HGV Driving Hours
This is an important aspect of a career as a HGV driver because there are limitations as to how many hours you can drive for and you have to remember that you are in charge of a large vehicle and tiredness can cause traffic accidents – safety is key here. The Drivers Hours European regulations limits the amount of hours you can spend on the road – this is the law and you have to abide by this. Abiding by these regulations is just as important as taking up HGV training.
So what does it state?
The Law was brought in in April 2007 and covers both daily and weekly Hourly limits:
The Law was brought in in April 2007 and covers both daily and weekly Hourly limits:
Daily HGV Driving Hours
Firstly you can only drive for a maximum of 9 hours per day although you are allowed to work 10 hours as a maximum up to 2 days a week.
HGV/LGV Drivers can only work up to a maximum of 56 hours per week but there is a set maximum of 90 hours which is measured over a pair of weeks.
Put simply this means any 2 consecutive weeks must not exceed a maximum of 90 hours when combined. For example:
Week 1 + week 2 hours = maximum of 90 hours
Week 2 + week 3 hours = maximum of 90 hours
Week 3 + week 4 hours = maximum of 90 hours
And so on…
HGV drivers should only drive for a maximum of 4.5 hours before a rest break which should be a minimum of 45 mins. There are ways of breaking this up so in theory you could drive for 2.5 hours have a break for a minimum of 15 mins and then drive for 2 hours followed by a break for a minimum of 30 mins. If you were to swap that pattern around then it would be illegal because the second break has to be 30 mins or more. It would pay to get familiar with the regulations to ensure you are not breaking the law and drive safely throughout your career.
There are also weekly rules that apply from the 2007 EU Driving regulation. Remember these laws are mandatory and have to be abided by the laws are there to make sure you and other road users are kept safe. These laws apply to all categories of HGV: Category C, Category C1 and Category C+E.
CLICK HERE (right click and save link as) for a useful download relating to drivers hours.
