Working time, rest periods and tachograph (ARV/OTR)
Questions here test the driving-time regime for goods vehicles over 3.5 t, the Swiss night and Sunday driving bans, and your practical handling of the smart tachograph. The rules are cumulative: daily, weekly and fortnightly limits all apply at once.
Driving time and breaks
- Daily driving 9 hours, extendable to 10 hours twice per week.
- Weekly driving 56 hours; two consecutive weeks 90 hours.
- After 4.5 hours of driving, a break of at least 45 minutes, splittable into 15 minutes then 30 minutes, in that order.
- Daily rest 11 hours, reducible to 9 hours a maximum of three times between weekly rests.
- Weekly rest 45 hours, reducible to 24 hours with equivalent compensation taken in one block.
- The break is for recovery: it may not be spent loading, and time spent as a passenger in a moving vehicle only counts under the specific conditions of the ordinance.
Swiss specifics
Heavy vehicles over 3.5 t are subject to a night driving ban from 22:00 to 05:00 and a Sunday and public-holiday driving ban, with cantonal exceptions for perishable goods, airports and combined transport. Plan the journey so the ban does not force you to park somewhere unsafe.
Tachograph
Use the driver card personally, select the correct mode (driving, other work, availability, rest), make manual entries at the start of the day for any work done away from the vehicle, and keep 28 days of records plus the current day available for inspection. Use the ferry/train and out-of-scope functions only where genuinely applicable. Printouts must be legible and signed when requested.
Worked example
Start at 06:00. Drive 06:00–08:00 (2 h), other work 08:00–08:30 (30 min), drive 08:30–11:00 (2 h 30). Total driving at 11:00 is 4 h 30, so a 45-minute break is due at that moment. The 30 minutes of other work does not count as a break: only rest or availability in the required block does. Taking 15 minutes at 11:00 and 30 minutes at 11:45 satisfies the rule; taking 30 then 15 does not.
Traps
Counting loading time as a break; splitting the break as 30 + 15; forgetting the night and Sunday bans; driving on a colleague's card; leaving the mode on "other work" while driving.