Thinking you’re exempt from EU Drivers’ Hours Rules?

13 February 2024

Are you an Operator who may be thinking that you’re exempt from the EU Drivers’ Hours Rules? Maybe you’re also on the fence as to whether any exemptions do in fact apply (whether this be to the EU Drivers’ Hours Rules or the GB Domestic Rules). The rules are very much far from black and white and you should seek advice first before determining whether any exemptions do apply to all, or part, of your operation.

The starting point here is that an Operator cannot ‘choose’ whether its operations are under the EU Drivers’ Hours Rules or not. Generally speaking, if work is conducted in a goods vehicle where the maximum permitted mass (including any trailer) is more than 3.5 tonnes then the EU Drivers’ Hours rules will apply though there are exemptions dependent on the type of work that is being done. The exemptions are contained in the retained EU regulation – EU561/2006 and also in the Community Drivers’ Hours and Recording Equipment Regulations 2007. The main exemptions that we are being asked about currently are in relation to agricultural/farming vehicles, for the maintenance of utilities and those used for road maintenance or control. Whilst the legislation appears to be relatively simple on the face of it, the exemptions contained are not as broad as they may look and the interpretation of the wording of the exemptions is not straight forward. In particular, with the use of vehicles in connection with utilities, it is the maintenance of those utilities networks rather than any new construction of such systems that the exemption applies to. If an exemption does apply it may also exempt from the requirement to use a tachograph. Again this is complex however, if the driver does mixed work – in other words, some exempt work and some not – then using the tachograph for all work may well be the only sensible option. Furthermore there are requirements to keep records for goods vehicle operators under the GB domestic code, and the tachograph can be used instead of the traditional logbook.

With the above in mind, however, if you do think that an exemption to the EU Drivers’ Hours rules applies to your operation this will mean that you potentially default to the GB Domestic Rules! These regulations also have exemptions that should be considered even further. For example, the Drivers’ Hours (Goods Vehicles) (Exemptions) Regulations 1986 contain emergency provisions for Goods Vehicle Operators who operate under the GB Domestic Rules. Again, the wording of the exemptions contained in the legislation is not straight forward and actually provides for very specific circumstances to which the exemptions apply, for example there has to be some kind of serious interruption in the maintenance of public services for the supply of utilities or in the use of roads etc. Whilst there are exemptions to the GB Domestic Rules, those do not exempt an Operator from the record keeping obligations which also requires consideration.

The irony here is that exemptions and exclusions are designed to ease the regulatory burden for effected operations, yet in practice, given how they are approached by the authorities, they often actually increase the complexity!

If you are unsure as to whether any exemptions apply to your operation, please do contact our Regulatory team for specific advice here.