In the context of your activity, you may have to manage a fleet of trucks and a team of drivers. Therefore, you are potentially confronted with the problem of their accommodation when they are far from home. And you may not know that the legislation has changed and that the terms and conditions concerning driving times, breaks and daily rests are very precise. We explain it all to you!
Defined driving times
The public authorities have set precise rules concerning the driving time of truck drivers. The maximum driving times are :
- 9 hours per day, which can exceptionally be increased to 10 hours, at most twice a week.
- 56 hours per week, provided that an average of 48 hours per week is not exceeded over 4 months.
- 90 hours over 2 consecutive weeks.
These rules apply to all drivers driving in the European Community (as well as in Switzerland and the countries that are part of the European Economic Area), regardless of the country of registration of the vehicle. And these driving time limits include all the time spent driving in these same countries.
Specificities for certain professions
The rules established differ slightly for some specific occupations. For example, ‘courier’ drivers, who use vans and transport food or industrial products, must not exceed 48 hours of driving in a single week or 572 hours per quarter and 762 hours per quarter. This legal framework also applies to CIT drivers. It should be noted that, for movers using vehicles over 3.5 tons, the time spent accompanying the vehicle (not driving) is counted as actual working time for 50% of its duration.
A strictly controlled rest
The rules do not only define driving times, but also the way in which drivers take their daily rest. In concrete terms, drivers are not allowed to drive more than six hours without a break. The break must be :
- At least 30 minutes when the total working hours are between 6 and 9 hours.
- At least 45 minutes for a working time of more than 9 hours.
A special case concerns drivers of vehicles over 3.5 tons: they must take a break of at least 45 minutes after 4.5 hours of driving, which can be split.
Accommodation conditions to be respected
In addition, the decree of August 31, 2020, issued in the framework of the LOM, precisely stipulates the conditions under which a driver of a vehicle weighing less than 3.5 tons must rest. If his work requires him to sleep away from home, his employer must provide him with good accommodation conditions outside his vehicle. In other words, it is strictly forbidden for these drivers to sleep in their vehicles! This guarantees them an optimal quality of rest and limits the risk of fatigue, falling asleep or even an accident when they get back behind the wheel. In case of non-compliance with the law, the employer is exposed to a fine ranging from 1 500 to 7 500 €.
At TotalEnergies, stations reserved for drivers
Good news for professionals who drive trucks. TotalEnergies has dedicated stations for them, the 1,300 Truck stations, where they will find various specific products and services:
- Heavy duty pumps with high flow guns, AdBlue in cans or directly at the pump…
- Truck Store areas with accessories useful for their activity, parking lots reserved for trucks…
- Spaces dedicated to the maintenance of the vehicle: inflators, washing brushes, windshield scrapers…
- Services for drivers: showers and specific catering areas, free wifi….
The Mobility Corporate Card to simplify expense management
On the road on a daily basis, truck drivers do not always have the possibility to go home and are therefore required to visit hotels. This raises the question of how to pay for the associated costs, how to advance the money and how to manage the receipts. Mobility has thought of this and offers its business customers the Mobility Corporate Card, which makes it much easier for you to manage the travel expenses of your employees and is accepted in many resorts, thanks to the partnership with Mastercard. With this card, you have the possibility to :
- Allow your drivers to pay their professional expenses: hotels, restaurants, fuel purchases, car washes, tolls…
- Set up in real time the Mobility Corporate Card according to the profile of your employees: categories of accepted expenses, geographical perimeter, ceiling…
- Optimize the monitoring and processing of expenses via a personalized portal: easier recovery of VAT, simplified management of expense reports… enough to improve your TCM!
A single payment card for the mobility expenses of all your employees
Freight transport, a major activity of our economy
To better understand the interest of framing the profession of heavy goods vehicle driver, it is relevant to look at the figures of the sector. According to the Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition, in 2019, 374 billion tonne-kilometers of goods were transported on the French metropolitan territory. As a reminder, the tonne-kilometer is a unit of measurement that corresponds to the transport of one tonne over a distance of one kilometer. This figure of 374 billion is up by 2.5% compared to 2018 and concerns 89% of road transport. Therefore, it is obvious that it is crucial to define a precise legal framework to guarantee the safety of all, drivers and other road users alike.