HGV Working Time Directive: Hours, POA and Breaks Explained

A driver can be within the daily driving limit and still breach working-time rules. The two regimes overlap, but they answer different questions: drivers’ hours control driving, breaks and rest; the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005 control the wider working day, including driving and other work.

Working time is not the same as drivers’ hours

For mobile workers covered by assimilated or AETR drivers’ hours rules, road-transport working time normally includes driving and other work. Drivers’ hours rules separately set limits on driving time and minimum breaks and rest. A compliant plan must satisfy both.

That distinction matters in the office. A 45-minute drivers’ hours break may also satisfy working-time break requirements if it is genuine break time. Loading, paperwork or helping in the yard does not become a break simply because the vehicle is stationary.

Read HauliK’s separate guide to UK and EU drivers’ hours for driving and rest limits.

Who is covered

The 2005 Regulations apply to mobile workers in undertakings operating road transport services where the worker is subject to assimilated or AETR drivers’ hours rules. Different provisions apply to occasional mobile workers and to drivers under GB domestic rules, so do not apply one calculation to every person who drives a company vehicle.

If a worker drives for more than one relevant employer, GOV.UK says the worker must inform each employer in writing of hours worked for the other. The planner therefore needs a declared-hours process for agency, part-time and second-job drivers.

Classify the activity before counting it

Driving and other work

Driving is working time. So are activities such as loading, unloading, cleaning, technical maintenance, completing transport paperwork and work intended to ensure the vehicle, load or passengers are safe. Waiting whose duration is not known in advance is generally work too.

Breaks and rest

A break is time in which the worker performs no work and can use the time freely for recuperation. Daily and weekly rest are outside working time. A meal eaten while supervising loading is not a break.

Periods of availability

A period of availability, or POA, is waiting time whose duration is known in advance by the mobile worker. The worker must not be required to remain at the workstation, although they must be available to resume work. A known ferry crossing or a known queue duration may qualify; an open-ended instruction to wait for a bay normally does not.

Use a simple test:

1. Was the likely duration known before the wait began or promptly after?
2. Was the driver free from work during it?
3. Could the driver identify when work would resume?

If the evidence does not support those points, treating the time as work is safer than relabelling it later to improve an average.

The main limits to monitor

Under current GOV.UK guidance, weekly working time must not exceed an average of 48 hours over the reference period. A worker may perform up to 60 hours in an individual week only if the 48-hour average is still met. The normal reference period is 17 weeks and may be extended to 26 weeks through a collective or workforce agreement. There is no individual opt-out from the 48-hour average.

Mobile workers must not work more than six consecutive hours without a break. If total working time is between six and nine hours, breaks must total at least 30 minutes. If it exceeds nine hours, breaks must total at least 45 minutes. Each qualifying break segment must be at least 15 minutes.

For goods vehicles, night time is midnight to 04:00. Where night work is performed, working time is limited to ten hours in the relevant 24-hour period unless a collective or workforce agreement permits otherwise. Check the actual agreement before planning beyond the default.

Worked 17-week example

Suppose a driver records 50 hours of working time in each of eight weeks and 46 hours in each of nine weeks:

The average is 814 divided by 17, or 47.88 hours. It is within the 48-hour average, assuming every week and activity has been classified correctly and no week exceeds 60 hours.

Do not wait until week 17. Calculate a rolling forecast before assigning extra work. Include known future duties and leave enough headroom for delays that will count as work rather than POA.

A transport-office monitoring routine

• Collect tachograph data, timesheets and declared work for other employers.
• Reconcile gaps and mode anomalies while the driver can still explain them.
• Separate driving, other work, POA, break and rest using evidence.
• Review single-week hours, the rolling reference-period average and night-work duties.
• Alert the planner before a proposed duty would remove the remaining headroom.
• Record the decision where a waiting period is treated as POA.

Digital systems can help operators maintain consistent classifications and retain the supporting record, but they do not decide whether a real-world period legally meets the POA test.

Records and common errors

Working-time records must be retained for two years after the period concerned. Keep the underlying data and any correction or explanation, not only a summary total.

Common errors include counting all stationary time as POA, omitting warehouse work, assuming a drivers’ hours break always meets every working-time requirement, ignoring work for another employer and treating the 60-hour ceiling as a normal weekly allowance. Another frequent mistake is using the general Working Time Regulations opt-out for a mobile worker covered by the 2005 road-transport rules; GOV.UK explicitly says there is no individual opt-out from the 48-hour average in this regime.

Frequently asked questions

Does POA count towards the 48-hour average? No, a genuine period of availability does not count as working time. It must meet the test; a label entered after the event is not enough.

Can a driver work 60 hours every week? No. Sixty hours is the single-week ceiling, and the reference-period average must still be no more than 48 hours.

Does a 45-minute tachograph break count as a working-time break? It can, if the driver performs no work and the period meets the break conditions. Check the facts, not merely the recorded mode.

How long should records be kept? Current GOV.UK guidance says two years after the period in question for working-time records.

Can software guarantee the classification? No. Software can total and flag data, but the operator must establish what the worker was actually doing and apply the rules correctly.