What is the maximum weekly working time for truck and bus drivers in the EU?

48 hours on average. Article 4(a) of Directive 2002/15/EC caps average weekly working time at 48 hours and allows a single week of up to 60 hours only if the average over four months does not exceed 48. A derogation under Article 8 may lengthen that reference period, but not beyond six months. The figures apply through national law: Germany averages over four calendar months or 16 weeks, and Great Britain over 17 weeks where an agreement or the employer's written notice provides for it.

Does waiting time count as working time for a driver?

It depends on whether its length is known in advance. Waiting at the workstation for loading or unloading whose foreseeable duration is not known in advance is working time (Article 3(a)). Waiting at frontiers, waiting due to traffic prohibitions and accompanying a vehicle on a ferry or train are periods of availability, excluded from working time, when the period and its foreseeable duration are known in advance (Article 3(b)) — without prejudice to national law or agreements between the social partners that compensate or limit such periods.

How long a break does a driver need under the working time directive?

A person performing mobile road transport activities may in no circumstances work more than six consecutive hours without a break. Article 5 requires a break of at least 30 minutes when working hours total between six and nine, and of at least 45 minutes when they total more than nine; breaks may be split into periods of at least 15 minutes each. The thresholds are counted in working time, not driving time, and apply without prejudice to the level of protection provided by Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85, since repealed and replaced by Regulation (EC) No 561/2006, or, failing that, by the AETR.

Does Directive 2002/15/EC apply to self-employed drivers?

Article 2(1) says it applies to self-employed drivers from 23 March 2009, without prejudice to a subparagraph under which the Commission had to report on the consequences of excluding them and then submit a proposal either setting out the modalities for their inclusion, in respect of certain self-employed drivers subject to local constraints, or not to include them. Article 3(e) defines a self-employed driver by criteria including no employment contract or hierarchical relationship, freedom to organise the work and to serve several customers, and income that depends directly on profits; drivers who do not meet them have the same obligations and rights as mobile workers. Great Britain's 2005 Regulations have covered self-employed drivers since 11 May 2012.

How long must working time records be kept?

At least two years after the end of the period covered, under Article 9(b) of Directive 2002/15/EC. The employer is responsible for recording the working time of mobile workers and must give them copies of the records on request. Germany and Great Britain keep the two years; Spain's Royal Decree 1561/1995 requires at least three.

Directive 2002/15/EC: working time rules for truck and bus drivers

Directive 2002/15/EC sets the European Union’s minimum requirements for the working time of people who perform mobile road transport activities: the drivers and other travelling staff employed by undertakings established in a Member State, participating in road transport activities covered by the Community driving-time rules of Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85 or, failing that, by the AETR, and self-employed drivers from 23 March 2009, on the terms of Article 2(1). Working time under the Directive covers more than driving. It includes loading and unloading, helping passengers on and off, cleaning and technical maintenance, formalities with police and customs, and waiting at the workstation for loading or unloading whose length is not known in advance. It may not exceed 48 hours a week on average, and may reach 60 hours in a single week only if the average over four months does not exceed 48 (Article 4(a)). The Directive, of 11 March 2002, is addressed to the Member States (Article 16), which had until 23 March 2005 to adopt the national measures that apply it (Article 14(1)).

Status as at 27 October 2026. Read on that day: the Official Journal text of Directive 2002/15/EC; the Official Journal text of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 as adopted in 2006; sections 2 and 21a of Germany’s Working Hours Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz); Spain’s Royal Decree 1561/1995 in its consolidated text, whose last update was published on 2 July 2020; and Great Britain’s Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005 in their latest revised version, which listed no known outstanding effects.

Who the Directive covers

Article 2(1) sets the scope through the employer and the work. The Directive “shall apply to mobile workers employed by undertakings established in a Member State, participating in road transport activities covered by Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85 or, failing that, by the AETR Agreement”. A mobile worker is “any worker forming part of the travelling staff, including trainees and apprentices, who is in the service of an undertaking which operates transport services for passengers or goods by road for hire or reward or on its own account” (Article 3(d)).

Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85, which recital 1 describes as laying down “common rules on driving times and rest periods for drivers”, has been repealed. Article 28 of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 reads: “Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85 is hereby repealed and replaced by this Regulation.” Regulation 561/2006 entered into force on 11 April 2007, except for Articles 10(5), 26(3) and (4) and 27, which did so on 1 May 2006 (Article 29). The German and British texts described below define who they cover by reference to Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 and the AETR. Which vehicles and journeys that Regulation covers, and where the AETR Agreement applies in its place, is set out in driving time and rest rules.

For self-employed drivers the Directive set a later date and a review. Article 2(1) provides that, without prejudice to the subparagraph that follows, the Directive “shall apply to self-employed drivers from 23 March 2009”. That subparagraph required the Commission, at the latest two years before that date, to report on the consequences of excluding self-employed drivers, and then to submit a proposal whose aim could be either “to set out the modalities for the inclusion of the self-employed drivers within the scope of the Directive in respect of certain self-employed drivers who are not participating in road transport activities in other Member States and who are subject to local constraints for objective reasons, such as peripheral location, long internal distances and a particular competitive environment”, or “not to include self-employed drivers within the scope of the Directive”.

Article 3(e) defines a self-employed driver: a person whose main occupation is to transport passengers or goods by road for hire or reward under cover of a Community licence or another professional authorisation, who is entitled to work for himself, is not tied to an employer by an employment contract or any other type of working hierarchical relationship, is free to organise the work, whose income depends directly on the profits made, and who is free to have commercial relations with several customers. Drivers who do not satisfy these criteria “shall be subject to the same obligations and benefit from the same rights as those provided for mobile workers by this Directive”.

Article 2(2) applies Council Directive 93/104/EC of 23 November 1993 concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time to mobile workers excluded from the scope of Directive 2002/15/EC; recital 7 says that those workers, other than self-employed drivers, “benefit from the basic protection provided for in Directive 93/104/EC”. Where Directive 2002/15/EC contains more specific provisions, it takes precedence over Directive 93/104/EC (Article 2(3)). Under Article 2(4), Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85 and, where necessary, the AETR take precedence over Directive 2002/15/EC, which “shall supplement” them. The rules on when a driver working in another Member State counts as posted are described in cabotage and posted drivers.

What counts as working time

For a mobile worker, working time is “the time from the beginning to the end of work, during which the mobile worker is at his workstation, at the disposal of the employer and exercising his functions or activities” (Article 3(a)1). The workstation is more than the cab. Article 3(c) names the main place of business of the undertaking together with its subsidiary places of business, the vehicle used to carry out the duties, and “any other place in which activities connected with transportation are carried out”.

Directive 2002/15/EC, Article 3(a) and (b): what is working time and what is not.
Category	What the Directive puts in it	Article
Working time	Driving; loading and unloading; assisting passengers boarding and disembarking from the vehicle; cleaning and technical maintenance; all other work intended to ensure the safety of the vehicle, its cargo and passengers or to fulfil legal or regulatory obligations directly linked to the transport operation under way, including monitoring of loading and unloading and administrative formalities with police, customs and immigration officers	3(a)1
Working time	Times when the worker cannot dispose freely of his time and is required to be at the workstation, ready to take up normal work, in particular while awaiting loading or unloading where the foreseeable duration is not known in advance	3(a)1
Period of availability, excluded from working time	Periods other than breaks and rest in which the worker is not required to remain at the workstation but must be available to answer calls to start or resume driving or to carry out other work, the period and its foreseeable duration being known in advance; in particular accompanying a vehicle carried by ferryboat or by train, waiting at frontiers and waiting due to traffic prohibitions	3(b), first indent
Period of availability, excluded from working time	For mobile workers driving in a team, the time spent sitting next to the driver or on the couchette while the vehicle is in motion	3(b), second indent
Excluded from working time	Break times under Article 5 and rest times under Article 6	3(a)

Two provisions qualify the exclusion of availability. Article 3(a) excludes periods of availability “without prejudice to the legislation of Member States or agreements between the social partners providing that such periods should be compensated or limited”. And under the first indent of Article 3(b) the periods and their foreseeable duration must be known in advance by the mobile worker, “that is to say either before departure or just before the actual start of the period in question, or under the general conditions negotiated between the social partners and/or under the terms of the legislation of the Member States”. For self-employed drivers the same definition of working time applies, at the disposal of the client rather than an employer, but without “general administrative work that is not directly linked to the specific transport operation under way” (Article 3(a)2).

Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 refers to this definition. In its text as adopted in 2006, Article 4(e) defines “other work” as “all activities which are defined as working time in Article 3(a) of Directive 2002/15/EC except ‘driving’, including any work for the same or another employer, within or outside of the transport sector”.

48 hours on average, 60 in any one week

Article 4(a) requires the Member States to ensure that “the average weekly working time may not exceed 48 hours. The maximum weekly working time may be extended to 60 hours only if, over four months, an average of 48 hours a week is not exceeded.” A week is the period between 00.00 hours on Monday and 24.00 hours on Sunday (Article 3(g)). Article 4(a) also gives precedence to the fourth and fifth subparagraphs of Article 6(1) of Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85, or the fourth subparagraph of Article 6(1) of the AETR, “in so far as the drivers concerned do not exceed an average working time of 48 hours a week over four months”.

Hours worked for more than one employer are added together. Under Article 4(b), “working time for different employers is the sum of the working hours”; the employer asks the mobile worker in writing for an account of time worked for another employer, and the mobile worker provides that information in writing.

The four months can be lengthened by derogation, up to a limit: the option to derogate from Article 4 “may not result in the establishment of a reference period exceeding six months, for calculation of the average maximum weekly working time of forty-eight hours” (Article 8(2)). Recital 13 adds that employers “should keep records of instances when the maximum average working week applicable to mobile workers is exceeded”. Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 ties the weekly limit on driving to this maximum; how the two fit into one week is covered in driving time and rest rules.

Breaks, rest and night work

Article 5 sets a break rule counted in working time. Persons performing mobile road transport activities may “in no circumstances work for more than six consecutive hours without a break”. Working time “shall be interrupted by a break of at least 30 minutes, if working hours total between six and nine hours, and of at least 45 minutes, if working hours total more than nine hours” (Article 5(1)), and breaks “may be subdivided into periods of at least 15 minutes each” (Article 5(2)). The rule applies “without prejudice to the level of protection provided by Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85 or, failing that, by the AETR Agreement”.

Article 6, headed “Rest periods”, provides only that apprentices and trainees are covered by the same provisions on rest time as other mobile workers under Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85 or, failing that, the AETR.

Night time is “a period of at least four hours, as defined by national law, between 00.00 hours and 07.00 hours” (Article 3(h)), and night work is any work performed during night time (Article 3(i)). Where night work is performed, Article 7(1) requires that daily working time not exceed ten hours in each 24-hour period, and that compensation for night work be given in accordance with national legislative measures, collective agreements, agreements between the two sides of industry and/or national practice, “on condition that such compensation is not liable to endanger road safety”. Recital 11 gives the reason: research has shown that “long periods of night work can be detrimental to the health of workers and can endanger their safety and also road safety in general”.

Derogations, more favourable rules and penalties

Article 8(1) allows derogations from Articles 4 and 7, the weekly and night-work limits, “for objective or technical reasons or reasons concerning the organisation of work”. They may be adopted by collective agreements or agreements between the social partners or, if that is not possible, by laws, regulations or administrative provisions, provided the representatives of the employers and workers concerned are consulted and efforts are made to encourage social dialogue. Recital 16 states: “As a general rule, in the event of a derogation, the workers concerned must be given compensatory rest periods”.

