Lorry drivers and working time: the 60-hour week, no opt-out, and the two-year record

By Laurentiu Niculescu · 25 September 2026 · 13 min read

A groundworks firm runs one 18-tonne tipper. The driver starts at 6am in the yard, loads the excavator attachments, does the walk-round check, drives, waits at the quarry, tips on site and ends the day sweeping out the body. He signed a 48-hour opt-out when he joined, like everyone else. For him it means nothing, because the law that governs his hours doesn't have one.

Drivers of heavier vehicles have their own working time law, with its own limits, its own reference periods and its own record. Most small firms that run one or two lorries have never read it.

Who counts as a mobile worker

The Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/639) sit alongside the tachograph and drivers' hours rules, and they apply to a narrower group than the main working time rules do.

Regulation 2 defines a mobile worker as any worker forming part of the travelling staff, trainees and apprentices included, in the service of an undertaking that operates transport services for goods or passengers by road "for hire or reward or on its own account". The last four words are the ones that catch construction firms. You do not have to be a haulier. A scaffolder moving its own tube and boards, or a plant hire firm delivering its own machines, is operating on its own account.

Regulation 3 then limits the regulations to mobile workers who drive or travel in vehicles covered by the assimilated drivers' hours rules, which is Regulation (EC) 561/2006 as it still has effect in the UK. For goods, GOV.UK puts that as most vehicles where the maximum permissible mass, trailer included, exceeds 3.5 tonnes. Crew count too. The labourer who rides in the cab to help unload is part of the travelling staff.

The van exemption most trades rely on

Plenty of electricians and builders drive something heavier than 3.5 tonnes and are still outside all of this, because of one exemption. GOV.UK lists vehicles up to 7.5 tonnes carrying materials, equipment or machinery for the driver's use in the course of their work, within 100 km of the base, where driving is not the driver's main activity and the transport is not for hire or reward. It names electricians and builders as the example.

So the Luton van an electrician drives to site is usually exempt. The 18-tonne tipper driven by a full-time driver is not, on two counts: it is over 7.5 tonnes, and driving is his main job. The line runs through the middle of a lot of small firms, and the same person can be on either side of it depending on which vehicle they took out that day.

Exempt drivers don't escape rules altogether. They fall under the GB domestic drivers' hours rules (ten hours' driving and eleven hours on duty in a working day, with off-road driving for building work or civil engineering counted as duty time) and under the ordinary Working Time Regulations 1998, where the 48-hour opt-out does exist.

Occasional drivers: count the days

A worker who only occasionally drives an in-scope vehicle is carved out by regulation 3(4)(b). The test is days, not hours: fewer than 11 days of in-scope work in a reference period shorter than 26 weeks, or fewer than 16 in a longer one. GOV.UK puts it as ten days or less, and fifteen or less.

That makes the day count itself something you need to be able to show. A site foreman who covers the tipper for a sick driver on nine days between August and December is an occasional mobile worker. On the eleventh day, the 2005 Regulations apply to him for that period, including the limits below, and his opt-out stops counting.

What counts as working time

Driving is the obvious part. The regulation 2 definition goes much further: loading and unloading, cleaning and technical maintenance, and all other work intended to ensure the safety of the vehicle and its load. GOV.UK's annex adds the daily defect check, training that is part of normal work, and time spent working in the warehouse or office.

Then there is waiting. Time at the workstation "awaiting loading or unloading where their foreseeable duration is not known in advance" is working time. The workstation includes the vehicle and any place where transport activities are carried out, so a driver sat in the cab at a quarry gate is at it.

The exception is a period of availability. Regulation 6(1) says a period only counts as one if the mobile worker knew about it, and its reasonably foreseeable duration, before it started. Accompanying a lorry on a ferry qualifies. So does the second member of a two-driver team sitting in the passenger seat. An open-ended queue behind six other wagons at a concrete batching plant does not, because nobody told the driver it would be 40 minutes.

Breaks, rest and genuine periods of availability are left out of the calculation by regulation 5. Everything else between the start and end of work goes in.

Sixty in a week, forty-eight on average, no opt-out

Regulation 4(1): working time, including overtime, shall not exceed 60 hours in a week. A week starts at midnight between Sunday and Monday.

Regulation 4(2): over the reference period, working time shall not exceed an average of 48 hours a week.

That is the whole limit. There is no individual opt-out anywhere in these regulations, and GOV.UK's working time annex for goods vehicle drivers states it in terms: "There is no 'opt-out' for individuals wishing to work longer than an average 48-hour week." The 60-hour ceiling is also absolute in a way the 1998 rules never are. A 62-hour week is a breach on its own, whatever the average says.

The reference period you probably have without knowing it

Unless something else has been set up, the reference periods are fixed ones, laid down in regulation 4(3)(c). Each begins at midnight at the start of the Monday on or after 1 April, 1 August and 1 December.

