11.2 Working Time Rules for Bus & Coach Drivers

11.2 Working Time Rules for Bus and Coach Drivers

Objective 2.1 requires knowledge of the maximum working periods specific to the transport industry. Drivers' hours rules (chapter 5) limit driving. Working time rules limit work, and they are a separate legal regime with separate limits, separate breaks, and separate enforcement. A driver can be perfectly compliant with drivers' hours and still be in breach of working time — which is exactly the trap a case study will set.

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Two Regimes, and How to Tell Which Applies

This is the distinction that catches candidates out. An urban bus driver on a registered route under 50 km is not under the RTWTR 2005 — they are under the 1998 Regulations. A coach driver on a 200 km express service is under the RTWTR 2005.

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The Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005

The Limits

There is no opt-out from the 48-hour average under RTWTR 2005. This is a significant difference from the 1998 Regulations, where an individual opt-out exists.

What Counts as Working Time

Working time is not just driving. It includes:

• driving;
• assisting passengers on and off the vehicle;
• loading and stowing luggage;
• cleaning and technical maintenance of the vehicle;
• the daily walkaround check and defect reporting;
• administrative work, ticket accounting and paperwork;
• safety work and any other duty for the employer;
• any period during which the mobile worker cannot freely dispose of their time and must remain at the workstation ready to work.

Periods of Availability (POA) — Not Working Time

A POA is waiting time whose likely duration is known in advance. Examples include accompanying a vehicle on a ferry or train, and, on a multi-manned journey, time spent sitting next to the driver while the vehicle is in motion. A POA does not count towards working time, which is why correct use of the tachograph POA mode materially affects a driver's weekly total. Waiting of unknown duration is other work, not a POA.

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The Working Time Regulations 1998 for GB Domestic Drivers

Drivers under the GB domestic rules are affected by four provisions:

1. An average 48-hour working week — but with an individual opt-out available, unlike RTWTR 2005.
2. Statutory paid annual leave.
3. Health assessments for night workers.
4. "Adequate rest" — rest that is long and continuous enough that the driver does not harm themselves, fellow workers or others, and does not damage their health in the long or short term.

The adequate rest duty matters more than its vague wording suggests. DVSA enforces it at operator visits, and it means a roster that technically meets the GB domestic minima can still be unlawful if it does not leave the driver genuinely rested for the work being done.

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Where the Two Regimes Collide

[ A COACH DRIVER'S DAY, TWO CLOCKS RUNNING ]

 06:00  Walkaround, fuelling            ── OTHER WORK   (working time)
 06:45  Drive to pick-up point          ── DRIVING      (driving + working time)
 07:30  Assist boarding, stow luggage   ── OTHER WORK   (working time)
 08:00  Drive                           ── DRIVING
 12:30  45-minute break                 ── BREAK        (neither)
 13:15  Drive                           ── DRIVING
 15:00  Wait at venue, duration known   ── POA          (NOT working time)
 18:00  Drive return leg                ── DRIVING
 20:00  Cleaning, defect report, fuel   ── OTHER WORK   (working time)
 20:30  Off duty

 Driving total is well inside the 9-hour limit.
 WORKING TIME total may still breach the 60-hour weekly ceiling
 across the week, or the 10-hour night limit if the return runs past 01:00.

The exam point: driving-hours compliance does not prove working-time compliance. A case study that shows a driver doing lots of non-driving duties around modest driving totals is usually a working-time question.

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Records, Responsibilities and Enforcement

• Operators must keep working time records for at least 2 years and must monitor the average against the reference period.
• Drivers must tell their employer in writing about work done for any other employer, because working time aggregates across all employers. A part-time bar job counts as other work for drivers' hours purposes and as working time for working time purposes.
• DVSA enforces both the sector-specific working time rules and the general working time requirements during operator visits, using the operator's own records.
• Failure can result in prosecution of the driver and/or the operator, and a report to the Traffic Commissioner against the operator's licence.

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Worked Scenario: The Second Job

Callum drives express coaches under the assimilated rules four days a week, averaging 41 hours of working time. He also works 14 hours a week in a warehouse for a different employer.

• Drivers' hours position: the warehouse work counts as other work on his tachograph record and must be manually entered. It does not breach a driving limit, since he is not driving.
• Working time position: RTWTR 2005 working time aggregates across employers. Callum's total is around 55 hours a week, which is under the 60-hour single-week ceiling but far above the 48-hour average, so he will breach the average across the reference period.
• His duty: notify his coach operator in writing of the hours worked for the other employer. He cannot opt out of the 48-hour average, because RTWTR 2005 has no individual opt-out.
• The operator's duty: monitor the aggregate and adjust the roster. Ignoring a declared second job is precisely the kind of failure that surfaces at a Public Inquiry.