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A practical guide to UK drivers' hours for HGV and PSV operators: which rules apply, driving limits, breaks, rest, working time, records and enforcement.
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Drivers' hours rules set the legal limits on how long professional HGV and PSV drivers can drive, work and rest. For most UK operators the practical job is in two parts: first work out which regime a journey falls under - the assimilated rules, AETR rules, or the GB domestic rules - then make sure the rota, the tachograph records and the working time records all tell the same compliant story.
The core figures below are the ones you'll reach for most when planning work. Exemptions, mixed work and international journeys can change the answer, so treat this as the summary, not the detail.
This guide covers Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales). Northern Ireland has separate domestic rules, and international work brings in AETR and the expectations of enforcement bodies abroad. For the official source material, start with DVSA's goods vehicle guidance and passenger vehicle guidance.
They're the same underlying regulations, but not merely a rename. Section 5 of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 renamed retained EU law as "assimilated law" from 1 January 2024, which is why GOV.UK and DVSA guidance now says "assimilated drivers' hours rules" where it used to say "EU rules". The substance - Regulation (EC) 561/2006 and Regulation (EU) 165/2014 as they have effect in UK law - is unchanged. If your transport manager, your software or an older DVSA leaflet still says “EU rules” or “561”, that's the same thing.
The first compliance question is not “how many hours can the driver do?” It's “which regime applies to this journey?”. The same driver can move between regimes across a week, and sometimes across a day. Beware a common trap: which regime applies depends on the vehicle, its weight and where it's going, not on your sector. Being in construction, waste, scaffolding or removals is not in itself an exemption.
These apply to in-scope vehicles on journeys wholly within the UK. A vehicle is in scope where:
unless a specific exemption or national derogation applies. The vehicle doesn't have to be laden. An empty vehicle can still be in scope as part of an in-scope operation. Driving under the assimilated rules must be recorded on a tachograph.
AETR is the United Nations agreement covering international road transport. Its driving, break and rest limits are almost identical to the assimilated rules, so for day-to-day planning the numbers are the same. What differs is the detail and the paperwork.
The important shift for UK operators: from 21 April 2025, The Drivers’ Hours and Tachographs (Amendment and Modification) Regulations 2025 moved the legal basis for international drivers' hours and tachograph rules from the assimilated regulations to AETR for coaches and buses (PSVs) travelling between the UK and EU, formalising an enforcement approach DVSA had applied since late 2024. HGVs on UK-EU international journeys remain under the assimilated rules and must now retain 56 days of tachograph data rather than 28, aligning UK practice with AETR record-keeping standards.
DVSA's current guidance draws the assimilated/AETR line differently by vehicle type. For buses and coaches, the position is simple: journeys wholly within the UK are assimilated, and any international journey is AETR. For goods vehicles, the line sits further out - assimilated rules cover journeys wholly within the UK and journeys between the UK and EU, with AETR reserved for journeys to, from, or through non-EU AETR-signatory countries such as Norway and Switzerland. Several assimilated-rules provisions do not apply on an AETR journey:
On top of that, drivers on international journeys must be able to produce 56 days of records at the roadside, not 28, covered under “Tachograph records” below.
The GB domestic rules (Part VI of the Transport Act 1968, (as amended) apply in England, Scotland and Wales to most goods and passenger operations that fall outside of, or are exempt from, the assimilated rules. A common misunderstanding is that “domestic” means “short-distance” or “local”. It doesn't. Domestic rules apply because of the vehicle, its use and the exemption position, not because the job is near the yard.
From 1 July 2026, the drivers' hours and tachograph rules reached down into the light-vehicle fleet for the first time. If a goods vehicle or a vehicle-and-trailer combination has a maximum permissible weight over 2.5 tonnes and is used for international journeys between the UK and the EU for hire and reward, it must now be fitted with a full Smart Tachograph 2, and the driver must comply with the drivers' hours rules that already apply to HGVs.
Two exemptions keep most vans out of scope:
In plain terms: a UK-only 3-tonne van is not dragged into tachograph rules by this change. A courier being paid to run a 3-tonne van across the Channel is. If that's you, the practical actions are to identify which vehicles cross borders for hire and reward, get a full Smart Tachograph 2 fitted, issue driver cards and train drivers on manual entries.
The driving limits are the numbers most operators know by heart. The extension and the fortnightly cap are where planning quietly goes wrong.
The fortnightly cap catches people out. Because 56 hours is allowed in one week, a full 56-hour week leaves no more than 34 hours' driving for the next week to stay within 90 across the fortnight, even though the daily limits would otherwise allow more.
