Drivers’ working time. Sources of law and scope of their application
Drivers’ working time. Statutory definitions. The concept of drivers’ working time
Drivers’ working time. Concepts within drivers’ working time
The presented article is the fourth and final in a series of articles concerning drivers’ working time. The author’s intention is to present the discussed issues from a practical perspective, thereby enabling interested parties to find answers to current questions regarding the subject matter.
General remarks
The discussion of concepts related to drivers’ working time in this article is general in nature, meaning that the subject of the article does not cover detailed regulations concerning working time dimensions, the length of breaks, and rest periods. In this regard, the author refers to the specific legal acts. The purpose of the article is merely to draw attention to the differences in certain legal acts regarding some concepts, which have significant practical importance.
Rest vs. leisure
The concept of “rest” is found in the Regulation and the Agreement. The difference between the definitions in both legal acts boils down to the fact that, according to the Agreement, rest must last at least 1 hour. As for “leisure,” although there is no relevant definition, the Regulation distinguishes leisure from rest, which follows from a comparison of the definitions of a break and rest. During leisure, a driver may neither drive the vehicle nor perform any other work. Leisure therefore fills the entire break. On the other hand, during rest, a driver may freely dispose of their time. Thus, from the literal wording of the definition of rest, it follows that a driver may spend their rest time entirely on leisure, on other activities defined as working time, or even on work for another employer of a completely different nature.
Working time vs. driving time and driving period
When organizing drivers’ working time, depending on which legal act applies to a given transport operation, it should be kept in mind that when calculating working time, particularly when determining break and rest periods, the Act uses the concept of working time, while the Regulation and the Agreement tend to use the concept of driving time.
As previously mentioned, a driver’s working time within the meaning of the Act does not only include driving time, but also a number of other activities. The necessity for a driver to perform activities other than driving is also provided for in the Regulation, with the caveat that the Regulation considers not only transport-related activities (similar to the Act) as other work, but any work for the same or another employer, in the transport sector or outside it.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 2/2011.