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How the 48-hour average working week, the 60-hour weekly cap and 17 or 26-week reference periods work for HGV and PSV operators.
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Under the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005, a driver’s average working week must not exceed 48 hours, measured over a reference period that is normally 17 weeks and can be extended to 26 weeks where the conditions are met. On top of that average sits a hard ceiling of 60 hours in any single week, which can never be exceeded, even when the average is comfortably under 48. There is no individual opt-out from the 48-hour average for drivers in scope of the assimilated (formerly “EU”) drivers’ hours rules. And “working time” is broader than driving time: it takes in loading, walkaround checks, paperwork and other duties, but excludes breaks, rest and periods of availability.
This is a working time rule, not a driving time rule. It sits alongside the assimilated drivers’ hours and tachograph rules and complying with one does not prove compliance with the other. A driver can be perfectly legal on driving time and still breach the 48-hour average once all the other work is counted.
These are two different limits doing two different jobs. You have to stay inside both at the same time. Meeting one does not excuse breaching the other.
This is the limit most people mean when they talk about “the 48-hour week”. It is an average, not a weekly cap. You can work more than 48 hours in some weeks, provided the average across the whole reference period stays at or below 48. That flexibility is what lets an operation absorb a busy spell and balance it against quieter weeks.
Regardless of how low your average is, no single week may contain more than 60 hours of working time. This is an absolute cap, not an average. A common and costly assumption is “I’m well under on average, so a 64-hour week is fine.” It is not - the moment a week passes 60 hours, the limit is breached, whatever the average is doing.
This is where operators most often come unstuck: working time is far broader than the time the wheels are turning. Under the Regulations and the supporting DVSA guidance, working time is any time spent at the workstation, at the employer’s or client’s disposal, carrying out the job.
That last point bites in real operations. If a driver has a second job, the operator cannot treat those hours as invisible just because they were worked elsewhere. The Regulations require the employer to ask each mobile worker for details of time worked for any other employer, and the worker must provide it in writing on request, and that time goes into the same 48-hour calculation.
A period of availability is not just any waiting time. To qualify, the driver must know before it starts both that the wait is coming and its reasonably foreseeable duration. Typical examples are a booked ferry or train crossing, waiting while other workers load or unload, or a second crew member sitting beside the driver while the vehicle is moving and not doing other work.
It is not a POA if the driver is shunting forward every minute or two in a loading queue, sitting in unpredictable congestion, dealing with the load, navigating, or waiting for an unknown length of time. Those count as working time. Treating loose “waiting” as POA is one of the most common reasons a working time report looks compliant when it isn’t. POA is paid time, but it does not count towards either the 48-hour average or the 60-hour ceiling.
The reference period is the measuring window for the 48-hour average. A busy week is allowed, but it has to be balanced by lower working time elsewhere in the same window, and no week can ever exceed the 60-hour single-week maximum.
The default reference period is 17 weeks. Current DVSA guidance states the period can only be 17 or 26 weeks, there is no in-between. A 17-week period gives a budget of 816 counted hours before the 48-hour average is exceeded.
The Regulations provide three ways for the 17-week period to apply:
The practical point is simple: decide which basis applies, record it, tell drivers where required, and measure against it consistently. Do not rely on pay months, rota cycles or “the last few weeks looked fine” unless those checks map back to the legal reference period.
The 17-week period can be extended to a period not exceeding 26 weeks, but only for objective or technical reasons, or reasons concerning the organisation of work, and, for employed drivers, only through a collective or workforce agreement. (A self-employed driver can elect to extend on the same grounds.)
A 26-week period does not raise the average above 48 hours. It only gives a longer window in which to balance peaks and troughs, with a budget of up to 1,248 counted hours over the 26 weeks - still subject to the separate 60-hour cap in every individual week. Drivers must be able to see any relevant agreement in advance, so have the paperwork in place before you rely on the longer period, not reconstructed after a problem appears.
For an employed mobile worker, the Regulations set the average using the formula (A + B) ÷ C:
For a self-employed driver the formula is simply A ÷ C. Leave is not added back. In plain terms, for an employed driver:
Worked example. A driver records 830 counted hours across a 17-week reference period, once leave is included. The average is 830 ÷ 17 = 48.8 hours - a breach. To stay within the average over that 17-week period, the counted total has to be 816 or below (48 × 17). And even at 816, the job is not done: every single week must also have stayed at or below 60 hours. A one-off 62-hour week is a breach in its own right, no matter how low the running average is.
