• KNOWLEDGE HUB
When tradespeople can use the 100km tachograph exemption: the 7.5t limit, what counts as your own materials, and where O-licensing still applies.
QUICK ANSWER
The ‘100km’ or ‘tradesperson’ exemption lets a vehicle - or a vehicle-and-trailer combination - with a maximum permissible mass of 7.5 tonnes or less be used without a tachograph and outside the assimilated (EU) drivers’ hours rules, but only when it carries materials, equipment or machinery for the driver’s own use in their work, stays within a 100 kilometre radius of its base, driving is not the driver’s main activity, and the transport is not for hire or reward.
It comes from Article 3(aa) of Regulation (EC) 561/2006, as it has effect in Great Britain. Two things it does not do: it does not remove the need for an operator’s licence, and it does not put the vehicle outside all drivers’ hours law - the GB domestic drivers’ hours rules take over instead.
This is the rule that lets a tradesperson drive their own kit to a job without running a tacho. It is built for operations where driving is a means to an end, not the job itself - a scaffolder taking tubes, boards and fittings to a site to erect them, a builder taking tools and plant to their own job, a groundworker moving their own equipment between sites.
The clue is in the wording: the load must be for the driver’s use in the course of the driver’s work. The moment you are carrying goods for the customer, or moving goods for hire or reward, you are doing haulage - and the exemption falls away. That single distinction decides most real cases, and we work through it below.
All apply at the same time. Miss any one and the vehicle is back in scope of the assimilated rules and needs a tachograph. (‘Not for hire or reward’ is really a fifth thread running through condition 2 - for genuine own-use work it is usually satisfied automatically.)
The 7.5t limit is the combination weight. A 3.5t pickup or van is comfortably inside it on its own, but bolt on a plant trailer or a tipping trailer and the maximum permissible mass of the outfit - not what it happens to be carrying that day - can push you over. If the plated train weight of vehicle plus trailer exceeds 7,500kg, this exemption does not apply, full stop. An 18-tonne scaffold lorry or a 26-tonne rigid can never use it, however local the job.
This is where the exemption is won or lost. ‘Materials, equipment or machinery for the driver’s use’ means the operator’s own working kit, used by the operator to carry out their trade. A scaffolder’s scaffold, a builder’s tools and timber for their own job, a fencer’s posts and wire - all fine.
It is broader than just hand tools. DVSA guidance notes that a court case clarified ‘material or equipment’ covers not only tools and instruments but also goods required to perform the driver’s main work activity - so a bricklayer’s bricks or a scaffolder’s tubes count, because they are used to do the work at the destination.
Carrying material that belongs to, or is being delivered to, a customer is a different thing. A builders’ merchant delivering blocks to a site, or a tipper running aggregate for a third party, is carrying goods for someone else - that is carriage of goods, often for hire or reward, and it is in scope.
There is also a separate, second limb of the exemption for delivering goods produced on a craft basis (hand-made items such as pottery or furniture). That rarely touches construction or scaffolding, so it isn’t the focus here - but note it does not apply to AETR (certain international) journeys, only to GB and UK–EU work.
The 100km is a radius drawn from the base of the undertaking - the operating centre the vehicle normally works from - not a 100km trip length. Run a job 100km out and back and you are fine; cross the radius line and the whole day is in scope.
If you operate from more than one base, the radius is measured from the base the vehicle is normally based at. You cannot move a vehicle from base to base on paper to stretch the radius.
The exemption is for tradespeople who happen to drive, not drivers who happen to do a bit of trade. If someone spends most of their working day behind the wheel, driving is their main activity and the exemption is hard to justify - even if the vehicle, the load and the radius all check out. There is no fixed percentage in this drivers’ hours exemption (the ‘30%’ figure people quote belongs to the separate Driver CPC test - see below), so judge it honestly against how the person actually spends their day. Job descriptions, worksheets and rotas all help show the person is primarily an operative, not a transport driver.
Qualifying takes the vehicle out of two things: the requirement to fit and use a tachograph, and the assimilated (EU) drivers’ hours limits. It does not make the vehicle unregulated. The obligations below carry on regardless.
For a journey that genuinely meets all four conditions: no. GOV.UK’s tachograph guidance confirms you don’t have to use a tachograph if the vehicle is exempt from the assimilated drivers’ hours rules. But that is decided per journey. A vehicle that does exempt work on some days and in-scope work on others still needs the tachograph for the in-scope work - more on mixed days below.
The tachograph and O-licence regimes are separate, and being out of scope of the assimilated drivers’ hours rules has no effect on operator licensing. The goods vehicle operator licensing guide says you will usually need an O-licence if you use a goods vehicle over 3.5 tonnes gross plated weight (or, where there is no plated weight, an unladen weight over 1,525kg) to carry goods for hire or reward or in connection with a trade or business - and combinations are assessed on the combined weight.