Article 10 runs the other way. The Directive does not affect a Member State’s right to apply or introduce provisions “more favourable to the protection of the health and safety of persons performing mobile road transport activities”, and its implementation “shall not constitute valid grounds for reducing the general level of protection afforded to workers referred to in Article 2(1)”. Article 11 requires the Member States to lay down a system of penalties for breaches of the national provisions adopted under the Directive and to ensure that they are applied; the penalties “shall be effective, proportional and dissuasive”. Article 14(3) reaches past the employer: “Member States shall take care that consignors, freight forwarders, prime contractors, subcontractors and enterprises which employ mobile workers comply with the relevant provisions of this Directive.”

The Directive also gave the Commission tasks: an assessment of the night-work provisions by 23 March 2007 (Article 7(2)), and a report every two years on implementation by the Member States, which in turn report to the Commission every two years (Article 13). Under Article 12, once the Directive had entered into force, the Community was to begin negotiations with the relevant third countries on applying equivalent rules to mobile workers employed by undertakings established there.

Records and information

Article 9 adds two duties. Mobile workers are to be informed of the relevant national requirements, the internal rules of the undertaking and agreements between the two sides of industry, in particular collective agreements and any company agreements reached on the basis of the Directive (Article 9(a)). And the working time of persons performing mobile road transport activities is to be recorded (Article 9(b)): “Records shall be kept for at least two years after the end of the period covered. Employers shall be responsible for recording the working time of mobile workers. Employers shall upon request provide mobile workers with copies of the records of hours worked.” Tachograph records are covered in the digital tachograph and driver card.

How Germany, Spain and Great Britain apply it

The Directive’s limits reach drivers and employers through national law. The table gives the main figures of three national texts.

Working time of mobile workers in national law, as read on 27 October 2026.
Country and text	Weekly working time	Breaks	Night work	Records
Germany: Arbeitszeitgesetz, § 21a and § 2	48 hours a week; up to 60 if an average of 48 is not exceeded within four calendar months or 16 weeks (§ 21a(4)). A collective agreement, or a works agreement based on one, may set working time differently for objective, technical or work-organisation reasons, without exceeding 48 hours a week on average over six calendar months (§ 21a(6))	No rule in § 21a, which applies the rest of the Act unless its own paragraphs provide otherwise (§ 21a(1))	No limit in § 21a itself. Night time is 23:00 to 06:00 and night work is work covering more than two hours of it (§ 2(3) and (4))	Employer records working time; the records are kept for at least two years; copy to the employee on request (§ 21a(7))
Spain: Real Decreto 1561/1995, Articles 8, 10 and 10 bis	Effective working time of no more than 48 hours a week on average over four months and never more than 60 in a week, where an irregular distribution of the working day over the year has been set by collective agreement or, failing that, by agreement between the undertaking and the workers’ representatives; the four months may be extended to a maximum of six by a national sectoral collective agreement for objective, technical or work-organisation reasons (Article 10 bis.1)	A continuous working day of more than six consecutive hours is interrupted by a break of at least 30 minutes, at least 45 when total work exceeds nine hours a day; fractions of at least 15 minutes, except on regular passenger routes of no more than 50 kilometres (Article 10 bis.4)	No more than ten hours a day in each 24-hour period for a worker who performs night work without being classed as a night worker (Article 10 bis.2)	Employer keeps a record for at least three years after the period; copy on request (Article 10 bis.5)
Great Britain: Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005	No more than 60 hours in a week and an average of 48 over the reference period (regulation 4(1) and (2)): 17 weeks under a collective or workforce agreement or the employer’s written notice, extendable by agreement to no more than 26; otherwise fixed periods beginning on the Monday on or after 1 December, 1 April and 1 August (regulation 4(3) and (4))	No more than six hours without a break; at least 30 minutes when working time exceeds six hours but not nine, at least 45 when it exceeds nine; separate periods of at least 15 minutes (regulation 7)	Night time is midnight to 4 a.m. for goods vehicles and 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. for passenger vehicles (regulation 2); no more than 10 hours of working time in a 24-hour period with night work, extendable by collective or workforce agreement (regulation 9)	Records kept for at least two years; copy to the worker on request (regulation 11); self-employed drivers keep their own (regulation 11A)

