The wedding shuttle timetable
Your 16-seat minibus is booked for a wedding shuttle on Saturday. You insert your driver card at 07:30. The planned driving is: 07:45–09:30 (1 h 45 min), 10:00–11:30 (1 h 30 min), 12:15–13:45 (1 h 30 min) and 14:30–16:15 (1 h 45 min). Between trips you wait at the venue. You have taken a 30-minute break at 09:30, a 45-minute break at 11:30 and a 30-minute break at 13:45. The organiser now asks you to add a 17:00–18:30 trip. You have had no other driving in the week and have had a full weekly rest. The minibus is in scope for EU driver-hours rules and the tachograph is working.
1. Calculate total driving and check break compliance up to 16:15. Is the 13:45 break correctly placed?
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Driving up to 16:15: 1 h 45 + 1 h 30 + 1 h 30 + 1 h 45 = 6 h 30 min. That is within the normal 9-hour daily driving limit. The first 4 h 30 min period: after the 07:45–09:30 drive you had 1 h 45; the 10:00–11:30 drive brings it to 3 h 15. The 45-minute break at 11:30 is valid and starts a new period. You then drove 12:15–13:45, reaching 4 h 45 total for the day, but only 1 h 30 since the valid 45-minute break, so the 11:30 break was correctly placed before the 4 h 30 limit. The 13:45 break is not required but is useful: it resets the current 4 h 30 period. The 30-minute breaks at 09:30 and 13:45 do not by themselves satisfy the 45-minute break rule unless split as 15 + 30 in the correct order, but no infringement has occurred.
2. Can you add the 17:00–18:30 trip and still comply with the 9-hour daily driving limit and daily rest?
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Adding 1 h 30 gives 6 h 30 + 1 h 30 = 8 h driving, still inside the 9-hour daily limit and well inside the 10-hour extension. Since the last break at 13:45, the driving would be 14:30–16:15 (1 h 45) plus 17:00–18:30 (1 h 30) = 3 h 15, so no further break is needed before 18:30. The critical point is daily rest: if you finish at 18:30, you need 11 hours of uninterrupted daily rest before your next duty. That means you cannot start again before 05:30 the next day. If the organiser wants you back at 05:00, the plan fails and you must either use a reduced daily rest of at least 9 hours (if you still have a reduction available) or decline the extra trip. You should also record the additional driving on the tachograph and keep the 07:30–18:30 duty within the available weekly and fortnightly driving limits. So the trip is permissible only if the next start is at 05:30 or later, or a lawful reduced rest is used.
3. What should you tell the organiser and how should you manage the waiting time and tachograph records?
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Tell the organiser that the extra trip is possible only if your next duty can start no earlier than 05:30, because your daily rest must be 11 hours from 18:30. Do not accept a 05:00 start on the basis that the minibus is available; the limit applies to you as the driver. During the waits, record the time correctly as break or other work according to what you actually do. Do not use the tachograph to hide the additional trip, and do not switch the card to break while you are cleaning, refuelling or supervising passengers if that is work. If the organiser changes the timetable again, recalculate driving time and break intervals before moving off. If the schedule cannot be met lawfully, offer a second driver or a shorter route rather than exceeding driving time or cutting rest.