Three worked-through examples of typical driving days — city bus long-distance driving and two days in a row — with concrete breaks and rest required per regulation 561/2006
Introduction
The driving/rest time rules in Regulation (EC) 561/2006 may seem simple, but pitfalls arise in practice — particularly on long trips with changing passenger numbers and involuntary delays. Here we review three typical situations with concrete figures.
Example 1 — City bus, 8-hour shift
You start at 06:00. At 10:30 you have driven 4.5 hours without a break. You MUST now take at least 45 minutes (or split it as 15 + 30 min, but only in that order). You take 45 min (10:30–11:15). You continue and at 14:45 you have driven a further 3.5 hours. Daily driving time: 8 hours — the shift runs 06:00–14:45, i.e. 8.75 hours including the break, so there is margin. Remember: the break is not part of driving time.
Example 2 — Long-distance bus, 10-hour day (extended).
You use the extended daily driving time of 10 hours (permitted a maximum of 2 times/week). Start at 07:00. Break 1: 11:30 (after 4.5 hours), 45 min → back at 12:15. Break 2: 16:45 (after another 4.5 hours), 45 min → back at 17:30. At 18:30 you are at 10 hours of driving time — stop. After this, 11 hours of daily rest is required (or 9 hours, if it is one of the permitted reductions — but remember to keep track of how many you have used that week).
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