A break of at least 45 minutes must be taken after no more than 4.5 hours of driving, unless the driver is starting a rest period. It doesn't have to be one block.
A break must be a genuine break, no other work, and not available for work.
A daily rest is the block of rest between working days. There are three ways to take it.
Unlike weekly rest, a reduced daily rest carries no compensation debt. However, you only get three reductions between weekly rests, so they need to be managed across the week.
Where a vehicle is multi-manned, each driver must take a daily rest of at least 9 hours within a 30-hour period that starts from the end of the last daily or weekly rest. For the first hour of multi-manning, the second driver is optional. After that, a second driver must be present.
Weekly rest is the longest single requirement under the assimilated rules. Because the reduced-rest and compensation rules around it are also the most complex, drivers' hours and tachograph infringements, including weekly rest failures, remain a recurring trigger for DVSA referral to the Traffic Commissioner.
In any two consecutive weeks you must take either two regular weekly rests, or one regular and one reduced. You can't string reduced weekly rests together indefinitely.
A weekly rest must start no later than the end of six consecutive 24-hour periods, measured from the end of your previous weekly rest. In plain terms: if your last weekly rest ended at 06:00 on Monday, your next one must begin by 06:00 the following Sunday. Miss that window and it's an infringement even if the driving hours look fine.
This is a common and expensive mistake:
This is a planning issue, not a preference. If a route makes a regular weekly rest away from base likely, accommodation needs to be sorted before the work is accepted.
Under the assimilated rules, an operator must organise work so that a driver can return, within each period of four consecutive weeks, to the operating centre where they are normally based or to their home, to spend a regular weekly rest (or a 45-hour-plus compensation rest). Keep evidence of how this is met: planned schedules, route plans and driver communications are far stronger than a note written after the event.
Two concessions apply to international work only, and sit within the AETR/assimilated detail:
A regular daily rest may be interrupted no more than twice, for no more than one hour in total, where the driver accompanies the vehicle on a ferry or train and has access to suitable sleeping facilities - a bunk, couchette or sleeper cabin. Under the assimilated rules, a weekly rest may also be interrupted in defined circumstances (with the ferry or rail leg lasting at least 8 hours when interrupting a regular weekly rest), but AETR currently differs on this point.
Don't assume every crossing creates a lawful interruption. The rest type, the facility available, the number and length of interruptions, and whether the journey is assimilated or AETR all matter.
The rules bend in two narrow situations. In a genuine emergency - immediate action to prevent danger to life, serious disruption to essential public services, or similar - the assimilated rules can cease to apply while the driver deals with it.
Separately, in exceptional circumstances a driver may exceed the daily and weekly driving limits by up to one hour (or two hours, after an uninterrupted 30-minute break) purely to reach the operating centre or home for a weekly rest, without exceeding the 90-hour fortnightly cap, and without interrupting the extra driving with other work unless needed for safety. Any use of either provision must be recorded, with the reason noted on the printout, chart or temporary sheet at the latest on reaching the stopping place, and the driver returned to compliance afterwards. Neither provision is a way to rescue a planned late delivery.
Mixed work is where mistakes multiply. DVSA's mixed driving guidance explains how a driver handles a day or week that is partly under assimilated or AETR rules and partly under GB domestic rules. The golden rule: even a short period of driving under the assimilated or AETR rules pulls the whole of that day into scope for driving, break and rest and the weekly rest and weekly driving limits for that week.
A simple example: a driver does two hours of exempt domestic work in the morning, then takes an in-scope HGV on an assimilated journey in the afternoon. Those two morning hours are not a break. They are work that must be counted when checking rest, duty and working time.
The GB domestic rules are simpler than the assimilated rules, but they are not informal. They carry legal limits, and for goods vehicles, record requirements. They also differ between goods and passenger vehicles.
There is no set break or rest structure, but employers must still ensure “adequate rest” under the Working Time Regulations 1998 and health-and-safety duties. The practical control is to set shift and rest limits in the rota, not just to check the 10- and 11-hour limits after the event.
Where GB domestic passenger rules apply, for example local bus services on routes not exceeding 50km, the limits are different:
There are no GB domestic record-keeping requirements for passenger vehicles in the way there are for goods vehicles, but a driver who also does any assimilated or AETR work must still produce the tachograph records for that regulated work.
