• QUICK ANSWERS
We manually analyse digital tachograph data (driver card and vehicle unit data) on a monthly basis, highlighting areas of non-compliance and looking for specific trends, clearly explaining our findings so that operators are able to offer ‘continuous and effective management’ of their fleet.
We require a login and password to your data hosting platform to extract the raw files for analysis.
We do not download driver cards or vehicle units. It is your responsibility as the operator to download both driver cards and VU’s. We analyse the raw data once the files are loaded into your transport management platform.
We operate a monthly analysis service. Reporting can start once a complete data set is available on your data hosting platform. We typically require a complete data set by the end of the 2nd week of the month to proceed with analysing the data on a timely basis. We will need access to the file storage via a secure login and password.
Your data hosting platform should automatically include new vehicles and/or drivers in the fleet/roster upon uploading their data. If you are missing vehicles/drivers on the platform, contact your service provider as soon as possible to avoid issues.
This is not an issue. All raw fleet data will end up in the same place - your transport management platform. Once we have a full data set, we can start our analysis.
We should be able to. The remote downloads of the fleet should automatically upload to your transport management platform, where will be able to extract all the files required for our analysis.
Pricing is based on the number of active vehicles in your fleet - we don't charge for vehicles with minimal driving duties. The quickest way to get a price is to get in touch and we'll come back with an exact quote.
Our service runs on a rolling monthly basis, so you can cancel at any time. We keep the commitment low on purpose: we'd rather earn your business each month than lock you into a contract. No exit fees, and you keep your reports and data for the period you've paid for.
No. The price we quote is the price you pay - no setup fee, no onboarding charge, no hosting fees and no per-report costs.
We take a one month data set as a sample of your tachograph data and show you where your fleet stands right now - the infringements present, how DVSA would view them, and the patterns worth acting on. It's free and there's no obligation to sign up afterwards; it's there so you can see the value before committing anything. You'll just need to complete a short data processing agreement first so we can handle your data securely.
No. If you split your 45-minute break, it must be a break of at least 15 minutes first, followed by a break of at least 30 minutes.
The order is fixed: 15 then 30, and both parts must be taken before you reach 4½ hours of driving.
Taking the 30 minutes first and the 15 minutes second doesn't satisfy the rule.
No. A Period of Availability (POA) is not a break, it is waiting time of a known duration, such as at a ferry or a booked loading slot and it can't be used in place of the 45-minute break required under drivers' hours rules or any Working Time breaks requirements.
It also doesn't count as working time under the Working Time Directive, so it won't add to your 48-hour average or 60-hour weekly limit. It does, importantly, still count as part of your overall duty - it's time on shift rather than rest, so it affects when your daily rest must be taken.
Yes - always. The two sets of rules (drivers' hours and working time) apply at the same time, and you must follow whichever is more restrictive at any given moment.
Sometimes a break is triggered by the working time rules before the drivers' hours rules, and sometimes the other way round.
You need a solid grasp of both to stay compliant.
No. You can't work more than 6 hours without taking a break, and if your total working time is between 6 and 9 hours you need at least 30 minutes of break in total (taken as two 15-minute breaks, or one longer one).
If you work more than 9 hours, that rises to at least 45 minutes. Each individual break must be at least 15 minutes.
No. Your records must be accurate at all times.
The tacho must be set to "Other Work" whenever you're carrying out any working duties, and only set to "Break" during a genuine break.
They can, but only if you have access to a bunk or sleeper berth and the crossing is being used as part of a daily rest period (not as a break).
There are strict rules on how the rest can be interrupted around boarding and disembarking - full details are in the Knowledge Hub.
No. 60 hours is an absolute ceiling for any single week and can't be exceeded, regardless of your average.
No. As soon as any of your driving takes place on the public road, the whole duty period is in scope of the drivers' hours rules - even if it's only a few minutes.
You can split it, but not in that order. A split daily rest must be at least 3 hours first, followed by at least 9 hours - never the other way round.
Consider that splitting it means a minimum of 12 hours in total (3 + 9), rather than the 11 hours you'd take in a single block, and the second period must be completed within 24 hours of starting work after your last rest.
Only if a collective or workforce agreement is in place.
Without one, your working time is capped at 10 hours in any 24-hour period once you do any work during the night period (00:00–04:00 for HGV, 01:00–05:00 for PSV).
It isn’t.
