12 day rule summary
The 12 day rule entered into force on the 4th December 2009, and is applicable as of the 4th June 2010. However, it is not exactly the same legislation that existed previously. Here are some key points to consider when planning for its reintroduction:
- The 12 day rule allows a driver to work up to 12 days in a row on one international trip before taking rest days.
- This trip must be one single journey with one group of people (under one control document) and cannot be two separate trips backing one onto another. In other words a 12-day trip from Berlin to Amsterdam is acceptable but you cannot make a six-day trip from Berlin to Amsterdam and then another different trip with a different group straightaway from Amsterdam to Berlin.
- The trip must be 'international'. This is held to mean that the driver must spend at least 24 hours in another country other than the one in which he/she started the journey. So, a trip round France that includes a 24-hour period in Belgium, perhaps with an overnight stay there, would be considered international but a trip that includes a day excursion into Belgium of less than 24 hours would not.
- The 12 day rule does NOT apply to a purely national tour. A driver on a trip within one nation state must take a rest day after 6 days work. -There is NOT a special requirement for a driver to start or finish a tour in the same city or country.
- Legislation regarding daily working hours remains unchanged.
- Prior to and following a trip when use of the derogation is made (any single trip exceeding six days) the driver must have at least a 45 hour rest unless he/she uses the possibility of one reduced rest break of 24 hours. The compensation for this reduced rest, i.e. the remaining 21 hours, must then be taken en bloc before the end of the third week following the use of the derogation.
- Trips to Switzerland and Norway are subject to AETR rules, which, after the entry into force of the modified version, will be exactly the same as those in the EU. Until then the AETR rules reflect the old EU 12 day rule as it was in force before 2007.
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