Directive 2002/15/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2002 on the organisation of the working time of persons performing mobile road transport activities
Date: 2002-03-11
Institutions: Council of the European Union, European Parliament
Subjects: arrangement of working time, occupational safety, road safety, road transport

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Official Journal of the European Communities

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DIRECTIVE 2002/15/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 11 March 2002
on the organisation of the working time of persons performing mobile road transport activities

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE
EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community, and in particular Article 71 and Article 137(2)
thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social
Committee (2),

Following consultation of the Committee of the Regions,

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article
251 of the Treaty (3), and in the light of the joint text approved
by the Conciliation Committee on 16 January 2002,

Whereas:

Council Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85 of 20 December
1985 on the harmonisation of certain social legislation
relating to road transport (4) laid down common rules
on driving times and rest periods for drivers; that Regu-
lation does not cover other aspects of working time for
road transport.

Council Directive 93/104/EC of 23 November 1993
concerning certain aspects of
the organisation of
working time (5) makes
it possible to adopt more
specific requirements for the organisation of working
time. Bearing in mind the sectoral nature of
this
Directive, the provisions thereof take precedence over
Directive 93/104/EC by virtue of Article 14 thereof.

Despite intensive negotiations between the social part-
ners, it has not been possible to reach agreement on the
subject of mobile workers in road transport.

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

It is therefore necessary to lay down a series of more
specific provisions concerning the hours of work in road
transport intended to ensure the safety of transport and
the health and safety of the persons involved.

(10)

Since the objectives of the proposed action cannot be
sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can
therefore, by reason of
the
proposed action, be better achieved at Community level,

the scale and effects of

(1) OJ C 43, 17.2.1999, p. 4.
(2) OJ C 138, 18.5.1999, p. 33.
(3) Opinion of the European Parliament of 14 April 1999 (OJ C 219,
30.7.1999, p. 235), as confirmed on 6 May 1999 (OJ C 279,
1.10.1999, p. 270), Council Common Position of 23 March 2001
(OJ C 142, 15.5.2001, p. 24) and Decision of the European Parlia-
ment of 14 June 2001 (not yet published in the Official Journal).
Decision of
the European Parliament of 5 February 2002 and
Council Decision of 18 February 2002.

(4) OJ L 370, 31.12.1985, p. 1.
(5) OJ L 307, 13.12.1993, p. 18. Directive as last amended by Direc-
tive 2000/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ
L 195, 1.8.2000, p. 41).

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

the Treaty.

the Community may adopt measures,
in accordance
with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5
of
In accordance with the principle of
proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive
does not go beyond what
is necessary in order to
achieve those objectives.

The scope of this Directive covers only mobile workers
employed by transport undertakings established in a
Member State participating in mobile road transport
activities covered by Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85 or,
failing that, by the European agreement concerning the
work of crews of vehicles engaged in international road
transport (AETR).

this Directive, other

It should be made clear that mobile workers excluded
from the scope of
than self-
employed drivers, benefit
from the basic protection
provided for in Directive 93/104/EC. That basic protec-
tion includes the existing rules on adequate rest, the
maximum average working week, annual
leave and
certain basic provisions for night workers including
health assessment.

As self-employed drivers are included within the scope
of Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85 but excluded from that
excluded
of Directive 93/104/EC,
temporarily from the scope of this Directive in accord-
ance with the provisions of Article 2(1).

they should be

The definitions used in this Directive are not to consti-
tute a precedent for other Community regulations on
working time.

In order to improve road safety, prevent the distortion
of competition and guarantee the safety and health of
the mobile workers covered by this Directive, the latter
should know exactly which periods devoted to road
transport activities constitute working time and which
do not and are thus deemed to be break times, rest times
or periods of availability. These workers should be
granted minimum daily and weekly periods of rest, and
adequate breaks. It is also necessary to place a maximum
limit on the number of weekly working hours.

(11)

Research has shown that the human body is more sensi-
tive at night to environmental disturbances and also to
certain burdensome forms of organisation and that long
periods of night work can be detrimental to the health
of workers and can endanger their safety and also road
safety in general.

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(12) As a consequence, there is a need to limit the duration
of periods of night work and to provide that profes-
sional drivers who work at night should receive appro-
priate compensation for their activity and should not be
disadvantaged as regards training opportunities.