So a scaffold wagon or tipper over that threshold needs an O-licence whether or not it’s tacho-exempt. For a tradesperson carrying their own materials, the relevant licence is often a restricted licence (own goods only) rather than a standard one - but that depends on the work. The point is simple: don’t assume ‘tacho exempt’ means ‘O-licence exempt’.
A vehicle that is exempt from the assimilated rules doesn’t escape hours law - it moves onto the GB domestic drivers’ hours rules (Part VI of the Transport Act 1968). In short:
Drivers under GB domestic rules are also covered by the Working Time Regulations 1998 (the 48-hour average week and adequate rest), rather than the stricter sector-specific rules that apply to in-scope HGV drivers.
Under GB domestic rules, a driver of a goods vehicle that needs an operator’s licence must keep a written record of their hours on a weekly record sheet for any day on which they drive for more than 4 hours. The operator is expected to check and sign those sheets.
If a vehicle has a tachograph fitted but is being used out of scope, the unit should be set to ‘out of scope’, and if you use it to produce a legally required record it must still be calibrated and sealed correctly.
This is the part operators get wrong most often. A scaffold wagon or tipper rarely does only exempt work - it carries the firm’s own kit one day and does a delivery or a hire-or-reward run the next. The exemption is judged journey by journey, so the same vehicle can be out of scope on Monday and in scope on Tuesday.
The trap is the mixed day. Under DVSA guidance on mixed driving, the assimilated rules take precedence, and even a short period of in-scope (assimilated) driving brings that whole day within the assimilated daily driving, break and rest requirements - with a tachograph record for it. Practically:
The upshot: if a vehicle does both kinds of work, you need a clear process so drivers know which days are which, when to use the tachograph, when to make domestic records, and how to explain the position at the roadside. ‘We’re a 100km firm’ is not a defence on a day the wagon also did a paid delivery.
There is a similar-sounding Driver CPC exemption, and mixing the two up is a common and costly mistake. They are different tests in different regimes.
Meeting one test does not automatically mean you meet another. A driver could be exempt from Driver CPC and still need a tachograph, or the other way round. Check each regime on its own terms - and remember O-licensing is a third, separate question again.
The conditions are easier to feel than to read. Here is how they bite in practice.
Ready-mix concrete delivery does not qualify for the tradesperson exemption, and it’s worth saying plainly because operators often assume ‘construction’ means ‘exempt’.
The concrete in the drum is the customer’s material, delivered to the customer’s pour - it isn’t ‘materials for the driver’s use in the course of their work’. The work is delivery, usually for hire or reward, and for a mixer driver, driving is the main activity. On top of that, a typical mixer is well over 7.5 tonnes. It fails the exemption on more or less every condition, so a concrete mixer needs a tachograph and runs under the assimilated rules.
Before you treat a journey as exempt, run through these. If you can’t answer all of them cleanly, treat the journey as in scope until you’ve checked.
And keep evidence. If you ever have to justify the exemption to DVSA, a short written note of why each vehicle qualifies - backed by job sheets and rotas - is far better than working it out at the roadside.
The exemption itself applies UK-wide, because it sits in Article 3 of the assimilated regulation. But the GB domestic rules that take over when a vehicle is exempt apply in Great Britain only. Northern Ireland has its own domestic drivers’ hours regime, so an NI operator should check the separate Department for Infrastructure goods vehicle guidance.
The headline figures are the easy part. The difficulty is applying them consistently across a mixed fleet - where the same driver can be in scope one day and out of it the next - and being able to evidence the call months later if a DVSA examiner or the Traffic Commissioner asks.
It's worth being clear about what tachograph data can and can't settle. It won't tell you what was on the back of the van, whose materials they were, or whether driving was genuinely incidental to the driver's main job. Those are judgements you make at the time and need to record at the time. What the data does show is the in-scope side of the picture: the driving that was recorded, the periods that weren't attributed to anyone, and the days where a driver's record doesn't line up with the work the vehicle actually did. On a mixed fleet, that mismatch is usually the first visible sign that a journey has drifted outside the exemption.
Tacho Agent analyses the tachograph data your fleet does produce and reports it in plain English every month, so drivers who move between exempt and in-scope work get looked at properly rather than assumed to be fine. If you're not confident your exemption calls would stand up, a compliance review examines how you're applying them and whether your records support the position. The decision on which vehicles are in scope, and the evidence behind it, stays with you.
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.
Tacho Agent reviews your download data, flags the infringements and risks, and shows you exactly where you stand - before DVSA does. Free first report, within 2 working days.
Request a free report →