Under GB domestic rules, time spent driving off the public road for building work, civil engineering, quarrying, forestry or agriculture is left out of the driving-time tally, though it’s still recorded as duty.
The carve-out comes from Part VI of the Transport Act 1968, which underpins the GB domestic drivers’ hours regime.
Only when the driver is entirely free of duties while waiting.
If they’re still expected to monitor the load, stay with the vehicle or remain on call, that time falls under “other work” or a period of availability (if the waiting time is known in advance) rather than a genuine break.
Not automatically.
The standard 45-minute break after four-and-a-half hours’ driving (or the 15+30 split) applies regardless of how the route is broken up, and a stop only counts towards it if the driver is genuinely free of all duties at the time.
Following the DVSA's 2025 guidance update (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/402/pdfs/uksiem_20250402_en_001.pdf), international goods drivers travelling between the UK and EU must be able to produce 56 days of records - double the historic 28 day requirement.
Yes - where the two scopes overlap in the same day or week, any GB domestic driving is treated as “other work” for EU/AETR rest purposes, meaning the stricter of the two regimes ends up governing the whole period.
It doesn’t.
The same EU/GB driving, break and rest rules apply to any vehicle over 3.5 tonnes used for hire or reward, whether it’s carrying one household’s full move or a shared groupage load.
Assimilated EU rules are the default for journeys into the EU; AETR only comes into play where the route includes transit to or through a non EU member state such as Switzerland, Norway or Turkey.
It does.
Time spent physically erecting scaffolding is duty time and has to be logged against the daily and weekly limits, even on days where the driving portion itself qualified for an exemption.
A vehicle of up to 7.5 tonnes carrying materials, tools or machinery purely for the drivers own work is excused from Drivers Hours and tachograph rules where driving isn't the persons main job, the journey is within a 100km radius from the base of the undertaking, and the transport is not carried out for hire or reward.
Not in practice.
The exemption only holds where driving isn’t the individual’s main job, so bringing in a dedicated driver to deliver materials for the tradespeople removes the basis for it, however short or local the run is.
It wouldn’t.
The materials-for-own-use exemption carries a hard ceiling of 7.5 tonnes maximum permissible mass, whatever the distance involved; anything heavier falls straight back under the standard drivers’ hours and tachograph regime.
No.
Ready-mix trucks typically exceed the 7.5-tonne ceiling in any case, and the driver’s job is to drive rather than to use the concrete on site, so the own-use test isn’t met either way.
It doesn’t.
That provision is reserved for vehicles tied to sewerage, flood protection, utility maintenance, road upkeep and control, and door-to-door household refuse collection - not for delivering construction materials more generally.
Only where the person driving is also the one putting the scaffolding up.
Article 3(aa) of Regulation (EC) 561/2006 confines the exemption to materials, equipment or machinery carried "for the driver's use in the course of the driver's work" meaning the driver must be the one carrying out the trade activity the materials relate to.
A driver who simply delivers scaffolding for someone else to erect doesn't meet that condition, regardless of distance, so the exemption isn't automatic on radius alone (the radius itself is 100km, not 50km).
They are - Article 13(1)(h) carves out vehicles engaged in door-to-door household refuse collection and disposal, recognising the stop-start, highly localised pattern of that work.
It doesn’t.
The wording of Article 13(1)(h) is confined to household refuse collection, so skip wagons and commercial waste vehicles above 3.5 tonnes sit under the ordinary EU/GB drivers’ hours and tachograph rules.
Yes - a separate domestic exemption at Article 13(1)(n) covers vehicles carrying animal waste or carcasses not intended for human consumption, quite distinct from the household-refuse provision at 13(1)(h).
Not as a general rule.
Commercial and construction skip collection falls outside the household-refuse exemption at 13(1)(h), so above 3.5 tonnes the ordinary EU/GB drivers’ hours and tachograph rules apply in full.
It depends on the type of waste, not simply on whether it's mixed.
Under the Article 13(1)(h) household refuse derogation, DVSA guidance confirms that domestic-type waste collected from commercial premises doesn't need to be mixed with household waste to qualify - it can be collected on its own.
What removes the exemption is waste that isn't "domestic type" in nature - for example waste generated by a manufacturing process, because it must be similar to household waste, collected door-to-door in the same way, without a special collection regime, and using the same vehicles.
A skip run carrying genuine trade or industrial waste would likely fail this test regardless of whether it's mixed with household waste, and the operation must in any case be run by, or under contract to, a public authority.
