These Regulations implement Directive 2002/15/EC of the European Parliament and the Council on the organisation of the working time of persons performing mobile road transport services. Their main effect is to restrict mobile workers, notably drivers of commercial goods and passenger vehicles, to an average working week of 48 hours and an absolute average of 60 hours.
Directive 2002/15/EC is a free-standing Directive, but there are important inter-relationships with two other pieces of EU legislation: Council Directive 93/104/EC which applied working time rules to all sectors except transport, sea fishing, other offshore activity and doctors in training; and Council Regulation 3820/85 which lays down rules relating to the time commercial vehicle drivers may spend at the wheel, and the minimum breaks and rest periods they must take.
It is the The Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005 which take the main provisions set out under these EU Directives and apply them to a UK context.
