AETR

The European Agreement concerning the Work of Crews of Vehicles engaged in International Road Transport of 1 July 1970 (the AETR), as amended, should continue to apply to the carriage by road of goods and passengers by vehicles registered in any Member State or any country which is a contracting party to the AETR, for the whole of the journey where that journey is between the Community and a third country other than Switzerland and the countries which are contracting parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area or through such a country. It is essential to modify the AETR as soon as possible, ideally within two years of the entry into force of this Regulation, in order to align its provisions with this Regulation.

The daily driving time shall not exceed nine hours.

However, the daily driving time may be extended to at most 10 hours not more than twice during the week.

The weekly driving time shall not exceed 56 hours and shall not result in the maximum weekly working time laid down in Directive 2002/15/EC being exceeded.

The total accumulated driving time during any two consecutive weeks shall not exceed 90 hours.

Daily and weekly driving times shall include all driving time on the territory of the Community or of a third country.

After a driving period of four and a half hours a driver shall take an uninterrupted break of not less than 45 minutes, unless he takes a rest period.

This break may be replaced by a break of at least 15 minutes followed by a break of at least 30 minutes each distributed over the period.

A driver shall take daily and weekly rest periods.

Within each period of 24 hours after the end of the previous daily rest period or weekly rest period a driver shall have taken a new daily rest period.

If the portion of the daily rest period which falls within that 24 hour period is at least nine hours but less than 11 hours, then the daily rest period in question shall be regarded as a reduced daily rest period.

A daily rest period may be extended to make a regular weekly rest period or a reduced weekly rest period.

A driver may have at most three reduced daily rest periods between any two weekly rest periods.

By way of derogation from paragraph 2, within 30 hours of the end of a daily or weekly rest period, a driver engaged in multi-manning must have taken a new daily rest period of at least nine hours.

In any two consecutive weeks a driver shall take at least:

- two regular weekly rest periods, or

- one regular weekly rest period and one reduced weekly rest period of at least 24 hours. However, the reduction shall be compensated by an equivalent period of rest taken en bloc before the end of the third week following the week in question.

A weekly rest period shall start no later than at the end of six 24-hour periods from the end of the previous weekly rest period.

Any rest taken as compensation for a reduced weekly rest period shall be attached to another rest period of at least nine hours.

Where a driver chooses to do this, daily rest periods and reduced weekly rest periods away from base may be taken in a vehicle, as long as it has suitable sleeping facilities for each driver and the vehicle is stationary.

A weekly rest period that falls in two weeks may be counted in either week, but not in both.

By way of derogation from Article 8, where a driver accompanies a vehicle which is transported by ferry or train, and takes a regular daily rest period, that period may be interrupted not more than twice by other activities not exceeding one hour in total. During that regular daily rest period the driver shall have access to a bunk or couchette.

Any time spent travelling to a location to take charge of a vehicle falling within the scope of this Regulation, or to return from that location, when the vehicle is neither at the driver's home nor at the employer's operational centre where the driver is normally based, shall not be counted as a rest or break unless the driver is on a ferry or train and has access to a bunk or couchette.

Any time spent by a driver driving a vehicle which falls outside the scope of this Regulation to or from a vehicle which falls within the scope of this Regulation, which is not at the driver's home or at the employer's operational centre where the driver is normally based, shall count as other work.