Germany: section 21a of the Working Hours Act

Section 21a of the Arbeitszeitgesetz (ArbZG) applies the Act to the employment of employees as drivers or co-drivers in road transport activities within the meaning of Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 or the AETR, unless its own paragraphs provide otherwise, and leaves the provisions of those two instruments unaffected (§ 21a(1)). Its week runs from Monday 0:00 to Sunday 24:00 (§ 21a(2)). By way of derogation from the Act’s general definition in § 2(1), three kinds of time are not working time: the time an employee must be ready at the workplace to take up work; the time an employee must be ready to take up work on instruction without having to stay at the workplace; and, for employees who take turns at driving, the time spent beside the driver or in a sleeping cabin during the journey. The first two are excluded only if the period and its foreseeable duration are known in advance, at the latest immediately before the period begins; none of the three is rest time, and the first two are not breaks (§ 21a(3)). Rest periods follow the European rules for drivers and co-drivers and the AETR, for apprentices and interns as well (§ 21a(5)). Working times with several employers are added together (§ 2(1)), and the employer asks the employee in writing for a statement of time worked for another employer (§ 21a(8)).

Spain: Royal Decree 1561/1995

Spain’s decree on special working days separates effective working time (tiempo de trabajo efectivo) from presence time (tiempo de presencia) in the different transport sectors and in work at sea (Article 8.1). It defines mobile workers in road transport as workers forming part of the travelling staff in the service of an undertaking that provides transport services, naming drivers, assistants, conductors and other travelling auxiliary staff (Article 10.2); self-employed drivers are not mentioned in the text.

For road transport, presence time covers periods in which a mobile worker does no driving or other work and need not remain at the workplace but must be available for instructions (Article 10.4). It includes accompanying a vehicle carried on a ferry or train, and waiting at borders or because of traffic bans, provided the worker knows of these periods and their foreseeable duration in advance; otherwise they count as effective working time. It includes the first two hours of each wait for loading or unloading, the third and later hours being effective working time unless the foreseeable duration is known in advance under conditions agreed in national collective agreements or, failing those, lower-level ones. And in team driving it includes the time a mobile worker remains seated or lying in a berth while the vehicle is moving.

Presence time may not exceed 20 hours a week on average over a reference period of one month (Article 8.3), which a national sectoral collective agreement may extend to a maximum of two months (Article 10.5). Presence hours do not count towards the maximum ordinary working day or the limit on overtime and, unless compensated with equivalent paid rest, are paid at no less than ordinary hours (Article 8.3). No worker may work a total day of more than twelve hours, including any overtime (Article 8.2). Daily and weekly driving times and minimum rest for interurban transport follow Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 (Article 11).

Great Britain: the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005

The Regulations came into force on 4 April 2005 and extend to Great Britain only (regulation 1). Their Explanatory Note, which is not part of the Regulations, says they “implement the provisions of Council Directive 2002/15/EC”. They apply to mobile workers employed by, or doing work for, undertakings established in the United Kingdom who drive or travel in vehicles within Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 that are not exempted, or in AETR vehicles on transport operations wholly or partly outside the United Kingdom (regulation 3); the references to the United Kingdom were substituted with effect from 31 December 2020 by the Drivers’ Hours and Tachographs (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. Since 11 May 2012 they have also applied to self-employed drivers (regulation 3(1A), inserted by S.I. 2012/991). They do not apply to a mobile worker or self-employed driver who does work counted as working time on fewer than 11 days in a reference period shorter than 26 weeks, or on fewer than 16 days in any other reference period (regulation 3(4)(b)).

For a mobile worker the average includes leave. Regulation 4(5) adds to the hours worked the “excluded hours” of annual leave, sick leave and maternity, paternity, adoption or parental leave, and divides the total by the number of weeks in the reference period, counting a whole day as eight hours and a whole week as 48 (regulation 4(6) and (7)); for a self-employed driver the formula divides the hours worked alone. A period is a period of availability only if the mobile worker or self-employed driver knows before it starts about that period and its reasonably foreseeable duration (regulation 6(1)). The Secretary of State enforces the Regulations (regulation 16), and failing to comply with the relevant requirements is an offence (regulation 17).