GB Domestic vs EU Drivers' Hours Rules for Multi-Drop Vans and HGVs

Which rules apply to your vehicles?

Great Britain has two main sets of drivers' hours rules for goods vehicles. The assimilated rules are the retained EU rules, and GOV.UK now calls them that. The international AETR rules largely mirror them. According to GOV.UK, the assimilated rules apply when "the maximum weight of your vehicle or vehicle combination is more than 3.5 tonnes". The GB domestic rules apply to "most... goods vehicles that do not have to follow the assimilated rules", which in practice includes most vans of 3.5 tonnes and under used in Great Britain.

For a typical UK multi-drop operation that means:

• Panel vans and Lutons up to 3.5t, working in Great Britain: usually GB domestic rules
• 7.5t and larger rigid lorries: assimilated rules, with a tachograph
• Vans over 2.5t (including any trailer) carrying goods on international journeys: assimilated rules from 1 July 2026, per GOV.UK's goods vehicle guidance

GB domestic rules: the limits that shape a round

Under the GB domestic rules for goods vehicles, GOV.UK says you "must not drive for more than 10 hours in a day" and "must not be on duty for more than 11 hours in any working day". The duty limit does not apply on a working day when you don't drive. For employed drivers, duty time is any working time, which includes loading, paperwork and time at each drop, not just time behind the wheel. That matters for multi-drop work: a round with forty drops can hit the 11-hour duty limit well before it hits 10 hours of driving.

Drivers under the GB domestic rules must record their hours on a weekly record sheet or a tachograph. There are exemptions, including for some vans under 3.5t used for specific purposes. Check the list on GOV.UK rather than assuming one applies.

Separately, most drivers are also covered by general working time law, which limits the average working week (normally to 48 hours, averaged over a reference period). GOV.UK's maximum weekly working hours page covers the detail and the opt-out.

Assimilated (EU) rules: tighter, with mandatory breaks

The assimilated rules are stricter and include specific break and rest requirements. Per GOV.UK:

• Daily driving: no more than 9 hours, extendable to 10 hours twice a week
• Weekly driving: no more than 56 hours in a week, and 90 hours in any two consecutive weeks
• Breaks: at least 45 minutes in total after no more than 4 hours 30 minutes of driving
• Daily rest: at least 11 hours, reducible to 9 hours three times between weekly rest periods
• Weekly rest: 45 hours unbroken, reducible to 24 hours every other week

What this means for planning rounds

The practical upshot is that the same set of drops can be a legal round for a 3.5t van driver and an illegal one for a 7.5t driver. The drop count isn't the whole story. Duty time, drop time and breaks all count. A few habits help:

• Plan against duty time, not just driving time. Include realistic time at each drop, because that's where multi-drop days overrun
• For vehicles on assimilated rules, build the 45-minute break into the day rather than hoping the driver finds a gap
• Set each driver's maximum working hours below the legal limit, to leave room for traffic and a slow drop
• If you run a mixed fleet, don't assume one set of limits fits every vehicle

How vRouted handles driver hours

In vRouted you set each driver's shift window and maximum working hours, and every round is planned to finish inside them, with the time at each drop counted. vRouted doesn't calculate legal breaks or keep tachograph records. You choose limits that keep drivers inside whichever rules apply, and vRouted keeps the plan inside those limits. See driver scheduling and shift planning for small fleets for how shifts and rounds fit together, or the route planning guide for the wider picture.