EU 561 driving time and rest, for the person planning the day.
Regulation (EC) 561/2006 is short, and almost nobody who plans routes has read it. Most of the working knowledge in a dispatch office is inherited from the last dispatcher, which is why the same three mistakes keep costing the same fines. This is the whole thing in the order you would actually need it.
The limits, in one table.
These are the figures the regulation sets. Everything else on this page is what happens around them.
| What | Limit | The exception |
|---|---|---|
| Daily driving | 9 hours | 10 hours, twice in a week |
| Weekly driving | 56 hours | Never more, and the Working Time Directive still applies |
| Driving in any two consecutive weeks | 90 hours | No exception |
| Break | 45 minutes after 4.5 hours of driving | Split as 15 minutes then 30 minutes, in that order |
| Daily rest | 11 hours | 9 hours, up to three times between two weekly rests |
| Split daily rest | 3 hours then 9 hours | Totals 12, not 11 |
| Weekly rest | 45 hours | 24 hours reduced, with compensation owed |
| Latest start of a weekly rest | After six 24-hour periods | 12 days for some international passenger work only |
A week here means Monday 00:00 to Sunday 24:00, not any rolling seven days. That distinction is where a surprising number of infringements come from.
A legal driving day, drawn to scale.
The regulation is a list of durations, and durations laid end to end are understood in a second in a way a table of numbers is not. Note where the break falls: inside the driving, not after it.
The break rule people get wrong.
After four and a half hours of accumulated driving, a driver takes 45 minutes. It can be split, but only into 15 minutes followed by 30 minutes, and only in that order. Thirty then fifteen is not compliant. Neither is three lots of fifteen. And the 4.5 hours is cumulative driving, not time since the last stop, so a driver who has been in and out of a yard all morning may be closer to the limit than the odometer suggests.
Daily rest, and the three reductions.
A regular daily rest is 11 uninterrupted hours in each 24-hour period. It can be reduced to 9, at most three times between any two weekly rests. It can also be split into 3 hours followed by 9, which costs an hour: the split version totals 12, not 11, which is the trade for the flexibility.
- Regular daily rest: 11 hours, uninterrupted
- Reduced: 9 hours, no more than three times between two weekly rest periods
- Split: 3 hours then 9 hours, totalling 12
- Multi-manning: 9 hours of daily rest inside a 30-hour period, and both drivers must be aboard for the first hour
- Ferry or train: a regular daily rest may be interrupted at most twice, for no more than an hour in total, and the driver needs access to a bunk
Weekly rest, and the debt you take on.
A weekly rest must begin no later than the end of six 24-hour periods after the end of the previous one. A regular weekly rest is 45 hours; a reduced one is at least 24. Reducing it creates a debt: the missing hours have to be taken in one block, attached to a rest of at least 9 hours, before the end of the third week following. In any two consecutive weeks a driver must take either two regular weekly rests, or one regular and one reduced.
- Regular weekly rest: 45 hours
- Reduced weekly rest: at least 24 hours, with the difference owed back
- Compensation taken in one block, attached to a rest of at least 9 hours, within three weeks
- Two consecutive weeks must contain at least one regular weekly rest
What the Mobility Package changed.
The 2020 package added obligations that are about where the rest happens rather than how long it is, and they are the ones most often missed by fleets running long international rotations.
- A regular weekly rest may not be taken in the vehicle. The employer pays for suitable accommodation
- In international freight a driver may take two reduced weekly rests in a row, then owes both compensations
- The operator must organise work so the driver can return home or to the operational centre every four weeks, or every three where two reduced weekly rests were taken consecutively
- Border crossings must be recorded on the tachograph
Where this stops being a document and becomes a plan.
None of the above is hard to understand. It is hard to apply at four in the afternoon to eleven trucks at once. In VIGILFleet the schedule is drawn on the route itself: the 45 minute break lands where on the road the driver will actually be at 4.5 hours of driving, the daily rest lands where the day ends, and the driver's remaining time is read from the tachograph rather than estimated.
- Breaks and rests positioned along the real road geometry, not a straight line
- Remaining driving time per driver, read from the tachograph through the telematics feed
- Day cycles labelled, so two rest markers near each other are readable as Day 1 and Day 2
- Driving ban windows checked against the same plan, per country
One honest limitation. The planner in VIGILFleet is a dispatcher's preview, built to answer "can this run be done by Thursday". It is not a tachograph analysis tool and it is not the record that matters in a roadside check. Use it to plan; use your tachograph analysis for compliance.
Questions people actually ask.
- How long can a truck driver drive in one day under EU 561?
- Nine hours, which may be extended to ten hours no more than twice in a fixed week.
- Can the 45 minute break be split?
- Yes, but only into a 15 minute break followed by a 30 minute break, in that order, within the 4.5 hours of driving.
- How many times can a daily rest be reduced to 9 hours?
- Up to three times between any two weekly rest periods, with no compensation required for the daily reductions.
- Does the compensation for a reduced weekly rest have to be taken in one block?
- Yes. It must be attached to a rest period of at least nine hours and taken before the end of the third week following the week in question.
- Can a driver sleep in the cab for the weekly rest?
- Not for a regular weekly rest of 45 hours. Since the Mobility Package that must be taken in suitable accommodation paid for by the employer. A reduced weekly rest of 24 hours may still be taken in the vehicle where it has suitable sleeping facilities and is parked appropriately.
- How often must a driver return home?
- The operator must organise the work so the driver can return to the operational centre or their place of residence every four weeks, or every three weeks where the driver has taken two consecutive reduced weekly rests.
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See the rules drawn on your own routes.
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