What are the driving hours and rest break rules for commercial drivers?

Commercial drivers operating in Malta are generally subject to EU rules on driving times and rest periods, set out in EU Regulation 561/2006, which applies directly in Malta and is enforced through Transport Malta, establishing specific requirements including maximum daily and weekly driving time limits, mandatory break requirements after a set number of hours of continuous driving, and minimum daily and weekly rest period requirements, all designed specifically to address road safety risks associated with driver fatigue, and compliance is generally monitored through tachograph recording devices required to be fitted and properly used in most commercial vehicles falling within the scope of these rules. As the employer, you bear specific responsibility for ensuring your drivers actually comply with these rules in practice, including properly scheduling routes and workloads in a way that genuinely allows compliance with the driving time and rest requirements, rather than setting expectations that would effectively require drivers to breach these rules to meet delivery targets, since both the driver and the employer can potentially face liability and penalties for breaches of these regulations. Given the genuine complexity of these EU-derived rules and the real regulatory and safety consequences of non-compliance, it would be worth ensuring your business has proper systems in place for tracking and managing driver hours, and consulting a lawyer or specialist compliance consultant to properly audit your current practices against these specific requirements.