TachoClear lets you record driving, other work, availability and breaks separately. This guide uses a depot wait to show why that distinction matters when planning your next stop.
Scope: a solo goods-vehicle driver working wholly in Great Britain under the assimilated drivers' hours rules and the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005. This example does not cover GB domestic-only driving, Northern Ireland's separate working-time legislation, passenger services or international/AETR journeys.
Check what happened during the wait
For a period of availability (POA), you must know its foreseeable duration in advance and have a reasonable amount of freedom, such as being able to read and relax while available for work. You can be in the cab. The expected length of the delay matters as well as knowing there is a delay.
Loading, checking the load or doing paperwork is work. So is waiting whose foreseeable duration is unknown. Frequently moving forward in a queue is not POA. These distinctions come from DVSA's working-time guidance and Annex 2 of its goods-vehicle manual.
A driving break must be free of driving and other work and used exclusively to recuperate. The POA label alone does not establish that you took one. If the wait contains an actual qualifying break, record that activity accurately. DVSA sets out the test in section 1.4, breaks and driving limits.
A morning with an hour at the depot
This is an illustrative schedule, not a driver's actual record. Assume the driver starts after sufficient rest, has no earlier driving in this driving period and has taken no split-break first part. The depot wait qualifies as POA, but no qualifying break is established during it.
- 06:00 to 06:30: vehicle checks and other work, 30 minutes.
- 06:30 to 09:30: driving, 3 hours.
- 09:30 to 10:30: POA, with the hour's duration known in advance.
- 10:30 to 12:00: driving, 1 hour 30 minutes.
At 12:00, six hours have passed since the shift began. Driving totals 4 hours 30 minutes. Working time totals 5 hours: the driving plus the 30 minutes of checks. The hour of POA contributes to neither total.
The driving break is due now. The driver must now take a break of at least 45 uninterrupted minutes, unless starting a qualifying rest period. Reaching six elapsed hours since clocking on is not the same as doing six hours of work.
This follows DVSA's 4.5-hour driving limit before a break and its rule that POA does not count as working time. A split driving break is another option when planned correctly: at least 15 minutes followed by at least 30. See the split-break guide.
Finish the example with a real break
- 12:00 to 12:45: a 45-minute break, free of all work and used to recuperate.
- 12:45 to 15:45: other work, 3 hours, then finish the shift.
The completed shift lasts 9 hours 45 minutes. It contains 4 hours 30 minutes of driving, 3 hours 30 minutes of other work, 1 hour of POA and 45 minutes of break. Total working time is 8 hours.
The same 45-minute break satisfies the driving-break requirement and supplies the working-time break total for this example. Work is interrupted after 5 hours, with another 3 hours afterwards. There is no need to add a second break solely because two sets of rules apply.
Under regulation 7, you must not work more than six hours without a break. More than six and up to nine hours of work requires at least 30 minutes of breaks in total; more than nine requires 45 minutes. Pieces must each last at least 15 minutes. DVSA confirms that driving breaks can also satisfy working-time breaks. Daily and weekly rest and other limits still need checking separately.
What if you took a break at the depot?
If you actually took an uninterrupted 45-minute break from 09:30 to 10:15, free of all work and used to recuperate, with the remaining 15 minutes qualifying as POA, the result changes. At 12:00 you would have driven 1 hour 30 minutes since that break. Total driving for the day would still be 4 hours 30 minutes and total working time would still be 5 hours.
Only record this alternative if it describes what happened. Changing a label cannot turn loading or an interrupted wait into a completed break. TachoClear keeps availability separate and can offer to reclassify a long enough POA; you decide whether the conditions for a break were met. Correcting the app's log does not correct a tachograph record.
Multi-manning has a specific concession: DVSA says 45 minutes of POA can be treated as a break when the co-driver does no work. That is separate from this solo-driver example. Read DVSA's multi-manning conditions before applying it.
Before you leave the bay
- Check whether the wait was work, POA or an actual break, using its real conditions.
- Add driving since the last qualifying driving break, and check the working-time break requirement separately.
- Record each activity accurately on the tachograph and in any working-time records. Use TachoClear to track your shift with the same activities, then check the rule behind the next deadline.
For the shorter reference explanation, read availability and breaks. For the two sets of break requirements together, read working-time breaks versus driving breaks.