45-minute break rules for truck drivers: when to take it and how to split it
After 4 hours 30 of driving a 45-minute break is due. It can only be split as 15 then 30 minutes: worked cases and common mistakes under Regulation 561/2006.
Road haulage rules and costs across Europe, read at the source.
Cargonary is an independent publication for people in road haulage across Europe: company owners, owner-drivers, drivers, transport planners and consultants. We read EU regulations and national laws and report them with the exact article, the country where they apply and free calculators.
The tools
Four free calculators, built on the text of the law and checked against the official worked examples.
EU drivers’ hours and rest calculator
Daily, weekly and fortnightly driving, breaks, reduced rest and compensation under Regulation (EC) 561/2006: enter the shifts and see what is left.
ADR 1.1.3.6 exemption calculator
Add up the points for dangerous goods by transport category, 0 to 4, and see whether the load stays under the 1,000-point threshold of ADR 1.1.3.6.
Truck cost per kilometre calculator
Fixed and running costs of a truck, from diesel to tolls, with stated default values you can change: the cost per kilometre and per year, line by line.
Drivers’ hours and tachograph fines by country
Fines for drivers’ hours, rest and tachograph offences in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, with the official legal source for every row.
Latest articles
ADR 1000 points rule: the 1.1.3.6 small load exemption, with worked examples
How the ADR 1.1.3.6 small load exemption is calculated: transport categories, factors 50, 20, 3 and 1, what counts in kg or litres, three mixed loads.
ADR small load exemption 1.1.3.6: what you still need on board and what you don’t
Below the 1.1.3.6 threshold you still need a transport document with the calculated value, a 2 kg extinguisher and 1.3 training. No orange plates or ADR certificate.
Attestation of activities form: is it still required?
The EU attestation of activities form is no longer mandatory: Art. 34 of Regulation 165/2014 rules it out. When it can still help and how to fill it in.
Driving hours fines in Europe compared: Italy, Spain, Germany, France, UK
Fines for excess driving, short rest, missed breaks, no driver card and tachograph tampering in five countries, side by side with the EU scale of Reg. 2016/403.
EU driving hours rules for truck drivers (Regulation 561/2006), with examples
Daily, weekly and fortnightly driving limits, the 45-minute break, daily and weekly rest under EU Regulation 561/2006, with a full week worked out hour by hour.
Rules by country
Laws and duties that apply in one country only. We keep them here, apart from the main list.
Pick a country to see its articles here. Your choice is saved in this browser.
How we work
Every article starts from the official text. A second check, by someone who did not write it, reopens the sources and verifies figures, articles of law and dates before publication.
From the law, not from hearsay
EU regulations, national laws, the ADR text: cited by article and paragraph, with a link to the source.
The answer in the first lines
How many hours, how much it costs, whether you need it: you get that first, the detail follows.
Kept up to date
When a rule changes we recheck the page against the source and note at the bottom what changed and when.