Drivers’ hours relaxed for feed deliveries
In what forecasters believe is the coldest March for 50 years, DEFRA has agreed to a temporary and limited relaxation of drivers’ hours for animal feed deliveries to livestock farms.
The move follows a week of extreme weather, including heavy snow in the North and torrential rain in the South, which has hampered the delivery of feed supplies and left farmers struggling to reach their livestock to feed them.
The relaxation of drivers’ rules will make sure essential deliveries of animal feed get through during the current extreme weather.
This temporary relaxation of enforcement applies immediately and will run until 11.59pm on 30 March, and will only apply to drivers involved in the distribution of animal feed to feed mills and prepared feed to livestock farms in the UK.
It will mean:
- Replacement of the EU daily driving limit of nine hours with one of 10 hours
- Reduction of the daily rest requirements from 11 hours to nine hours
- Postponing the weekly rest requirement by up to 24 hours, following which drivers should take their weekly rest as normal
Drivers will, however, be required to take a minimum rest of 24 hours beginning no later than the end of the eleventh day since the end of his/her last weekly rest period.
The requirement to take a 45 minute break after four-and-a-half hours’ driving remains and will continue to be rigorously enforced.
For more details contact the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency on 0300 123 9000 or via email at enquiries@vosa.gov.uk