Drivers' Hours regulations
Governing and monitoring the time your drivers are behind the wheel of a minibus is commonly referred to as "drivers' hours". There are three main categories of drivers hours regulations; Domestic, EU & AETR which apply to different drivers depending on which organisation they are driving for, what sort of driving licence/status they hold and if you plan to drive your minibus outside the UK. However, there is also a forth category where no rules are enforced.
For drivers who have no official rules to follow are usually pointed towards Health & Safety advice or the Highway Code for guidance. However the guidance given is either “take a break of 15 minutes every 2 hours driving” or “the same health and safety standards should be applied to voluntary workers as they would to employees exposed to the same risks”.
This means that any driver or organisation who decided to apply the “no rules” exemption and ignore any drivers' hours rules, wouldn't be directly breaking drivers hours regulations but would be in breach of their Health & Safety obligations.
Keeping it simple with just the one simple set of rules
If your organisation is faced with the scenario of 3 similar drivers, each driving the same vehicle but having to comply with different sets of rules. How can you keep things simple?
Apart from situations that legally require drivers to obey certain sets rules on specific journeys, the best practice would be to obey just the one simple set of rules.
SC Driver Services have complied a set of “Simple Rules”. These “Simple Rules” take into consideration all the other Domestic, EU and AETR rules too create just the one set of rules, which if followed, will ensure that drivers will be in compliance with all the other rules including the advice from the Highway Code.
Which rules apply to our organisation and drivers?
Although minibuses may look similar, drivers' hours regulations can vary. To find out which rules your organisation is required to follow, please see MORC (Minibus Operator Resource Centre)