(13)

(14)

(15)

(16)

Employers should keep records of instances when the
maximum average working week applicable to mobile
workers is exceeded.

The provisions of Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85 on
driving time in international and national passenger
transport, other than regular services, should continue to
apply.

The Commission should monitor the implementation of
this Directive and developments in this field in the
Member States and submit to the European Parliament,
the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and
the Committee of the Regions a report on the applica-
tion of the rules and the consequences of the provisions
on night work.

It is necessary to provide that certain provisions may be
subject to derogations adopted, according to the circum-
stances, by the Member States or the two sides of
industry. As a general rule, in the event of a derogation,
the workers concerned must be given compensatory rest
periods,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

Article 1

Purpose

The purpose of this Directive shall be to establish minimum
requirements in relation to the organisation of working time in
order to improve the health and safety protection of persons
performing mobile road transport activities and to improve
road safety and align conditions of competition.

Article 2

Scope

1.
This Directive shall apply to mobile workers employed by
undertakings established in a Member State, participating in
road transport activities covered by Regulation (EEC) No 3820/
85 or, failing that, by the AETR Agreement.

Without prejudice to the provisions of following subparagraph,
this Directive shall apply to self-employed drivers from 23
March 2009.

At the latest two years before this date, the Commission shall
present a report to the European Parliament and the Council.
This report shall analyse the consequences of the exclusion of
self-employed drivers from the scope of the Directive in respect
of road safety, conditions of competition, the structure of the
profession as well as social aspects. The circumstances in each
Member State relating to the structure of the transport industry
and to the working environment of the road transport profes-
sion shall be taken into account. On the basis of this report,

the Commission shall submit a proposal, the aim of which may
be either, as appropriate
— to set out the modalities for the inclusion of the self-
employed drivers within the scope of
the Directive in
respect of certain self-employed drivers who are not partici-
pating in road transport activities in other Member States
and who are subject
to local constraints for objective
reasons, such as peripheral location, long internal distances
and a particular competitive environment, or

— not to include self-employed drivers within the scope of the

Directive.

The provisions of Directive 93/104/EC shall apply to

2.
mobile workers excluded from the scope of this Directive.

3.
In so far as this Directive contains more specific provi-
sions as regards mobile workers performing road transport
activities it shall, pursuant
to Article 14 of Directive 93/
104/EC, take precedence over the relevant provisions of that
Directive.

4.
This Directive shall supplement the provisions of Regula-
tion (EEC) No 3820/85 and, where necessary, of the AETR
Agreement, which take precedence over the provisions of this
Directive.

Article 3

Definitions

For the purposes of this Directive:

(a) ‘working time’ shall mean:

1.

in the case of mobile workers: the time from the begin-
ning to the end of work, during which the mobile
worker is at his workstation, at the disposal of the
employer and exercising his functions or activities, that
is to say:
— the time devoted to all road transport activities.

These activities are,

in particular, the following:

(i) driving;
(ii) loading and unloading;
(iii) assisting passengers boarding and disembarking

from the vehicle;

(iv) cleaning and technical maintenance;
(v) all other work intended to ensure the safety of
the vehicle, its cargo and passengers or to fulfil
regulatory obligations directly
the legal or
linked to the specific transport operation under
way,
loading and
unloading,
formalities with
police, customs,

including monitoring of
administrative

immigration officers etc.,

— the times during which he cannot dispose freely of
his time and is required to be at his workstation,
ready to take up normal work, with certain tasks
associated with being on duty, in particular during
periods awaiting loading or unloading where their
foreseeable duration is not known in advance, that is
to say either before departure or just before the
actual start of the period in question, or under the
general conditions negotiated between the social
partners and/or under the terms of the legislation of
the Member States;

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2.

in the case of self-employed drivers, the same definition
shall apply to the time from the beginning to the end of
work, during which the self employed driver is at his
workstation, at the disposal of the client and exercising
his functions or activities other than general adminis-
trative work that is not directly linked to the specific
transport operation under way.

