact our expert advisors.