Somebody is handed tachograph compliance in most small operators without much of a handover, and the first thing they discover is that the rules are not the difficulty. The limits are published, plainly, by the government. What takes the time is the regime around them: which cards are due, what the analysis found, what was said to the driver and whether they signed. This page is about the rules as a record-keeping obligation, which is the form the office experiences them in, and it points at GOV.UK for the rules themselves rather than restating them as our own.
The limits, and where they come from
GOV.UK's assimilated rules page sets them out: no more than 9 hours driving in a day, extendable to 10 hours twice a week, 56 hours in a week and 90 hours in any 2 consecutive weeks, with breaks totalling at least 45 minutes after no more than 4 hours 30 minutes driving, at least 11 hours daily rest and an unbroken weekly rest of 45 hours reducible to 24 every other week. Those are the government's figures, cited rather than asserted here, and they are what the free check on this site takes as its defaults.
What the office has to hold
Downloads within the intervals, the analysis of them, the infringements found, what was put to the driver and their signature, kept for the retention period your regime works to. The rules produce a paper trail and the trail is what is examined; an office with perfect drivers and no records is in a worse position than one with imperfect drivers and a complete file.
What changed for vans
Vehicles and combinations over 3.5 tonnes used internationally were brought into scope, which caught operators who had never run a tachograph and did not think of themselves as hauliers. If your vans cross a border, the question of whether you are in scope is worth answering deliberately rather than assuming, and GOV.UK is where the scope is stated.
Made easy, honestly
The shortest useful version for somebody new: know which rule set each vehicle is under, get the cards downloaded on time, analyse every download the same way, put every finding to the driver and keep the signature. Nothing on this site tells you what the law requires of your operation, and anybody who offers to in a paragraph is selling something.
Questions people ask about tachograph rules uk
What are the UK tachograph rules?
The driving, break and rest limits and the recording obligations that go with them. GOV.UK's assimilated rules page is the government's own statement of them, and this site cites it rather than restating it.
How long must records be kept?
Your regime should state a retention period built on the official guidance. This site does not publish one, because getting it wrong in either direction is expensive and it is not ours to state.
Do the rules apply to vans?
Over 3.5 tonnes and used internationally, they can. Whether your operation is in scope is a question to answer against GOV.UK's scope statement rather than by analogy with someone else's fleet.
Where does software help?
Not with the rules, which are published, but with the regime: which downloads are due, what the analysis found, and whether the driver signed.