Staying within the drivers' hours rules does not mean you've complied with working time law. Most HGV drivers on the assimilated or AETR rules, and a minority of bus and coach drivers, are also covered by the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005, which limit total work: driving plus loading, unloading, checks, cleaning, paperwork and waiting where the driver can't use the time freely.
A driver can be perfectly legal on driving hours yet in breach on working time; a short-driving, heavy-loading day is the classic case. Periods of availability (genuine waiting known in advance) don't count as working time, but they must be recorded correctly to prove it.
Tachographs are the evidence base for drivers' hours compliance, and the first thing DVSA or an auditor looks at. Where the vehicle and journey fall under the assimilated or AETR rules, the driver must use the tachograph and the operator must download, analyse and keep the data. DVSA's tachograph rules guidance is a core operator reference.
Records must cover the full picture of a driver's activity; driving, other work, periods of availability, breaks, rest, annual leave and sick leave. Manual entries matter because the tachograph can't know what happened before the card went in or after it came out. Missing manual entries, at the start of shift, before or after time on another vehicle, and at shift end, are the quickest way for an otherwise-lawful day to look non-compliant.
For work wholly within the UK, a driver must be able to produce the current day plus the previous 28 calendar days; the digital driver card, printouts and any manual records (or analogue charts for the same period). For international journeys, that production requirement is now 56 days, not 28. Gaps must be explained with manual entries or attestation, whether or not the driver drove on those days.
The download interval is not the analysis interval. Waiting 28 or 90 days to discover a serious repeated infringement is poor control. A well-run operation checks the data often enough to spot trends while they can still be fixed.
Exemptions and national derogations move a vehicle out of the assimilated rules, usually into the GB domestic rules. The ones operators ask about most:
Two warnings. National derogations apply only on journeys wholly within the UK, they fall away on AETR/international work. And an exemption from the assimilated rules is not an exemption from all rules: the vehicle usually drops into the GB domestic rules, and working time law may still apply. For the full list, see the exemptions from assimilated rules guidance.
Operators are not passive recipients of whatever the driver records. DVSA and the Traffic Commissioner expect a system that prevents, identifies and deals with infringements. In practice that means:
This matters for more than good practice. The assimilated and AETR rules can make an operator liable for infringements committed by drivers, but an operator may have a defence where it can show the work was properly organised, drivers were properly instructed, checks were made, and all reasonable steps were taken to avoid the breach. The best evidence is routine evidence: downloaded data, infringement reports, signed driver debriefs, training records and rota changes. A policy that is never checked is weak protection.
Drivers' hours are an operator-licence issue, not just a driver problem. DVSA can act at the roadside and follow up with the operator. Its enforcement and penalties guidance runs from verbal warnings and rectification notices through to prohibitions, fixed penalties, prosecution and referral to the Traffic Commissioner.
For operators, the bigger risk is often the pattern rather than the single penalty: repeated infringements, missing downloads, weak analysis or schedules that could not lawfully be run. Penalties feed the operator's OCRS (Operator Compliance Risk Score), and that pattern can raise questions about management control and put the operator's licence and good repute in front of a Public Inquiry.
Most infringements aren't caused by a transport manager forgetting the 9-hour limit. They come from the gaps between planning, real-world disruption, driver recording and management follow-up. The ones worth watching for:
A workable system doesn't need to be complicated. It needs to be regular, evidenced and followed up.
The rules themselves aren't the hard part. The hard part is spotting the reduced rest that wasn't compensated, the fortnight that crept over 90 hours, or the missing manual entry and acting on it before DVSA does. That's a weekly discipline: download, analyse, and follow up while infringements are still fixable.
Turning raw tachograph data into that kind of picture - what happened, why, and what the records show needs attention before the next shift - is the work Tacho Agent does for operators: checking the data, identifying infringements and helping build the evidence trail, so the decisions about debriefs and corrective action are made from facts rather than assumption.
This article is provided for general guidance only and reflects our understanding of the rules as they apply in Great Britain as at the date shown on this page. It is not legal advice and should not be relied on as a substitute for advice tailored to your specific operation.
Drivers' hours, tachograph, working time and operator licensing rules are detailed and change over time, and some requirements differ in Northern Ireland and for international journeys. Always check the current guidance on GOV.UK and the underlying legislation on legislation.gov.uk, and consult your transport manager or a qualified compliance professional before acting.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Tacho Agent Ltd accepts no liability for any loss arising from action taken, or not taken, in reliance on this article. Nothing here excludes or limits any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence or for fraud. Use of this article is also governed by our Terms of Use.
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