What should an HGV drivers’ hours and tachograph policy cover?

Identify which rules apply before planning the work

Goods vehicle work can fall under assimilated rules, GB domestic rules or another regime depending on the vehicle, use and journey. The policy should require the person planning the work to establish the correct rule set rather than assume every movement is treated in the same way.

Exemptions and exceptions should be checked against current guidance and recorded where relied upon. A short label in a diary is not enough if the company cannot later explain why a particular journey was treated differently.

Control scheduling before the vehicle leaves

The operator should plan routes, start times, delivery windows, breaks and rest so that the job can be completed lawfully. The policy should give drivers a clear route to report an unrealistic plan without pressure to continue or alter a record.

Where agency or occasional drivers are used, obtain enough information about their other work and recent driving to make a safe plan. The operator still needs a reliable record even when another business supplied the driver.

• who checks available driving and duty time
• how other work and previous duties are declared
• how delays and changed instructions are managed
• who can authorise a revised plan
• when the driver must stop and escalate

Download and protect the records

Current DVSA guidance says operators must download vehicle-unit data at least every 90 calendar days and driver-card data at least every 28 calendar days. Those are maximum intervals, not a reason to wait if a card, vehicle or employment arrangement is ending or data may be lost.

The policy should also cover analogue charts, printouts, manual records, company-card control, calibration and the return of records when a driver leaves. Downloading is only the collection step; the data must then be reviewed.

Analyse exceptions and close the action

Set a routine for reviewing infringements, missing mileage, gaps, incorrect modes, late or absent manual entries, overspeed events and unidentified driving. Give each exception an owner, response date and outcome.

A signed infringement printout should not become an automatic closure. The reviewer should establish the cause, decide whether coaching, retraining, planning changes or disciplinary action is appropriate, and check whether the same issue is repeating across drivers or routes.

Keep an escalation trail

Repeated breaches, data loss, falsification concerns or management pressure need a defined escalation route to the Transport Manager and operator. Record the concern, advice given, action required and the response.

This protects the operation and the people responsible for managing it. It also produces a much clearer audit trail than a folder of downloads with no evidence that anyone reviewed them.