Ask the MAC – 04 Dec 2025

Moonlighting mysteries

Q) I am concerned that some of our drivers may have second jobs. What are our responsibilities in terms of the hours they work for us?

A) For drivers, there are two areas of legislation that you need to think about here. Firstly, assimilated drivers’ hours rules and secondly, the rules on working time for the road transport sector. Under assimilated drivers’ hours rules, the regulations do not specifically prevent a driver carrying out secondary employment but where this involves driving, they have a legal obligation to advise you, assuming you are the first employer.

Whilst employees are not legally obliged to inform you of second jobs that do not include driving, it is important that enquiries are made about these to guard against any implications they might have for the drivers’ hours rules, in terms of daily and weekly rest. They must also produce a tachograph record of their other work. During a rest period the driver must be able to freely dispose of their time, which in practice means that they may not do any work, voluntary or not, where they are under instruction or an obligation to be there.

The working time rules require employers to take account of other work undertaken by employees for road transport employers when calculating average and total working time. The regulations specifically require you to enquire about other work and in scope employees are legally required to respond to you in writing. One way of addressing both regulations is to issue a letter to drivers asking them to inform you if they are undertaking any other work, with Logistics UK having a template available if required. For the longer term, you could include a clause in the contract of employment or staff handbook. This could require your employees to seek the company’s permission prior to commencing secondary employment.

Time for a lock-in?

Q) What happens if we get a second-hand or hired vehicle with a digital tachograph, where the previous company has forgotten to lock-out its data?

A) The fact that the previous user has forgotten to lock-out will not prevent you from protecting your own data, nor will it let you have access to their data (as long as they remembered to lock it in). All locking-out does is signify the end of an operator’s interest in the vehicle and the data held on the vehicle unit. It is the locking-in of data before use that is the most important action. If you fail to lock-in data before you use it in these circumstances, your data will only be able to be read by the previous company’s card.