A charge of driver exceeded five and a half hours continuous rest or driver failed to have 10 hours of continuous rest during a work day is laid when a truck driver fails to detail the required, legal rest periods in their logbook. A truck driver must take a break of at least 30 minutes every five and a half hours of “work time”.

Work time includes loading and unloading the vehicle, maintaining and cleaning the vehicle, driving the vehicle (including sitting in traffic), and any other administrative duties during paid employment. In any 24-hour period (a cumulative work day), a truck driver can work up to 13 hours before taking a break of at least 10 hours, not including the two standard 30-minute breaks that would have been taken during the 13 hours worked. This gives a total of 24 hours. After 70 hours of accumulated work, a truck driver must have at least a 24-hour break. The time between each 24-hour rest period is called the cumulative work period.

While these charges are finable only, they nevertheless carry with them a criminal conviction and a minimum mandatory driving disqualification period of 1 month in relation to classes 2, 3, 4 or 5 (HT licences). The driving disqualification period does not relate to a class 1 vehicle. If no defence is available, a client may be eligible for a discharge without conviction.