Guidance

Temporary relaxation of the enforcement of the drivers’ hours rules: delivery of essential items to consumers

Published 19 March 2020

This guidance was withdrawn on

This temporary relaxation expired on 3 April 2020.

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/temporary-relaxation-of-the-enforcement-of-the-drivers-hours-rules-delivery-of-essential-items-to-consumers/temporary-relaxation-of-the-enforcement-of-the-drivers-hours-rules-delivery-of-essential-items-to-consumers

In response to requests from industry, the Department for Transport has agreed to a temporary and limited urgent relaxation of the enforcement of GB drivers’ hours rules in England, Scotland and Wales for the drivers of vehicles involved in the delivery of food, non-food (personal care and household paper and cleaning), over the counter pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies when undertaking the following journeys:

  • manufacturer to consumer’s home
  • stores / distribution centre to consumer’s home
  • supplier to consumer’s home
  • fulfillment centre to consumer’s home
  • retailer to consumer’s home

Consumer means an individual acting for purposes that are wholly or mainly outside that individual’s trade, business, craft or profession.

This temporary relaxation applies from 00:01 on Friday 20 March 2020 and will run until 23:59 on Friday 3 April 2020 and will apply only to the drivers specified in this notice.

The department reserves the right to withdraw the relaxation earlier or extend the relaxation if circumstances change. It will be reviewed on 25 March 2020.

The department wishes to make clear that driver safety must not be compromised. Drivers should not be expected to drive whilst tired - employers remain responsible for the health and safety of their employees and other road users.

For the drivers and work in question, the GB drivers’ hours rules can be temporarily relaxed as follows:

a) Replacement of the GB duty time limit of 11 hours with 12 hours.

b) Replacement of the GB daily driving time limit of 10 hours with 11 hours.

Drivers can only take advantage of this temporary relaxation 5 days in any 7 day period, and must take a rest period of 24 hours within the same 7 day period when taking advantage of this relaxation.

The practical implementation of the temporary relaxation should be through agreement between employers and employees and/or driver representatives.

The temporary relaxation of the rules described above reflects the exceptional circumstances stemming from the COVID-19 outbreak. The department wishes to emphasise that, as a general rule, we expect business to plan for and manage the risks of disruption to supply chains.

All enquiries regarding interpretation of these temporary arrangements should, in the first instance, be made to:

We will keep these temporary arrangements under review.

19 March 2020, Department for Transport

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