The break times referred to in Article 5, the rest times
referred to in Article 6 and, without prejudice to the legisla-
tion of Member States or agreements between the social
partners providing that such periods should be compen-
sated or limited, the periods of availability referred to in (b)
of this Article, shall be excluded from working time;

(b) ‘periods of availability’ shall mean:

— periods other than those relating to break times and
times during which the mobile worker is not
rest
required to remain at his workstation, but must be
available to answer any calls to start or resume driving
or to carry out other work. In particular such periods of
include periods during which the
availability shall
mobile worker is accompanying a vehicle being trans-
ported by ferryboat or by train as well as periods of
waiting at frontiers and those due to traffic prohibi-
tions.

These periods and their foreseeable duration shall be
known in advance by the mobile worker, that is to say
either before departure or just before the actual start of
the period in question, or under the general conditions
negotiated between the social partners and/or under the
terms of the legislation of the Member States,

— for mobile workers driving in a team, the time spent
sitting next to the driver or on the couchette while the
vehicle is in motion;

(c) ‘workstation’ shall mean:

— the location of the main place of business of the under-
taking for which the person performing mobile road
transport activities carries out duties, together with its
various subsidiary places of business, regardless of
whether they are located in the same place as its head
office or main place of business,

— the vehicle which the person performing mobile road
transport activities uses when he carries out duties, and

— any other place in which activities connected with

transportation are carried out;

(d) ‘mobile worker’ shall mean any worker forming part of the
travelling staff, including trainees and apprentices, who is
in the service of an undertaking which operates transport
services for passengers or goods by road for hire or reward
or on its own account;

(e) ‘self-employed driver’ shall mean anyone whose main occu-
pation is to transport passengers or goods by road for hire
or reward within the meaning of Community legislation
under cover of a Community licence or any other profes-
sional authorisation to carry out the aforementioned trans-
port, who is entitled to work for himself and who is not

tied to an employer by an employment contract or by any
other type of working hierarchical relationship, who is free
to organise the relevant working activities, whose income
depends directly on the profits made and who has the
freedom to, individually or through a cooperation between
self-employed drivers, have commercial
relations with
several customers.

For the purposes of this Directive, those drivers who do not
satisfy these criteria shall be subject to the same obligations
and benefit from the same rights as those provided for
mobile workers by this Directive;

(f) ‘person performing mobile road transport activities’ shall
mean any mobile worker or self-employed driver who
performs such activities;

(g) ‘week’ shall mean the period between 00.00 hours on

Monday and 24.00 hours on Sunday;

(h) ‘night time’ shall mean a period of at least four hours, as
defined by national law, between 00.00 hours and 07.00
hours;

(i) ‘night work’ shall mean any work performed during night

time.

Article 4

Maximum weekly working time

Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that:

(a) the average weekly working time may not exceed 48 hours.
The maximum weekly working time may be extended to
60 hours only if, over four months, an average of 48 hours
a week is not exceeded. The fourth and fifth subparagraphs
of Article 6(1) of Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85 or, where
necessary, the fourth subparagraph of Article 6(1) of the
AETR Agreement shall take precedence over this Directive,
in so far as the drivers concerned do not exceed an average
working time of 48 hours a week over four months;

(b) working time for different employers is the sum of the
working hours. The employer shall ask the mobile worker
concerned in writing for an account of time worked for
another employer. The mobile worker shall provide such
information in writing.

Article 5

Breaks

1. Member States shall
take the measures necessary to
ensure that, without prejudice to the level of protection
provided by Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85 or, failing that, by
the AETR Agreement, persons performing mobile road trans-
port activities, without prejudice to Article 2(1), in no circum-
stances work for more than six consecutive hours without a
break. Working time shall be interrupted by a break of at least
30 minutes, if working hours total between six and nine hours,
and of at least 45 minutes, if working hours total more than
nine hours.

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Breaks may be subdivided into periods of at least 15

2.
minutes each.

tions applicable to the contract or employment relation-
ship (1);

Article 6

Rest periods

For the purposes of this Directive, apprentices and trainees
shall be covered by the same provisions on rest time as other
mobile workers in pursuance of Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85
or, failing that, of the AETR Agreement.

(b) without prejudice to Article 2(1), the working time of
persons performing mobile road transport activities is
recorded. Records shall be kept for at least two years after
the end of the period covered. Employers shall be respon-
sible for recording the working time of mobile workers.
Employers shall upon request provide mobile workers with
copies of the records of hours worked.

Article 7

Night work

Article 10

More favourable provisions

1. Member States shall
ensure that:
— if night work is performed, the daily working time does not

take the measures necessary to

exceed ten hours in each 24 period,

— compensation for night work is given in accordance with
national legislative measures, collective agreements, agree-
ments between the two sides of industry and/or national
practice, on condition that such compensation is not liable
to endanger road safety.

2.
By 23 March 2007, the Commission shall, within the
framework of the report which it draws up in accordance with
Article 13(2), assess the consequences of the provisions laid
down in paragraph 1 above. The Commission shall, if neces-
sary, submit appropriate proposals along with that report.

3.
The Commission shall present a proposal for a Directive
containing provisions relating to the training of professional
drivers, including those who perform night work, and laying
down the general principles of such training.

Article 8

Derogations

1.
Derogations from Articles 4 and 7 may, for objective or
technical reasons or reasons concerning the organisation of
work, be adopted by means of collective agreements, agree-
ments between the social partners, or if this is not possible, by
laws, regulations or administrative provisions provided there is
consultation of
the employers and
workers concerned and efforts are made to encourage all rele-
vant forms of social dialogue.

the representatives of

2.
The option to derogate from Article 4 may not result in
the establishment of a reference period exceeding six months,
for calculation of the average maximum weekly working time
of forty-eight hours.

Article 9

Information and records

Member States shall ensure that:

(a) mobile workers are informed of

the relevant national
requirements, the internal rules of the undertaking and
agreements between the two sides of industry, in particular
collective
and any company agreements,
reached on the basis of this Directive, without prejudice to
Council Directive 91/533/EEC of 14 October 1991 on an
employer's obligation to inform employees of the condi-

agreements

This Directive shall not affect Member States' right to apply or
introduce laws, regulations or administrative provisions more
favourable to the protection of the health and safety of persons
performing mobile road transport activities, or their right to
facilitate or permit the application of collective agreements or
other agreements concluded between the two sides of industry
which are more favourable to the protection of the health and
safety of mobile workers. Implementation of this Directive shall
not constitute valid grounds for reducing the general level of
protection afforded to workers referred to in Article 2(1).

Article 11

Penalties

Member States shall
lay down a system of penalties for
breaches of the national provisions adopted pursuant to this
Directive and shall take all the measures necessary to ensure
that these penalties are applied. The penalties thus provided for
shall be effective, proportional and dissuasive.

Article 12

Negotiations with third countries

Once this Directive has entered into force, the Community
shall begin negotiations with the relevant third countries with a
view to the application of rules equivalent to those laid down
in this Directive to mobile workers employed by undertakings
established in a third country.

Article 13

Reports

1. Member States shall report to the Commission every two
years on the implementation of this Directive, indicating the
views of the two sides of industry. The report must reach the
Commission no later than 30 September following the date on
which the two-year period covered by the report expires. The
two-year period shall be the same as that referred to in Article
16(2) of Regulation (EEC) No 3820/85.

(1) OJ L 288, 18.10.1991, p. 32.

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The Commission shall produce a report every two years
2.
on the implementation of this Directive by Member States and
developments in the field in question. The Commission shall
forward this report to the European Parliament, the Council,
the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the
Regions.

Article 14

Final provisions

1. Member States shall adopt
the laws, regulations and
administrative provisions necessary to comply with this
Directive by 23 March 2005 or shall ensure by that date that
the two sides of industry have established the necessary meas-
ures by agreement, the Member States being obliged to take
any steps to allow them to be able at any time to guarantee the
results required by this Directive.

When Member States adopt the measures referred to in the first
subparagraph, they shall contain a reference to this Directive or
shall be accompanied by such reference on the occasion of
their official publication. The methods of making such refer-
ence shall be laid down by Member States.

2. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the
provisions of national law which they have already adopted or
which they adopt in the field covered by this Directive.

3. Member States shall take care that consignors, freight
forwarders, prime contractors, subcontractors and enterprises
which employ mobile workers comply with the relevant provi-
sions of this Directive.

Article 15

Entry into force

This Directive shall enter into force on the day of its publica-
tion in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

Article 16

Addressees

This Directive is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Brussels, 11 March 2002.

For the European Parliament

For the Council

The President

P. COX

The President

J. PIQUÉ I CAMPS