Penalties scale with the seriousness of the breach:
• Up to £2,500 (Level 4 on the standard scale) for drivers' hours breaches.
• Unlimited fines for the most serious tachograph offences, such as failing to fit or use a tachograph. (In England and Wales the old £5,000 cap on these was removed in 2015.)
• Up to 2 years' imprisonment for deliberate falsification of records - and considerably more (up to 10 years) where it's prosecuted as fraud or conspiracy.
On top of any fine, serious breaches can lead to vehicle prohibition, referral to the Traffic Commissioner and operator licence action.
A Graduated Fixed Penalty (GFP) is a fixed fine issued at the roadside by DVSA examiners or the police. The amount depends on:
• the severity of the offence;
• the circumstances of the breach; and
• whether it's a first-time or repeat issue.
It's designed to deal with offences efficiently and reduce court cases, while preserving your right to challenge the penalty in court. The penalty bands are set in legislation - the examiner decides which band applies based on what they find, rather than picking a figure at their own discretion.
Common offences that trigger a GFP include:
• overloading;
• defective brakes, steering or tyres;
• failing to download tachograph data on time; and
• failing to carry the required documentation.
A single GFP is capped at £300. Typical roadside levels are:
• minor breach (e.g. tacho not set to UK for the duty period) - £50;
• moderate breach (e.g. rest period violations) - £100–£200; and
• serious breach - up to the £300 maximum.
Importantly, penalties can stack-up. An examiner can issue up to five drivers' hours penalties in a single check (up to £1,500). The most serious breaches - such as falsifying records - usually go beyond a fixed penalty altogether, leading to prosecution, vehicle prohibition or immobilisation, operator licence action and, in the worst cases, a custodial sentence.
A Most Serious Infringement (MSI) is the top tier of a classification used by DVSA and the Traffic Commissioners to identify the gravest breaches of the tachograph and drivers' hours rules. These aren't minor technical slips - they're treated as deliberate or dangerously negligent acts that put road safety and fair competition at serious risk. The categories are set out in assimilated Regulation (EU) 2016/403.
Examples include:
• falsifying tachograph records;
• using someone else's driver card;
• driving without a tachograph fitted;
• driving with a fraudulently obtained card;
• exceeding daily driving limits by 50% or more without taking a break or rest of at least 4.5 hours;
• exceeding weekly or fortnightly driving limits by 25% or more;
• operating a dangerously unroadworthy vehicle; and
• overloading by 25% or more (for vehicles up to 12t GVW; the threshold is 20% for vehicles over 12t).
A single MSI can be enough to call an operator to a Public Inquiry, or a driver to a conduct hearing, regardless of any penalty issued at the roadside.
You must be able to show:
• driver’s licence, driver qualification card and digital tachograph card;
• records of driving, other work, availability (POA), breaks and rest;
• manual entries covering out-of-scope work, annual leave and sick leave;
• physical charts and printouts; and
• the current day's records, plus the relevant number of previous days (see below).
How many previous days you need depends on the journey:
• 28 calendar days - for domestic (UK-only) journeys under the assimilated rules, and for AETR journeys to, from or through non-EU countries;
• 56 calendar days - for vehicles and combinations over 3.5 tonnes on international journeys to and from the EU.
NOTE: From 1st July 2026 this also extends to vehicles and combinations between 2.5 and 3.5 tonnes undertaking international hire or reward journeys to and from the EU. Some exemptions apply, see the ‘Exemptions’ article in the ‘Knowledge Hub’, and verify against current regulatory sources before relying on one.
Failure to produce these records is treated as non-compliance with Article 36 of assimilated Regulation (EU) 165/2014 and an offence under Section 99 of the Transport Act 1968, and will trigger enforcement.
Yes. If you can't produce a complete set of records during a roadside stop in the UK (see the previous answer for how many days you're required to carry), DVSA will take enforcement action scaled to the severity and context of the breach. This can include:
• minor or first-time breach - verbal warning or improvement notice;
• incomplete or missing records - a Graduated Fixed Penalty of £50–£300;
• repeat or deliberate non-compliance - prohibition notice, vehicle immobilisation and potential prosecution, with the driver normally prohibited from continuing until they've taken the rest they're missing; and
• driver without a verifiable UK address - an on-the-spot financial deposit, equal to the penalty, required before the journey can continue.
