• SECTOR GUIDE
General haulage covers the full spread of drivers' hours regulation - long-distance trunking, multi-manning, ferry and Channel Tunnel crossings, and mixed domestic and international work. Each brings its own rules on driving time, breaks, rest and record-keeping, and getting any of them wrong puts your O-licence and your drivers at risk.
Tacho Agent gives haulage operators a forensic view of their tachograph data, identifying infringements, multi-manning errors and ferry-rule miscalculations before they become enforcement problems. Begin with a free compliance report.
• THE RISKS
The issues that most often catch operators out.
Crewing rules for breaks and rest are complex and frequently applied incorrectly.
Daily rest may be interrupted for ferry or tunnel crossings only within strict limits.
Long-haul work pushes hard against the 9/10-hour daily and 56-hour weekly caps.
Switching between domestic and EU rules on the same operation causes recording errors.
• TAILORED GUIDANCE
In-depth guidance written for haulage operators.
• REFERENCE GUIDES
Full regulation references that apply across every sector.
• COMMON QUESTIONS
Quick answers to what operators ask us most.
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.
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.
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.
• WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY
I would highly recommend
Always helpful and at the end of the phone if you need anything and always the gentle reminders when things need actioning. I would highly recommend.
- SR, Director, general haulage operator
• FIRST REPORT FREE
A free, no-obligation compliance report based on your own tachograph
data — with the issues found and plain-English actions to fix them.