# Has truck drivers limit hours worked per day in your country ?



## xrtn2 (Jan 12, 2011)

Yes. The regulations require drivers to rest 11 hours during each 24 hour period in addition to a half hour rest for every four hours of driving.


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## keber (Nov 8, 2006)

In EU this is much stricter. I don't know exactly but I think it is max 10 hours of driving over 24h per driver with rests every two hours, valid also for bus drivers.


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

*European regulation;*

Tachograph necessary = yes
speed limiter = yes

Max driving hours: 9 per day, 10 hours twice a week
Max continuous driving: 4.5 hours
minimum break: 45 minutes after 4.5 hours, may be cut in 15 and 30 minutes
max driving per week: 56 hours in the first week, 34 hours in the second
minimum rest: 11 hours, may be shortened to 9 hours 3 times a week. Weekly rest; at least 45 hours. 

*U.S. regulation*

Tachograph necessary = optional
speed limiter = optional

Max working hours: 14 per day
Max driving hours: 11 per day
Max continuous driving: ?
minimum break; 10 hours a day, may be cut to 8 and 2 hours
max driving per week: 70 hours in the first week, 70 hours in the second week, with at least 34 hours of rest in between.

U.S. drivers can cover substantial larger distances than European drivers over a two-week period. Most European truckers cannot get more than 700 - 750 kilometers a day. An American trucker can drive as much as 1100 - 1200 kilometers per day. The highest truck limits in Europe are the lowest in the United States. Truck limits in the U.S. are 55 - 75 mph generally. American truckers may drive much more over a two-week period, they don't have to limit their driving after one full week.


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## Satyricon84 (Feb 3, 2009)

A trucker in the USA can get very good money doing this work. Just think about truckers in Alaska during winter season. In a 4 months of work, working costantly, you can get even more than 50,000 $. In Europe instead if get a salary of 2000 € after many years in the same company, you can consider yourself lucky. Besides this, in Europe there are so many restrictions (justified or not, this is relative...) for trucks that make this work certainly one of the hardest. I don't want to say in the USA is easier, but certainly gives you more possibility that have a good life.


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

Truck drivers in Alaska are also allowed to drive substantially longer than their colleagues in the lower 48. Alaskan truck drivers are allowed to work 20 hours a day, of which 15 hours is allowed to be driving time.


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## Satyricon84 (Feb 3, 2009)

ChrisZwolle said:


> Truck drivers in Alaska are also allowed to drive substantially longer than their colleagues in the lower 48. Alaskan truck drivers are allowed to work 20 hours a day, of which 15 hours is allowed to be driving time.


I guess the same rule for Alaska is worth for the winter roads of Canada also.


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## Suburbanist (Dec 25, 2009)

I approve EU regulations for truck drivers. There is no risk to endanger lives. And the wage costs are fairly low on road transport with trucks, salaries are only so low because Eastern European and Portuguese companies came to dominate the market. 

Italy has a lot of problems with traffic law enforcement, truck driving time is not one of them. Fines can be astonishingly high for driving time violations in Italy, up to 4-digit territory. 

There is something the EU should do as well: require Interlock and mandatory blackboxes with video capabilities for ALL trucks and other commercial vehicles by 2018-2020. That way, police can read the blackbox (which would register GPS data) and fine the driver in case of moving violations even if committed several hours ago. It would also deter aggressive behavior that lead to accidents and things like using cell phone in the cabin while driving.


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

My main complaint of the European regulation is the unnecessary complexity, which makes it quite hard to efficiently plan all drivers and loads.


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## Orionol (Feb 13, 2009)

yup, in sweden, a truckdriver can drive max 9h/day.
If a truckdriver drives 4.5h, then he must rest in 45 min, if the driving period is interrupted.
As ChrisZwolle said.


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

^^ The rules are the same throughout the EU and countries like Switzerland and Norway. I'm not sure about Russia and Ukraine though.


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## Suburbanist (Dec 25, 2009)

ChrisZwolle said:


> My main complaint of the European regulation is the unnecessary complexity, which makes it quite hard to efficiently plan all drivers and loads.


Whatever hard rule you devise, it will have "borderline" cases. But without hard rules, truckers will always behave like "the law is just a baseline", as in "I'll plan my driving period considering no jams and interference".


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## piotr71 (Sep 8, 2009)

Suburbanist said:


> . (..) And the wage costs are fairly low on road transport with trucks, salaries are only so low because Eastern European and Portuguese companies came to dominate the market.(..)


In the Uk Class II driver (C license) earns from 17.000 pounds to 35.000 brutto (before tax) a year depending of qualifications, experience, kind of work and company he works for. 

Class I driver (C+E) can make slightly more. Highest wages are paid to tanker drivers who may be paid over 40.000 pounds.

Polish Class I international driver spending about 3 weeks abroad, far from home, can get, if lucky enough, about 1300-1500 netto (after tax) euros monthly.


