The government has introduced a temporary relaxation of the enforcement of British domestic drivers’ hours rules for drivers involved in the collection of raw milk.
This follows the recent severe weather events disrupting road transport across the country and the potential environmental impacts of disposal of surplus milk by farms.
This temporary relaxation applies from 00:01 on Sunday 4 March 2018 and will run until 23:59 on Monday 5 March 2018.
The Department of Transport said it reserves the right to withdraw the relaxation earlier if circumstances change.
The Department wishes to make clear that driver safety must not be compromised. Drivers should not be expected to drive whilst tired - employers remain responsible for the health and safety of their employees and other road users.
For the drivers and work in question, the domestic drivers’ hours rules will be temporarily relaxed as follows raising the daily driving limit from 10 hours to 11 hours and raising the daily duty limit from 11 hours to 12 hours.
The temporary relaxation of the rules described above reflects the exceptional nature of the recent severe weather events across the country.
