• KNOWLEDGE HUB
Not every vehicle or journey falls under the full EU drivers' hours and tachograph rules - and getting that boundary wrong is a common and costly mistake.
Exemptions and derogations come from Article 3 of Regulation (EC) 561/2006, with the GB domestic rules under the Transport Act 1968 applying to much of what sits outside EU scope.
These guides set out which regime your operation actually falls under, the exemptions worth knowing, and how to evidence that an exemption genuinely applies if DVSA asks.
• QUICK ANSWERS
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.
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).