Worked through for this year, that gives:

• 6 April 2026 to 3 August 2026 (17 weeks)
• 3 August 2026 to 7 December 2026 (18 weeks)
• 7 December 2026 to 5 April 2027 (17 weeks)

So a driver who has been flat out on a groundworks contract since August is being measured against a period that closes on 7 December. Every 60-hour week between now and then needs lighter weeks inside the same window to bring the average back to 48.

A rolling 17 weeks, the version everyone assumes, only applies if a collective or workforce agreement provides for it, or if the employer has given the worker written notice that it intends to apply it. A collective or workforce agreement can stretch the period to as much as 26 weeks for objective or technical reasons, or reasons concerning the organisation of work. A manager's say-so does not.

Holiday doesn't buy headroom

The average is worked out by the formula in regulation 4(5): working time plus excluded hours, divided by the number of weeks. Excluded hours are annual leave, sick leave, and maternity, paternity, adoption or parental leave. Regulation 4(7) counts them at eight hours a day and 48 hours a week.

Run that for the current 18-week period. The ceiling is 48 times 18, which is 864 hours. A driver who takes two weeks' holiday in that window brings 96 excluded hours into the sum, which leaves 768 hours of actual working time for the other 16 weeks. That is 48 a week. The fortnight off counted as two ordinary 48-hour weeks, and it gave him no room at all for longer ones.

People expect the opposite. Under the 1998 rules, days off for leave or sickness are made up from the days worked after the reference period ends. Here they go in at a flat 48, which is why a firm that plans around "he's off for two weeks in October, he can do 60 the rest of the time" ends up over the limit.

Breaks and night work

Regulation 7 sets its own break rules, and they are stricter than the 20-minute break most people know (covered in our guide to recording breaks). No mobile worker may work more than six hours without a break. Between six and nine hours of working time needs a break of at least 30 minutes. Over nine hours needs at least 45. Either can be split into separate periods of at least 15 minutes each.

Night work has a different definition too. For goods vehicles, night time is midnight to 4am. Under regulation 9(1), a mobile worker who performs any night work in a 24-hour period must not have more than ten hours of working time in that period. A collective or workforce agreement can extend the ten hours for objective or technical reasons. There is no individual version of that either.

That rule bites on early starts. A concrete pour that has the tipper loading at 3:30am puts half an hour inside night time, and the driver's day is then capped at ten hours of working time, including the yard work afterwards. The separate night worker health assessment under the 1998 Regulations still applies to mobile workers, which GOV.UK's annex confirms. It is covered in the night workers guide.

Second jobs: you have to ask

This is the duty almost nobody has on their radar. Regulation 11(a) says the employer shall request from each mobile worker details of any time worked for another employer, and 11(b) says that time goes into the calculation. Under regulation 12, the worker has to tell you in writing when you ask.

A driver who does weekend shifts for a haulier is carrying hours that count against your 60 and your 48. You cannot say you didn't know. Without the question on file, you can't even argue that you tried.

What regulation 11 makes you keep

Regulation 10 comes first: you must tell each mobile worker about the regulations and about any collective or workforce agreement that applies to them. Then regulation 11 sets out the record.

You must keep records adequate to show whether the regulations are being complied with for each mobile worker (11(c)), and retain them for at least two years after the end of the period they cover (11(d)). A mobile worker can ask for a copy of the record of hours they worked, and you have to give it (11(e)). An enforcement officer can require copies of the records (11(f)), and both can ask for the documentary evidence behind them (11(g)).

GOV.UK adds two points of its own. Records must be kept whether or not the operation works anywhere near the 48-hour average. And where a driver is supplied by an agency and paid by or through it, the agency keeps the working time records.

Don't confuse this with the tachograph. GOV.UK tells employers to keep drivers' hours records for at least a year and to be able to show enforcement officers the last 12 months. That is tachograph data, and it answers a different question. The tachograph records what happened while the driver's card was in. The working time record has to show the whole working day, including the hour in the yard before the card went in, the weekend job elsewhere, and the leave that goes into the average at 48.

Two years is short next to the six years for minimum wage records, and the same shifts are evidence for both. A driver on a day rate who works 60-hour weeks can drop below the minimum wage on an hours basis without anyone noticing. Keep the hours for six.

Who enforces it

Regulation 16 makes enforcement the Secretary of State's duty. In practice, GOV.UK's annex says DVSA enforces the 2005 Regulations, and it also enforces the night worker health checks under the 1998 Regulations for these drivers. That is the same agency already stopping your lorries at the roadside and checking the tachograph.

Under regulation 17, failing to comply with any of the "relevant requirements" is a criminal offence. The list includes the employer's duty to take all reasonable steps to keep within the weekly limits, the break rules, the daily and weekly rest rules and the night limit, plus regulations 10 and 11 in full. That means the record duty and the duty to ask about other employment are offences in their own right. The penalty is a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum on summary conviction, and a fine on indictment.