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

piotr71 said:


> Polish Class I international driver spending about 3 weeks abroad, far from home, can get, if lucky enough, about 1300-1500 netto (after tax) euros monthly.


That's not really a low salary. It's more than the net minimum wage in the Netherlands if you work 40 hours a week.


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## piotr71 (Sep 8, 2009)

ChrisZwolle said:


> That's not really a low salary. It's more than the net minimum wage in the Netherlands if you work 40 hours a week.


Actually, it's not a salary proper, which is much lower. That amount of money consists of several various allowances. Employer does not even show half (rather 1/3) of the amount to the tax office.


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## piotr71 (Sep 8, 2009)

Polish lorry drivers will go through a stricter checks in the Netherlands.

 Dutch only


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## Jeroen669 (Nov 29, 2006)

ChrisZwolle said:


> *European regulation;*
> 
> Tachograph necessary = yes
> speed limiter = yes
> ...


Actually, the funny thing is that, despite of europe being so overregulated, theoreticly a european driver is allowed to work more hours a day than an american driver (15 vs. 14).

I wonder how it is enforced there. I suppose they have a logbook, which can easily be edited. How strictly is this enforced? Are there high penalties for offenses?


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## Suburbanist (Dec 25, 2009)

Jeroen669 said:


> I wonder how it is enforced there. I suppose they have a logbook, which can easily be edited. How strictly is this enforced? Are there high penalties for offenses?


Penalties can be extremely harsh. Actually, overtime driving penalties for commercial drivers are higher than "just-above-the-legal-limit" fines for driving under influence.


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## piotr71 (Sep 8, 2009)

Moreover, some companies may sack a driver who does not keep to the regulations.


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

I wonder how this is regulated and enforced in countries like Russia or Ukraine.


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## piotr71 (Sep 8, 2009)

Bribe can fix everything.


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## keber (Nov 8, 2006)

Jeroen669 said:


> I wonder how it is enforced there. I suppose they have a logbook, which can easily be edited. How strictly is this enforced? Are there high penalties for offenses?


Today tachographs are digital, that can be checked very fast and they are not easily editable "on the site". Also you can get a penalty in Germany if you drove too long a month ago for example in Hungary (not always vice versa though - depends of the country)


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

I think he meant the American system where tachographs are only optional.

Jeroen is a truck driver, so he's well aware of the European system


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## keber (Nov 8, 2006)

Ah, ok. Misunderstanding.


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## Chilio (May 1, 2009)

That's quite right about the complexity of the regulations, that Chris pointed out. Not only European truck drivers are allowed to drive less hours a day, but the complex schedule makes it quasi impossible to fulfill all these hours. For example because of loosing time that you are allowed to drive on border controls, or as it happens often even in same-country transport - on loading and unloading. And when you're finally ready to go, the schedule says you should rest some few more hours...


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## Jeroen669 (Nov 29, 2006)

piotr71 said:


> Moreover, some companies may sack a driver who does not keep to the regulations.


I know some companies here in the Netherlands where you´ll be sacked if you DO keep to the regulations. Still, I´d guess that american drivers are making longer days on average than a european driver would.


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## piotr71 (Sep 8, 2009)

I heard about De-Rooy Logistik. They employ a lot of Eastern Europeans, mostly Poles and try/tried to exploit them as much as possible.


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## Jeroen669 (Nov 29, 2006)

There´s a lot of exploitation in dutch transport companies nowadays.

Dutch drivers:
- not getting payed the correct salary scale
- not getting payed all hours
- maximum times for (un)loading, anything above is not payed
- not paying for fines, even if they are instructed to make an offense

East-european drivers:
- months away from home
- paying for damages
- lack of sanitary services (since they can't pay for it)

There are unfortunately already quite some companies that work this way..


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## Jschmuck (May 27, 2008)

to clarify US rule; the 14 hour rule dictates that the 11 hours or less of driving, must be done within a 14 hour period. Example, day starts at 08:00, the driver must not do any more driving past 22:00, but may do on-duty work(on-duty work is; inspections, loading, unloading and any other non-driving work, even an official second job must be recorded) past the 14th hour.

And the 70 hours is in an 8 day period, if no 34 hour restart(break) is taken after the 8th day, the driver may only use the hours he/she drove 8 days ago.
this is where it get tricky to explain, and i would have to explain the recap which tells us drivers what we did 8 days ago.


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## Jeroen669 (Nov 29, 2006)

Jschmuck said:


> to clarify US rule; the 14 hour rule dictates that the 11 hours or less of driving, must be done within a 14 hour period. Example, day starts at 08:00, the driver must not do any more driving past 22:00, but may do on-duty work(on-duty work is; inspections, loading, unloading and any other non-driving work, even an official second job must be recorded) past the 14th hour.


This is practicly the same as in europe. Here you're allowed to work 15 hours a day, however this only means that 15 hours after starting a shift your card must be on 'rest', or being removed, starting a 9-hour rest-period. You could still work after that. You can even still drive after that legally with the 'out of scoop' function, however this is only allowed on the own yard.


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