If you are a courier driver then you need to be aware that you are limited as to how many hours you are permitted to drive your van in a 24 hour period. If you think about it, the rules are there to protect both you and the public. After all, you do not want to be driving whilst you are too tired otherwise you are more likely to be involved in a road traffic accident resulting in someone being injured or killed.

So, how many hours are you allowed to drive a van within a 24 hour period? Well, this depends upon the size of the van. Let us explain….

If your van exceeds 3.5 tonnes then EU rules are applicable that state you are limited to driving the vehicle for a maximum of 9 hours a day. However, on 2 days in a week, you are allowed to drive for 10 hours a day. Another rule in place is that you are limited to driving your van for 56 hours in a week. For every driving period of 4 and ½ hours you must have a break of at least 45 minutes although this can be split into two breaks. The first break must be for a minimum of 15 minutes.

If your van does not exceed 3.5 tonnes then different domestic rules are applicable. For instance, you are not permitted to drive your vehicle for more than 10 hours over a period of 24 hours. Furthermore, if you are employed, you are not able to be on duty for more than 11 hours a day i.e. this incudes such things as driving and say time spent doing administrative work or loading up the van. Breaks are not included in these times.

So, as you can see, there are stringent rules in place relating to the amount of time you can spend behind the wheel of your van driving.