For operators and furloughed drivers on EU mobile working time rules and EU and AETR drivers’ hours and tachograph rules.
This guidance explains how:
- to record your activities when furloughed, including when undertaking other work, either on your tachograph or by manual record if a tachograph cannot be used
- being furloughed interacts with the working time rules that apply to mobile workers
- to meet your obligations relating to driver card and tachograph vehicle unit data during coronavirus (COVID-19) related disruption
For the purposes of the Road Transport (Working Time) regulations
Drivers and employers must record activities as follows.
- Time spent furloughed does not form part of the calculation of the average maximum weekly working time, as it does not fall under either ‘working time’ or ‘excluded hours’.
- Therefore if a furloughed worker is not doing other work, including any training that would usually be recorded as working time, the time is not working time.
- Work that is undertaken by a mobile worker while they are furloughed (for instance for a different employer) that is in scope of the regulations must be recorded and form part of the calculation of the worker’s average weekly working time.
- Employers must record sufficient information on furloughed workers to meet their obligations under regulation 11 of the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005.
- ‘Leave’ must be recorded if conducting no work and taking statutory leave, even if statutory leave is taken while a worker is furloughed.
- When statutory leave is taken, 48 hours must be recorded for the mobile worker’s normal working week and 8 hours per day for any period of time which is not a full week. Any leave over and above statutory leave does not have to be accounted in working time totals and can be used to reduce the 48-hour average.
For EU or AETR drivers’ hours tachograph purposes. Drivers and employers must record activities as follows:
- record ‘driving / other work / availability / rest / breaks’ (as appropriate) if engaging in work for another employer driving vehicles in scope of the EU or AETR drivers’ hours rules; or
- record ‘other work’ if conducting work for another employer which does not involve driving vehicles under the EU or AETR rules; or
- record ‘break’ or ‘rest period’ if conducting no work at all (self-isolating at home or are otherwise not undertaking any work)
The Guidance also covers:
Duties of employers and drivers in relation to working time records if they drive for other employers temporarily
Downloading from drivers’ tachograph cards and vehicle units
Working arrangements for mobile workers
Enforcement of the Road Transport (Working Time) regulations
Further information: