DRIVING BREAKS
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• Until I was 21,1 was driving 3.5-tonne vans but can now drive a 7.5-tonne truck. This means I have to keep a tachograph record and take breaks from driving.
Can you tell me what the law is on taking a break after a certain amount of driving P • Article 7 of EC Regulation 3820/86 states that after 4.5 hours' drilling a driver must take a break of at least 45 minutes unless he is then beginning a daily rest period. The 45-minute break can be replaced by breaks of at least 15 minutes each spread out over the driving period Cr immediately after it so that the requirement is complied with.
Breaks of less than 16 minutes do rot count as breaks for this purpose.
An important case concerning the correct interpretation of the breaks law was referred to the European Court a few years ago because two different interpretations had been followed in the UK.
One view had been that driving time was divided into two distinct periods of 4.5 hours; and the other was that any period of 4.5 hours driving had to have 45 minutes' breaks accompanying it.
The case was that of DPP vs Charlton [1994] RIR 133—and the EC court did not follow either of those interpretations. Instead it ruled that "where a driver has taken 45 minutes' break, either as a single break or as several breaks of at least 15 minutes, during or at the end of a 4.5-hour driving period, the calculation of [driving time] should begin afresh, without taking into account the driving time and breaks previously completed by the driver."
So taking 45 minutes' break, either in one stretch or as a number of breaks of at least 15 minutes each, wipes the slate clean and the calculations of driving time and breaks begin again.