For most same day couriers within the UK the only legal restrictions on driving and working time will be the domestic drivers’ hours rules and some aspects of the Working Time Directive.
The GB Domestic Drivers’ Hours Rules apply to all drivers of goods vehicles, however small, driven in Great Britain (Northern Ireland has its own rules) in connection with a business, where EU drivers’ hours rules (tacho regulations) don’t apply.
The rules are quite straightforward. In any day (defined as 24 hours from the start of duty) you’re allowed to drive for a maximum of 10 hours. Driving is defined as being at the controls of a vehicle for the purposes of controlling its movement, whether it is moving or stationary with the engine running.
The total amount of time that you’re allowed to be ‘on duty’ for the same 24 hour period is 11 hours.
For an employed driver, including directors of limited companies, ‘on duty’ means any working time, including sweeping the yard, answering the phone, loading and unloading etc.
For a self-employed driver ‘on duty’ means driving the vehicle or carrying out any other work in connection with the vehicle or its load. Answering the phone or sweeping the yard would not be duty time, cleaning the van or loading it up would be.
If you drive for less than 4 hours in a day there are no restrictions on duty time – you could legally work in the warehouse for 10 hours and then drive for up to 4 hours.
There are exemptions to the duty time BUT NOT THE DRIVING TIME for certain trades, but same day courier work wouldn’t fall into any of the exemptions.
If you only ever drive vehicles that are under 3,500kg GVW there is no legal requirement to keep records of your working or driving hours.
- You can drive for up to 10 hours per day, breaks aren’t included in the 10 hours, nor is loading and unloading or waiting time with the engine switched off.
- You can ‘work’ for up to 11 hours per day, breaks aren’t included but all other work is included (unless you’re self-employed when some work doesn’t count).
- The ‘day’ lasts for 24 hours from the time you start work. So if you start at 10.00am today and work for 11 hours then you can’t do any more work until 10.00am tomorrow.
- There are no record keeping requirements for drivers of vans under 3,500kg.
- There is a requirement under the Working Time Directive and Health & Safety laws for drivers to have adequate rest.
The rules are enforced by VOSA, but except for in cases where tiredness has actually caused an accident I’ve never actually heard of anyone being prosecuted for being ‘over hours’ in a vehicle without a tacho or driving hours log. That’s not to say it doesn’t happen, just that I’ve never heard of it.
In the case of an employee who causes an accident while exceeding their daily driving or duty time their employer would almost certainly be held liable for the accident. A death caused by an employee under these circumstances could leave the employer facing a charge of Corporate Manslaughter.
It should also be noted that both VOSA and the Police can go to extraordinary lengths to establish exactly how long a driver has been working, particularly following a serious accident. Mobile phone records can easily be checked to pinpoint the users whereabouts to within a few hundred metres, your own GPS tracking logs can provide even more conclusive evidence, fuel receipts can be examined and the time of fuel-card and credit-card purchases can be traced. Even a POD for a 500 mile round trip same day delivery may be enough to incriminate you.
VOSA are already using ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition), in conjunction with axle weight sensors embedded in the road, to identify overloaded vehicles. I believe that it’s only a matter of time before they use it to detect drivers’ hours offences as well.
Posted under Courier Basics, Drivers' Hours, Employment
Posted by Alec at 4:19 pm, July 24, 2008
I work for a a company who we will not call by its real name we will call them ASBA (guess?lol)I worked from 11am (1st hour unpaid to 10:30pm. No breaks, only water during work. My contracted shift is 12pm-10pm. we have no union, I feel as if its now the norm. Not sure what steps to take next? but i will.
Thank you
I work for a courier company, also no names mentioned, and they get us to work from as early as 2am (after finishing the day before at around 8/9pm) get us to do a 4 hour drive north and back with no breaks. They then send us on other jobs throughout the day and make us work again till 8/9pm sometimes. No breaks apart from the 15/20 mins loading/unloading time. We usually work around 15 hours a day 5 days a week. Thanks to this web page I WILL be taking action against them!
I just called VOSA and they said as I drive a 3.5 tonne van, I don’t have any driving regulations towards how many hours I work. Which, to me, is a contradiction to what’s posted on this web page! Can someone advise please?
If they’ve told you that then they’re talking bollocks. European rules apply to drivers of vehicles over 3.5t GVW, GB domestic rules apply to drivers of all goods vehicles which don’t come under Euro rules.
Drivers’ hours rules that apply to goods vehicles
That’s what I thought, but the chap on the end of the line didn’t seem interested in what I had to say, maybe he was on a break and I was interrupting his biscuits and Jeremy Kyle!!
I called the main VOSA number 0300 123 9000 and the gave me my local authority number 01708 868 229 and it was this guy who gave me the information.
Do you have any advice as to what I can do next?
Decided to e-mail VOSA directly instead. I’ll keep you updated.
do you know how long im classed as to work for if i do multi drop in a renault traffic van , im told im supposed to be doing 8 and a halh hours and they only allow you half an hour for travelling so officially how many hours am i meant to drive in a day and what breaks am i supposed to do in a day if you understand
As above –