Italy: fines for driving hours and tachograph breaches

In Italy, exceeding daily driving time by more than 10 % costs €325 to €1,301 and 2 licence points. Above 20 %: €433 to €1,735 and 10 points (art. 174, Codice della strada). No card in the tachograph, or a unit that does not work: €866 to €3,464 and a suspended licence (art. 179).

This edition is for people who run trucks into Italy or plan work for drivers who do: foreign hauliers, transport offices abroad, drivers on international routes. Driving and rest limits are the same across the EU under Reg. 561/2006, so a driver who knows them at home knows them in Italy too, but the price of breaking them is set country by country, and the Italian scale works in percentages of the limit rather than in hours. Here it is.

The figures below are those in force on 15 November 2026. The text on Normattiva, Italy’s official law database, carries the amounts updated by the ministerial decree of 31 December 2020, in force since 1 January 2021. The usual two-yearly inflation update was frozen “per gli anni 2023, 2024, 2025 e 2026” by D.L. 200/2025 (art. 9, para. 1, letter a). The next decree has to be adopted by 1 December 2026 and applies from 1 January 2027. Check again after that date.

Art. 174, paragraph by paragraph

Italy grades the fine by how far over the limit the driver went: up to 10 %, more than 10 %, more than 20 %.

Breach	Fine	Points	Paragraph
Driving over the limit, up to 10 %	€41 to €165	none	para. 4, first sentence
Daily rest not respected, up to 10 %	€218 to €868	none	para. 4, second sentence
Daily driving more than 10 % over	€325 to €1,301	2	para. 5
Minimum rest breached by more than 10 %	€379 to €1,519	5	para. 5
Daily driving or rest more than 20 % out	€433 to €1,735	10	para. 6
Weekly driving more than 10 % over	€271 to €1,084	1	para. 7
Weekly rest more than 10 % short	€379 to €1,519	3	para. 7
Weekly driving or rest more than 20 % out	€433 to €1,735	2 (driving), 5 (rest)	para. 7
Breaks not taken	€168 to €672	2	para. 8
Driving on after being ordered to stop	€1,919 to €7,679 and immediate licence withdrawal		para. 11

Points come from the table attached to art. 126-bis, in the text in force since 12 April 2025.

A note on the first row. The €41 to €165 range is the only amount in the article without the update marker the others carry. Table A of the decree of 31 December 2020 explains why: the range in force until 31 December 2020 was €41 to €165, and it stayed exactly the same from 1 January 2021, so there was nothing to update.

Worked example, 11 hours at the wheel

Take a driver who drives 11 hours in one day when the limit that day is 9 hours, because both 10-hour days of the week are already used. That is 2 hours over 9, or 22 %.

Past the 20 % line. Paragraph 6 applies: €433 to €1,735 and 10 points. The officer withdraws the driving documents and orders the driver not to set off again until the rest is done (para. 11).

Had the 10-hour day still been available, the same trip would be one hour over ten: exactly 10 %. Paragraph 5 needs a breach “superiore al 10 per cento”, so at exactly 11 hours the case stays in paragraph 4, €41 to €165 and no points. One minute more and it moves to paragraph 5. Not a line to test in front of a patrol.

Under EU law 11 hours against a 9-hour limit is a very serious infringement (VSI), according to Annex I of Reg. 2016/403 as replaced by Reg. 2022/694. From 13 hours 30 it becomes a most serious infringement (MSI).

Tachograph and driver card

Art. 179 applies to “chiunque circola”, anyone driving with a tachograph that is missing, non-compliant or not working, or without the card inserted. The fine is €866 to €3,464, with 10 points and a licence suspension from fifteen days to three months (para. 2 and 9).

Broken seals or a tampered unit double the paragraph 2 fine. The article gives no figure; our count is €1,732 to €6,928.

A vehicle with a tachograph to be fixed gets a formal warning. If it is still on the road unfixed ten days later, it is impounded and “verrà restituito dopo un mese”, returned after a month (para. 8).

Art. 179 still refers to Reg. (EEC) 3821/85, which was repealed and replaced by Reg. (EU) 165/2014. Normattiva shows no update of that reference.

What the company pays

The company the driver depends on “è obbligata in solido”, jointly liable with the driver (art. 174, para. 13). It also has its own fine: €333 to €1,331 per employee for not applying Reg. 561/2006 or keeping irregular records (para. 14).

A licence holder who puts a vehicle on the road with the tachograph missing, tampered with or not working pays €831 to €3,328. Three such breaches in a year bring a one-year suspension of the licence (art. 179, para. 3 and 4).

In practice

The real jump is between 10 and 20 %. On a 9-hour limit, 20 % is 1 hour 48 minutes, and past it the points go from 2 to 10. When you plan a long day in Italy, leave at least half an hour of slack: a queue before unloading is enough to cross the line.

Fix tachograph faults at once. Ten days go by quickly. A month off the road costs more than the fine itself, once you count the loads you cannot take and the driver you still have to pay while the truck stands in the pound.

To compare Italy with its neighbours, see driving hours fines in five European countries. There are separate pages for Spain, Germany, France and the UK. There is also an interactive table of fines by country.

What this article does not cover. Reduced payment options and appeal deadlines. Other breaches under art. 179 that do not concern driving time or the driver card. The amounts that will apply from 1 January 2027 under the new inflation decree, not yet published on 15 November 2026. We read the text in force on Normattiva: the Italian Official Gazette is authoritative. General information, not legal advice.