Drivers’ hours is the rulebook that decides how your working day is actually shaped, and it is the subject most new drivers get quizzed on at interview. The rules are less complicated than they look once you see that they come in three separate layers: driving limits, rest requirements, and working time.
Most commercial HGV work in the UK runs under the assimilated EU drivers’ hours rules — the ones enforced by tachograph. A narrower set of GB domestic rules covers certain exempt journeys, and international work adds further requirements.
This page covers the standard rules that apply to the overwhelming majority of Class 1 and Class 2 work. Where your operator runs anything unusual, check with your transport manager, and check the current position on GOV.UK before relying on any figure for a specific job.
After 4 hours 30 minutes of driving you must take a break of at least 45 minutes, unless you are starting a rest period. That break can be split into two: a first period of at least 15 minutes followed by a second of at least 30 minutes, taken in that order.
The single most common error is doing it the other way round — 30 then 15 does not satisfy the rule, and the tachograph records it.
A regular weekly rest is 45 hours. A reduced weekly rest of at least 24 hours is allowed, but the shortfall must be compensated by an equivalent block of rest attached to another rest period within three weeks.
You cannot take two reduced weekly rests back to back in the standard pattern — in any two consecutive weeks you need at least one regular 45-hour rest. This is the rule that shapes tramping rotas.
Driving limits are not the whole picture. The Road Transport Directive also caps working time — driving plus loading, unloading, checks, cleaning and waiting where you are on duty.
The headline figures: an average of 48 hours a week across the reference period, an absolute maximum of 60 hours in any single week, and no more than 6 hours worked without a break. Periods of availability, where you know in advance you will be waiting and are free to rest, are counted differently.
Two reasons. First, infringements land on you as well as the operator, and repeated ones affect your licence and your employer’s operator licence. Second, the rules are your protection: when a customer or a planner pushes for one more drop, the tachograph is the answer that ends the conversation.
Drivers’ hours, tachograph use and walkaround checks are also heavily represented in the theory test and in CPC Module 2 case studies — knowing them properly makes both easier.
9 hours of driving, extendable to 10 hours twice in any fixed week. That is driving time only — total working time can be longer.
Driving is capped at 56 hours in a week and 90 hours across any two consecutive weeks. Separately, working time averages 48 hours a week with an absolute maximum of 60 in any single week.
After 4 hours 30 minutes of driving you must take a 45-minute break. It can be split as 15 minutes then 30 minutes, in that order — 30 then 15 does not comply.
11 hours, which may be split as 3 hours then 9 hours. A reduced 9-hour rest is allowed up to three times between weekly rest periods.
45 hours regular. A reduced 24-hour weekly rest is permitted but the shortfall must be compensated within three weeks, and you need a regular 45-hour rest in any two consecutive weeks.
A maximum of 4 hours 30 minutes of driving before a 45-minute break is required. Working time rules separately require a break after 6 hours of work.
Drivers’ hours, tachographs and walkaround checks all appear in the theory test and in CPC Module 2. Our Learning Hub drills them free, with DVSA-style questions and real case studies.
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