Driving and Rest Time Rules
This domain covers Regulation (EC) 561/2006 and its enforcement in Greece: daily, weekly and fortnightly driving limits, the break rule, daily and weekly rest, multi-manning and how the limits interact with other work such as loading.
Driving limits
- Maximum 9 hours driving per day, extendable to 10 hours twice in a week.
- Maximum 56 hours driving in any week and 90 hours in any two consecutive weeks.
- The working day itself is bounded too: a daily rest must be completed within 24 hours of the end of the previous rest.
Breaks
After 4.5 hours of driving you must take a 45-minute break, which may be split into a first period of at least 15 minutes and a second of at least 30 minutes, in that order. Loading, unloading and paperwork are other work, not break.
Daily and weekly rest
Normal daily rest is 11 uninterrupted hours, reducible to 9 hours no more than three times between two weekly rests, with the reduction compensated. It may also be split into three hours plus nine. Normal weekly rest is 45 hours, reducible to 24 hours with equivalent compensation taken before the end of the third following week. Where two drivers are on board, each must have 9 hours rest within any 30-hour period.
Other work and periods of availability
Time spent loading, waiting at a ramp without being free to dispose of your time, or doing administrative work counts towards the 24-hour cycle and affects when rest can start. Periods of availability must be known in advance and recorded as such.
Worked example
A driver starts at 06:00, drives 2:00, takes 15 minutes, drives 2:30 more, reaching 4:30 of driving. Reasoning: he must now take at least 30 minutes, giving a 45-minute total split 15 plus 30 in the correct order; the break is legal. Had he taken 30 minutes first and 15 later, the split would be invalid and the break would not be complete.
Traps that cost marks
Believing a 45-minute break must be taken in one block; counting time on a loading bay as break; using the 10-hour extension every day; forgetting the compensation for reduced weekly rest; treating a ferry crossing as rest when the driver is not free to dispose of his time.