For employed drivers, statutory leave is folded into the calculation at 8 hours a day or 48 hours a week, which keeps it neutral. It neither inflates nor deflates the average. And, just as importantly, a holiday or sick week is not treated as a zero-hour week that quietly drags the average down. That stops a reference period being made artificially compliant simply because a driver took leave or was off sick. (For self-employed drivers, who use A ÷ C, leave is not added at all.)
This is one of the most expensive misunderstandings in the industry. Under the general Working Time Regulations 1998, a worker can sign an individual opt-out to work beyond 48 hours on average. Mobile workers in scope of the 2005 Regulations cannot. Any opt-out form a driver has signed has no effect on the road transport 48-hour average, and relying on one leaves the operator exposed at audit or roadside.
These limits sit alongside the 48-hour average; they do not replace it, and you can comply with one while breaching another.
The road transport 48-hour average under the 2005 Regulations applies to mobile workers in operations governed by the assimilated (formerly “EU”) or AETR drivers’ hours rules: broadly, drivers and crew of goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes and larger passenger vehicles subject to Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 and Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 as they have effect in the UK. A few categories need spelling out.
If you only occasionally drive in-scope vehicles, you may be exempt from the 2005 Regulations and fall under the 1998 Regulations instead. You count as an “occasional mobile worker” if you work in scope on 10 days or fewer in a reference period shorter than 26 weeks, or on 15 days or fewer in a period of 26 weeks or more. This is easy to misread: it is not a blanket exemption for part-time drivers, yard staff, mechanics or managers who sometimes drive. You have to count the in-scope days in the relevant period and then apply the correct regime to the work actually done.
Self-employed drivers have been in scope since 1 May 2012, when the Road Transport (Working Time) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 extended the rules to them. A self-employed driver is responsible for keeping their own working time records for two years and making them available to enforcement officers. Note the narrower statutory definition: broadly, someone genuinely running their own transport business with several customers, not a driver who simply invoices a single operator.
Two further cases catch operators out. Where an agency driver is not technically employed by either the agency or the hirer, the Regulations treat whoever pays the driver as the employer for working-time purposes so responsibility for records does not fall through the gap. And an owner-driver who drives in scope but does not meet the strict “self-employed driver” definition is treated as both the mobile worker and their own employer, and must keep their own records.
Drivers under GB domestic rules are mobile workers subject to the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/639) The Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/639), legislation.gov.uk, Regulation 4(2), which caps working time at an average of 48 hours per week over a reference period, with Regulation 4(3)-(4) setting that reference period at 17 weeks (extendable to a maximum of 26 weeks by collective or workforce agreement), and with no individual opt-out available from this limit.
A compliant system does not have to be complicated, but it does have to be deliberate. The operator should be able to show what reference period applies, how working time is captured, and what action is taken when a driver is trending towards a limit. As a minimum:
Tachograph records can form the backbone of the working time record, but they are only as good as the activity selections and manual entries behind them. Where a driver does work away from the vehicle, you may need separate records as well.
Breaching the working time limits is a criminal offence under the Regulations, punishable by a fine on conviction. Where a breach happens with the consent or connivance of, or through neglect by, a director, manager or similar officer, that person can be prosecuted personally as well as the company. Separately, and often the bigger commercial risk, a pattern of working time and drivers’ hours failings can put the operator’s repute and O-licence in front of the Traffic Commissioner.
This article is written from the Great Britain Regulations (SI 2005/639), which extend to Great Britain only. Northern Ireland has its own, near-identical Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005, with the same headline 48-hour-average and 60-hour-week structure. NI-based operators should check the detail against the NI Regulations and guidance.
Build the rota around the reference period, not just the next busy week. A driver may work more than 48 hours in one week, but the average has to come back to 48 or below over the correct reference period, and the week itself must never exceed 60 hours.
Good tachograph analysis makes this far easier: it turns raw driver activity into working time averages, exposes weak POA and manual-entry habits, and puts the evidence in front of the transport manager before a pattern becomes an infringement. That is the work Tacho Agent does for operators.
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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