HGV Driver Working Time Directive

What the HGV working time rules control

The HGV Driver Working Time Directive is the common industry name for the road transport working time rules that apply to many goods vehicle mobile workers. It sits alongside tachograph driving limits, but the two rule sets need to be managed together. A driver can stay inside the daily driving limit and still create a working time problem because the shift includes loading, vehicle checks, paperwork, cleaning, defect follow-up or yard duties.

For most in-scope HGV operations, the rules come from the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005. The practical compliance question is not only whether the driver’s card looks acceptable. It is whether the operator can show that all working time has been recorded, averaged and reviewed.

Who is usually in scope?

The rules normally apply to mobile workers involved in operations that fall under the assimilated EU or AETR drivers’ hours rules. In an HGV fleet, that often means drivers and other travelling staff who form part of the transport operation. There are limited provisions for occasional mobile workers, but operators should check the actual working pattern before relying on them.

Where a worker drives for more than one relevant employer, each employer needs written information about the other work. Without that declaration, a planner may think the rota is safe while the driver’s total working time is already too high. This is the failure mode behind many agency-driver issues at audit: each operator has a clean local picture, but no one is holding the second-job declaration on file.

Working time, POA and breaks

Working time is broader than driving time. It includes driving, loading and unloading, vehicle checks, cleaning, maintenance-related activity, transport paperwork and other duties where the worker is at the workstation and cannot freely use the time as their own.

Periods of availability, often shown as POA, do not count as working time, but only where the duration is known in advance and the worker is available rather than still working. Waiting at a customer site is not automatically POA. If the driver is helping in the bay, checking paperwork, moving the vehicle on instruction or waiting for an unknown duration, the entry should be challenged before it is treated as availability.

48-hour average, 60-hour cap and the opt-out point

The headline limit is an average of 48 hours working time per week over the reference period. The normal reference period is 17 weeks, although it may be extended to 26 weeks where a workforce or collective agreement allows it.

In-scope mobile workers do not have an individual opt-out from this 48-hour average. The opt-out that some office or warehouse staff sign under the general Working Time Regulations does not apply to road transport mobile workers, and operators that treat it as if it does are storing up a compliance problem. If a signed opt-out is sitting in a driver’s HR file, it does not extend the road transport limit.

A driver can work up to 60 hours in a single week only if the 48-hour average is still respected across the reference period. This is where many systems fail: the operator sees a busy week as exceptional, but does not check the rolling average after the next two or three high-work weeks.

Night work limits

For goods vehicle operations, night time is normally midnight to 4am. If night work is performed, working time must not exceed 10 hours in the relevant 24-hour period unless a workforce or collective agreement permits a different arrangement. Night work should be visible in planning reports, not discovered only after a tachograph infringement review.

Breaks under the working time rules

Mobile workers must not work more than 6 consecutive hours without a break. Where total working time is more than 6 hours but not more than 9 hours, breaks must add up to at least 30 minutes. Where working time exceeds 9 hours, breaks must total at least 45 minutes. Breaks can be split, but each part should be at least 15 minutes.

These are working time breaks, not a replacement for drivers’ hours break rules. Operators need to look at both. A tachograph report may show the 4.5-hour driving break correctly while the working day still raises a separate break or total-hours issue.

Practical pattern seen in audits

A common pattern is a driver who starts with a 15-minute walkaround check, spends 90 minutes loading, drives within the legal limit, then waits at a site with the wrong mode selected. The tachograph may not show a driving-hours breach, but the working time record is unreliable because loading, checks and waiting have not been classified correctly. Once several drivers follow the same habit, the operator can lose sight of the 48-hour average.

“When I sit down with a Transport Manager preparing for a public inquiry, the working time gap is almost always the same. The tachograph file is tidy, but no one can produce a rolling 17-week average that ties to payroll, manual entries and agency hours. That is the document I want them holding before DVSA or a Traffic Commissioner asks for it.” Andrew Logan, Transport Compliance Adviser, Operator Licence Ltd.

Records, debrief and management oversight

A defensible system should connect tachograph analysis, manual entries, timesheets, loading records, agency declarations and payroll data. Records must be retained for 2 years. Managers should also be able to explain what happens when the average approaches the limit, when a 60-hour week appears, or when a driver repeatedly records large amounts of POA.

The debrief trail matters as much as the figures. If a driver is shown an infringement or a working time concern, the operator should record what was discussed, what evidence was reviewed, what training or coaching followed, and how a repeat will be avoided. At a follow-up audit or public inquiry, that paper trail is often the difference between a recorded concern and a regulatory finding.

Read this guide alongside the official GOV.UK working time rules for goods vehicles. GOV.UK remains the primary source; this page explains the practical controls operators should build around those rules.

Working time checklist for HGV operators

• Confirm which drivers and mobile workers are in scope.
• Set the reference period and keep written evidence of any 26-week agreement.
• Monitor the rolling 48-hour average, not only weekly shift totals.
• Flag any week approaching or exceeding 60 working hours.
• Identify night work between 00:00 and 04:00 for goods vehicles.
• Check working time breaks separately from tachograph driving breaks.
• Challenge POA entries where the duration was not known in advance.
• Obtain written declarations from any driver with a second relevant employer.
• Keep working time records for 2 years and tie them to payroll and tachograph data.
• Record what was said at every debrief and the action taken afterwards.

Where Operator Licence Ltd can help

Operator Licence Ltd can help review your working time evidence, identify the gaps between tachograph data, manual entries, agency hours and payroll, and connect you with the right specialist support for HGV driver working time and drivers’ hours compliance. Start with the related guides below, or use them to brief your Transport Manager before your next internal review.