A tachograph records specific vehicle characteristics of speed, distance and time. Recording driving time, break and rest periods, other work, periods of availability, train and ferry flags, out of scope driving and manual printouts as a primary function.
It’s legally required for most commercial vehicles over 3.5 tonnes under EU Regulation 561/2006 and UK domestic rules to ensure road safety and driver welfare.
Most goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes (including vehicle and trailer combinations) are required to use a tachograph under GB Domestic, EU or AETR regulations, unless a specific exemption applies. From 1 July 2026, the same requirement also applies to vans, light vehicle and trailer combinations and light commercial vehicles over 2.5 tonnes and up to 3.5 tonnes used for cross border international hire-or-reward journeys. Vehicles in the 2.5t-3.5t category operating solely within the UK aren't affected by the regulation update and remain under GB domestic rules.
Driver cards need to be downloaded every 28 days. Vehicle Units (‘VU’) need to be downloaded every 90 days. However, it is recommended to download driver and vehicle unit data frequently to help identify infringements early and maintain compliance.
Driver Card - issued to individual drivers.
Company Card - used to lock vehicle units, access, download and manage vehicle data.
Workshop Card - used by maintenance and calibration centres.
Control Card - for enforcement agencies.
If a vehicle is declared VOR, it is temporarily withdrawn from service. The vehicle cannot be used for any transport activity until is it repaired and declared roadworthy. The vehicle must be marked as VOR on the PMI scheduler and immobilised. If the VOR affects PMI scheduling, you must record this and reschedule accordingly.
You must get it repaired by an approved calibration centre as soon as possible. If the vehicle can’t return to base within a week, repairs must be done en-route. Manual records must be kept in the meantime.
Drivers may still drive if a digital driver card has been lost/damaged/stolen. You must report the issue to the DVLA immediately. You must apply for a replacement card within 7 days of discovering the issue. You may drive for up to 15 calendar days on daily printouts (start and end of each duty period – signed and dated by the driver with a description of the reason on the back of the printout).
Drivers CAN NOT drive without a driver card if their driver card has expired. They must reapply for a new licence and wait until it has arrived to continue normal driving duties.
The Traffic Commissioner is a powerful regulatory figure in the transport sector, particularly for operators of HGVs, PSVs and local bus services. Their authority stems from legislation including, but not limited to, the Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981, the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995 and the Transport Act 1985.
Their core powers include:
• granting, refusing and revoking operator licences;
• imposing conditions or undertakings on licences;
• assessing the good repute, appropriate financial standing and professional competence of operators and transport managers;
• regulating vocational driver conduct;
• registering local bus services and monitoring their punctuality and reliability;
• holding Public Inquiries;
• enforcement and sanctions, including curtailment, suspension and revocation; and
• considering environmental factors relating to operating centres.
A single serious failing, or a pattern of smaller ones, can be enough to bring an operator before a Public Inquiry, where their licence is at stake.
Analysing your driver and vehicle data is a statutory obligation - not optional, and not something a regulator adds as a condition after the fact. Assimilated Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 Article 10(2) requires operators not just to organise drivers' work so they can comply, but to make regular checks that they do. Assimilated Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 Article 33(1) adds a parallel duty: transport undertakings shall make regular checks to ensure drivers make correct use of tachographs.
The Traffic Commissioners' own Moving On blog has warned of operators hauled before Public Inquiry for running vehicles fitted with digital tachographs but with no idea how to use them - a pattern that enforcement officers continue to encounter, as DVSA roadside data and Public Inquiry decisions confirm.
An infringement is any breach of the drivers' hours or tachograph rules - for example exceeding driving limits, taking insufficient rest, making incorrect manual entries, or failing to download data on time. Under assimilated Regulation (EU) 2016/403 they fall into three tiers, according to severity:
• serious (SI) - e.g. exceeding the daily driving time of 9 hours if the possibility to extend to 10 hours is not allowed;
• very serious (VSI) - e.g. a larger overrun of driving or rest limits; and
• most serious (MSI) - e.g. falsifying records, using another driver's card, or driving with no tachograph fitted (see our separate Most Serious Infringement entry).
The tier a breach falls into usually depends on the margin involved - how far the limit was exceeded, or how much rest was missed.
Operators must retain driver card and vehicle unit (VU) data for a minimum of 12 months as per Regulation (EU) N0 165/2014 Article 33(2) and make it available to DVSA on request. However, where that tachograph data is also your only source of working time records - which it usually is - it must be kept for 24 months to satisfy the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005.