Regulation 19 then reaches past the company. Where an offence by a company is committed with the consent or connivance of a director, manager or similar officer, or is attributable to their neglect, that person is guilty of it as well.

Where it goes wrong

The yard hour is the first. The tachograph starts when the card goes in. The working day started when the driver arrived, loaded attachments and did the walk-round. Firms that measure hours from the tacho alone undercount every day by that margin, and over 18 weeks it adds up to the difference between 47 and 52.

The second is the wrong rulebook. Someone downloads a working time policy, gets every driver to sign the opt-out, and assumes that covers it. It covers the van drivers. It doesn't cover the tipper.

The third is the cover driver who crossed ten days without anyone counting.

Common questions

Who is a mobile worker under the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations?

Regulation 2 defines a mobile worker as any worker forming part of the travelling staff, including trainees and apprentices, 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. The regulations then apply, under regulation 3, to mobile workers who drive or travel in vehicles covered by the assimilated drivers' hours rules, which for goods means most vehicles over 3.5 tonnes that are not exempt. A builder moving its own materials in its own tipper is an own-account operator. Its driver, and a mate who rides along as crew, can both be mobile workers.

Can a lorry driver sign the 48-hour opt-out?

Not for these regulations. The opt-out is a feature of the Working Time Regulations 1998. The Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005 have no equivalent, and GOV.UK's working time annex for goods vehicle drivers says so directly: there is no opt-out for individuals wishing to work longer than an average 48-hour week. An opt-out on file for a driver covered by the 2005 Regulations does nothing.

What is the weekly limit for a mobile worker?

Two limits, both in regulation 4. Working time, including overtime, must not exceed 60 hours in any week, and a week runs from midnight between Sunday and Monday. Across the reference period, working time must not average more than 48 hours a week. A 60-hour week is lawful on its own, but it has to be paid back with lighter weeks before the reference period ends.

Does holiday reduce a driver's average weekly hours?

No. Regulation 4(5) works out the average as working time plus excluded hours, divided by the number of weeks. Excluded hours are annual leave, sick leave and maternity, paternity, adoption or parental leave, and regulation 4(7) counts them at eight hours a day and 48 hours a week. A week of holiday goes into the sum as a 48-hour week, so it does not create headroom for longer weeks elsewhere.

What reference period applies if we have never set one?

The fixed periods in regulation 4(3)(c). Each runs from midnight at the start of the Monday on or after 1 April, 1 August and 1 December. In 2026 to 2027 that gives 6 April to 3 August 2026, 3 August to 7 December 2026 and 7 December 2026 to 5 April 2027. A rolling 17 weeks applies only if a collective or workforce agreement provides for it, or the employer has given the worker written notice. A collective or workforce agreement can extend the period to 26 weeks.

Does waiting at a quarry or a customer's site count as working time?

It depends on whether the driver knew how long the wait would be. The definition of working time in regulation 2 includes time at the workstation awaiting loading or unloading where the foreseeable duration is not known in advance. Regulation 6(1) says a period only counts as a period of availability, which is not working time, if the worker knew about it and its reasonably foreseeable duration before it started. An open-ended queue at a batching plant is working time.

How long do we keep working time records for drivers?

Regulation 11(d) says at least two years after the end of the period covered by the records. That is separate from tachograph data, which GOV.UK tells employers to keep for at least one year. The working time record also has to cover time worked for any other employer, which regulation 11(a) requires you to ask about, and you must give a mobile worker a copy of their own record if they ask for one.

What if our drivers only drive the lorry now and again?

Regulation 3(4)(b) takes a worker outside the 2005 Regulations if they do in-scope work on fewer than 11 days in a reference period shorter than 26 weeks, or fewer than 16 days in a longer one. Those occasional mobile workers fall back under the Working Time Regulations 1998 instead, where the ordinary 48-hour average and its opt-out apply. You still need a record of the days, because the eleventh day in the period is what changes the rules.

Where hours fit in

Temporra records the hours people actually worked: clock-in and clock-out against a job and a site, from the moment someone arrives in the yard rather than from when a card goes into a tachograph. There is a face check at the point of clocking in so a colleague cannot do it for someone who is not there. That check is a descriptor match against a stored photo rather than a liveness test, so treat it as one control against buddy punching and not as proof of identity.

It is not a tachograph and does not read or analyse tachograph data. It does not decide whether a vehicle or a driver is in scope, it does not run payroll, and it does not build your rota. What it gives you is the start and finish of every shift and the days each person worked, which is the part of the regulation 11 record a tachograph never sees.

Related guides

• Working Time Regulations: The 48-Hour Week, Opt-Outs and Rest Breaks
• Recording Breaks Correctly: Why an Unpaid Break Nobody Took Still Costs You
• Night workers: the eight-hour limit nobody can opt out of, and what to record
• GPS Tracking of Employees: What UK Law Actually Allows

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