Driving Hours Record

Information for Drivers

Driving hours record what do I have to do?

As of 1 August 2004 all drivers of heavy trucks/combinations over 12t GVM must carry a Driving Hours Record to record their drive, work, and rest time.

The operator of your truck must give you a Driving Hours Record for you to record your work, drive, and rest time. You must give your Driving Hours Record to the operator of your truck within 15 days of the record being completed. The operator will then keep the copy of the record for at least 12 months.

You must keep the Driving Hours Record for the previous 14 days with you at all times when driving
You must sign this record every 24 hours
You must maintain your driving hours record in a permanent and easily readable and understandable form.

Before your first period of work time each day, you must record:

The date and time
Your name
Your current driver licence number
Your location

Before driving a heavy truck, you must record:

The registration number
The odometer reading
The location of the truck

At each change of activity on each day, you must record:

The activity (work, rest, or drive)
The date; time; and location
The odometer reading (if the reading has changed from the previous entry)

If you do not reasonably expect your work time to exceed 12 hours in a 24-hour period, you are not required to record each change from driving time to other work time for that 24-hour period. If you choose this option you cannot exceed 12 hours combined work and driving.

A Transport Inspector or a police officer can inspect your driving hours record on demand, make notes in it, and seize it if necessary. They will want to see the record for the previous 14 days.

Penalties

Penalties including Traffic Infringement Notices apply to the non-compliance of the regulations.

To ensure the compliance of interstate drivers with regulated driving hours while in Tasmania, similar enforcement and compliance provisions relevant to the Driving Hours Record will also apply to the National Driver Logbook.

What are the current legal driving Hours?

The current law for number of hours that can be driven have been in place since 1996.

Current work/driving/rest hours in a 24 hour period are:

Work/Driving

12 hours driving plus 2 hours working with total work and drive time not exceeding 14 hours in a 24 hour period
72 hours driving or working in 7 days (168 hours)

Rest

a rest break of at least 30 minutes must have been taken before the completion of 5 hours and 30 minutes. This 30 minutes can be broken up into 2 x 15 minute blocks.
10 hours in the immediately preceding 24 hours including continuous period of 6 hours not in or on the truck
96 hours in the immediately preceding 168 hours, including one continuous period of 24 hours not in or on the truck

Definitions

"Location" means

the street address and the name of the suburb; or
the road name and nearest kilometre mark; or
the nearest crossroads and the name of the town.

"change of activity" means a change from

(a) driving time to other work time; or

(b) work time (other than drive time) to driving time; or

(d) rest time to driving time; or

(e) work time to rest time; or

(f) rest time to work time.