In practice, this means most operators retain all tachograph data for the full 24 months. Many keep it longer still, as it can be valuable evidence in insurance claims, accident investigations or at a Public Inquiry.
A rented HGV must be brought under the same compliance controls as your owned fleet. Check you have spare capacity within your O-licence authorisation before adding it, and specify it on the licence if you'll keep it beyond one month (Section 5(6), Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995). NB shorter hires still count within your margin.
Confirm its roadworthiness, add it to your maintenance system, and schedule a PMI on your normal frequency. Download its tachograph data before it goes back, whatever the hire length, and at least every 90 days if the hire runs longer.
Once a vehicle carrying your own goods passes 3.5 tonnes, a restricted O-licence is needed.
Section 2(1) of the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995 makes it an offence to use a goods vehicle on the road for hire or reward, or for a trade or business, without a licence, and section 3(3) sets out when that licence has to be the restricted type.
It's determined by where the vehicle goes.
Assimilated (EU) rules cover goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes operating within the UK and vehicles over 2.5 tonnes used for hire or reward travelling between the UK and EU (bar specific exemptions); AETR rules take over for international journeys that start, end or transit through no EU member states.
GB domestic rules fill the gap wherever neither of the other two applies.
For domestic hire-or-reward work, the threshold sits at 3.5 tonnes. Since 21 May 2022, that scope has widened to also catch light goods vehicles of 2.5 to 3.5 tonnes maximum laden weight when used internationally for hire or reward, reflecting commitments under the UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
It does. Guidance under the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Regulations 1995 uses precisely this scenario - a removals firm carrying customers’ belongings over 3.5 tonnes for payment as the worked example of when a standard licence, rather than a restricted one for own-account work, is required.
Possibly, depending on how the job is arranged.
Article 3(h) of Regulation (EC) 561/2006 exempts vehicles or combinations up to 7.5 tonnes used for non-commercial carriage of goods - meaning no remuneration or income is generated and there’s no link to professional or commercial activity. Hiring a van complete with a paid driver takes the job outside that definition.
They do, if the work is international and for hire or reward - that category was brought into scope from 21 May 2022 onward. Purely domestic jobs under 3.5 tonnes still sit outside O-licensing altogether.
There's no need to "extend" it - the 100km radius already applies under the materials/equipment branch of Article 3(aa), not just to the separate craft-goods-delivery branch.
Both branches of Article 3(aa) share the same 100km radius, and the same conditions (driving not the driver's main activity, transport not carried out for hire or reward), following the amendment made by Regulation (EU) 2020/1054. What still won't qualify is a driver who simply drops scaffolding off for someone else to erect - that fails the "for the driver's use in the course of the driver's work" test regardless of distance, as covered in the earlier question on this point.
Where it’s carrying the firm’s own scaffolding stock, a restricted licence is the right category once the vehicle tips over 3.5 tonnes.
Guidance accompanying the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Regulations uses exactly this scenario - a scaffolding lorry moving its own kit between sites as the standard restricted-licence example.
That hinges on whose waste it is. Collecting for a local authority or another customer in exchange for payment calls for a standard licence, while only ever collecting waste the operator itself generated would meet the restricted-licence test instead.
Yes, and it sits entirely outside drivers'-hours and O-licensing legislation.
Transporting other people's controlled waste requires upper-tier registration as a waste carrier, broker or dealer with the Environment Agency under the Controlled Waste (Registration of Carriers and Seizure of Vehicles) Regulations 1991 (as amended), which carries a fee and must be renewed every three years. A lower-tier registration covers an operator that only ever carries waste it produced itself — but not construction and demolition waste, which always requires upper-tier registration even when it's entirely self-produced. Once a business starts taking on customers' waste, as virtually every skip and general waste collection operator does, the upper tier applies regardless. This sits alongside, not instead of, Traffic Commissioner operator licensing.
Yes - moving someone else’s plant for payment is hire-or-reward carriage and needs a standard licence. A business that only ever moves its own plant fleet would instead meet the restricted-licence criteria.
Standard, in nearly every case. Skip hire is a service provided to paying customers, which is exactly the hire-or-reward scenario the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995 reserves for a standard licence rather than a restricted one.
Generally yes - skip operators are collecting and transporting other people’s controlled waste, which calls for upper-tier registration as a waste carrier with the Environment Agency under the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011, on top of (not instead of) Traffic Commissioner operator licensing.
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