Firstly, remember that unlike the previous Regulations, if your journey is partly off road e.g. driving in a quarry, then this time will be counted as well as your on road driving. Under these Regulations you can drive for a maximum of 41/2 hours, and then you must take a break of not less than 45 minutes, unless you begin a rest period. During the break you must not drive or do any other work. After the break you can continue driving.
You can split the break and distribute it throughout the driving period. If you do this, the first portion of the break must be at least 15 minutes and the second at least 30 minutes. The breaks must be taken so that you never exceed the 41/2 hour driving limit. The illustration shows how this may be done;
During the 'daily driving period,' you can normally drive for 9 hours. Twice in the fixed week (00:00 Monday to 24:00 Sunday) the daily driving period may be extended to a maximum of 10 hours;
NEW REQUIREMENT: In a fixed week the total driving may not exceed 56 hours; During any two consecutive weeks the driving limit is 90 hours;
During any two consecutive weeks the driving limit is 90 hours;
Within 24 hours of ending a daily or weekly rest period, a driver must have taken a new daily rest period. At first reading this sounds complicated, but consider the example below, where a driver ends their weekly rest period at 06:00am on Monday morning. To comply with the regulation, the driver must have taken a new daily rest period by 06:00 am Tuesday;
There is no requirement to take 'compensated rest' under these regulations for reduced daily rest periods. Between any two weekly rest periods a driver may have, at most, 3 reduced daily rest periods.
Daily rest may be split into two parts and distributed throughout the working day; the first period must be at least 3 hours and the second at least 9 hours;
When a vehicle has two or more drivers, they must each obey the limits regarding continuous driving, breaks and total daily driving. Their daily rest requirements are different from a vehicle with a single driver. In the 30 hour period starting with the end of the last daily (or weekly rest) they will have a new rest period of at least 9 hours;
During the first hour of a double manned journey, it is not necessary for both drivers to be on the vehicle. However, both drivers must be present for the remainder of the journey. This would allow a vehicle to depart from the operating centre and collect the second driver on route, provided this was accomplished within one hour of the first driver starting work.
Either a regular or a reduced daily rest period may be extended to become a weekly rest period. Weekly rest periods must begin no later than the end of the sixth 24 hour period from the end of the previous weekly rest. Again this sentence looks complicated, in reality, the application is straightforward; in the example below, the weekly rest period ends at 08:00am Monday morning, therefore the next weekly rest period must begin no later than 08:00am Sunday.
Regulation 561/2006 comes into force on 11 April 2007 and applies to all journeys made in whole or in part on roads open to the Public, by the following vehicles;
Many of the exemptions from these Regulations are broadly similar to those in the previous legislation. However, there are some important changes, we have listed them here;