Lorry and coach drivers face limits on working hours

Lorry and coach drivers are to benefit from enhanced protection against working excessive hours under draft Regulations to be consulted on in 2004.

The Regulations will implement Directive 2002/15/EC on the organisation of the working time of persons performing mobile road transport activities. The Directive's provisions must be in force by 23 March 2005, although self-employed drivers will not be affected for a further four years. To help inform its 2004 consultation, the Department for Transport (DfT) has issued a consultation document1.

The Directive supplements existing EU rules (Directive 3820/85/EC) on the working hours of drivers and crew of heavy goods and public service vehicles. The DfT's proposals, which will cost employers £530m a year, will limit working time:

  • to an average 48-hour-week over a four-month reference period;

  • to 60 hours in any single week;

  • to 10 hours in any 24-hour period that includes any "night time" (which lasts from midnight to 4am); and

  • to no more than six consecutive hours without a break. Work lasting between six and nine hours requires a break of at least 30 minutes, and work in excess of nine hours requires breaks totalling 45 minutes.

    In addition:

  • employers must keep working time records for two years; and

  • examiners from the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency will enforce the limits.

    Unlike other working time legislation, individuals cannot "opt out" of the average 48-hour week. But breaks, rest periods and "periods of availability" do not count towards any of the working time limits. The DfT particularly seeks comments on derogations in the Directive that allow the four-month reference period and the night work limit to be lengthened.

    The proposals will complete the implementation of a working time package that started on 23 November 1993, with the adoption of Council Directive 93/104/EC.

    This introduced protection for most employees, but not for those
    in the transport sector and certain other groups such as junior doctors. The UK implemented the 1993 Directive through the Working Time Regulations 1998.

    On 1 August 2000, the Horizontal Amending Directive brought most of the excluded
    workers within the scope of the
    1993 Directive.

    The Directive was implemented in the UK on 1 August 20032.

    1 "Consultation on the UK's proposal for implementing the working time Directive for mobile workers in the road transport sector (2002/15/EC)", www.dft.gov.uk/freight/rtd. Replies should be sent by 23 January 2004 to: workingtime@dft.gsi.gov.uk.
    2 "The Working Time (Amendment) Regulation 2003", SI 2003 No. 1684, www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/.