Driver hours, rest periods and tachograph rules for minibus use
This domain tests whether you know when the EU driver-hours and tachograph rules bite on a minibus, what the limits are when they do, and how to use a digital tachograph correctly.
When the rules apply
- EU Regulation 561/2006 covers the carriage of passengers by road. Key exemptions: regular services with a route length of 50 km or less, and vehicles with 10–17 seats used exclusively for the non-commercial carriage of passengers.
- "Non-commercial" means no payment for the transport. A paid tour, a hired minibus with driver, or paid airport transfers normally bring you back inside the full rules.
- National Danish provisions can add requirements in specific cases, so check the exact use before assuming an exemption.
The limits when in scope
- Maximum 9 hours driving per day, extendable to 10 hours twice a week; maximum 56 hours per week and 90 hours in any two consecutive weeks.
- After 4.5 hours of driving: a 45-minute break, which may be split into 15 minutes followed by 30 minutes.
- Daily rest 11 hours, reducible to 9 hours up to three times between weekly rests. Weekly rest 45 hours, reducible to 24 hours with compensating rest taken in a block.
Using the digital tachograph
- Insert the driver card before moving. Make manual entries for work done since the start of the day before the card went in.
- Switch mode correctly: driving, other work (checks, loading, paperwork), availability (waiting time known in advance), rest/break.
- Carry and be able to produce the current day plus the previous 28 days; printouts on request; take the record with you when changing vehicle.
- Professional drivers also need a driver CPC (35 hours of training every 5 years) and the periodic medical certificate for group 2 licences.
Worked example
A 14-passenger minibus is hired with a driver for a paid wedding tour of 180 km, returning the same evening. Because the carriage is commercial, EU rules and the tachograph apply: the driver records other work for the pre-departure check and cleaning, drives, takes the 45-minute break after no more than 4.5 hours, and records the daily rest afterwards. Compare a school's own 16-seat minibus on a 30 km trip with a volunteer driver and no payment - that falls under the non-commercial exemption.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating every minibus as exempt.
- Forgetting manual entries after a forgotten card.
- Splitting the break as 30 + 15 instead of 15 + 30.
- Leaving the mode on "other work" for the whole day, or on driving while loading.