Guide · Planning

Driving and rest times of a coach driver: what they mean for your trip

A day trip to Paris and back again in the evening sounds like a long day. Usually it isn't a long day but an impossible one: the driver isn't allowed to work those hours. Below are the limits per day, per week and between two travel days, why waiting counts too, when a second driver has to come along, and which four changes really make a day that's too long shorter.

Part 1 of 11

Why this is your problem and not just the driver's

You make the programme: what time the coach arrives, how long you stay at the destination, what time you want to be back. The law decides whether that programme is allowed. If you only find out when the coach company turns down your request, a week has gone by and you have to agree everything with your group all over again.

If you know in advance, you change one thing and it's sorted. That's why we show it on your price overview and not somewhere in the small print.

Part 2 of 11

The limits, in plain words

For buses and coaches with more than nine seats, the same regulation applies throughout Europe. Four of its rules affect your day:

A driver may drive nine hours a day. Twice a week that may be ten hours, but nobody should plan on that exception.
After four and a half hours of driving, the driver must stop for at least 45 minutes. This may be split into a quarter of an hour and half an hour, but it has to happen.
There should be eleven hours' rest between two shifts. Three times a week that may be nine hours.
That last rule gives the limit on which most day trips founder: if a driver takes nine hours' rest in every twenty-four, that leaves fifteen hours to work.

To scale: at most 9 hours of driving, a 45-minute break after 4.5 hours, and at least 9 hours of rest within 24 hours (normally 11). Waiting counts as work.

Source

Where the limits are set out

The European rules for coach drivers

The rules apply to drivers of lorries and coaches, and come from European Regulation 561/2006.
Driving: at most 9 hours a day, and at most 10 hours on 2 days a week.
At most 56 hours' driving per week, and at most 90 hours per two consecutive weeks.
After 4.5 hours of driving, a break of 45 minutes. It may be split into two parts: first at least 15 minutes, then at least 30.
Daily rest: at least 11 hours uninterrupted, which may be reduced to 9 hours three times between two weekly rests, or split into two parts of at least 3 and then 9 hours.
The new daily rest falls within 24 hours of the end of the previous one; with two drivers, within 30 hours.
The normal weekly rest lasts 45 hours.

Source: Dutch government (Rijksoverheid), what are the legal rules on driving and rest times in road transport?, read on 9 October 2026.

This is a summary in our own words. There are exceptions we don't know about, such as agreements a company has made with its drivers; the coach company has the final say.

Part 3 of 11

Driving isn't the same as working

This is the confusion behind most days that are too long. Waiting isn't rest: the driver is working, even when the coach is standing still. A day trip with two hours of driving and thirteen hours of waiting is therefore a fifteen-hour shift, and that's the limit, even though there's been hardly any driving. Conversely, a journey with many driving hours and little waiting time may fit perfectly well.

So don't look at the distance but at the time between the coach arriving and everyone getting off. With the calculator you see within 1 minute whether your trip works with one driver.

Can my trip be done with one driver?

Part 4 of 11

Per week and per two weeks

Besides the daily limit, there is a limit over a longer period. A driver may drive at most 56 hours a week, and at most 90 hours in total over two consecutive weeks. Those two weeks roll on: every week counts together with the week before.

For a single day trip you won't notice this. For a week-long trip, or in a busy month like December or June, you will: the coach company's planner then looks not only at your journey but also at what the driver has already driven that week. That's why a company may send a different driver than you expected, or why a vehicle just isn't available on your day.

Part 5 of 11

A trip of several days: the rest between two days

On a trip of two days or more, it's about the night. After every working day a driver needs at least eleven hours of uninterrupted rest. Three times between two weekly rests that may be nine hours, and the rest may also be split into two parts of at least three and then nine hours. The new rest must fall within twenty-four hours of the end of the previous rest; with two drivers, within thirty hours.

For your programme this means: if you arrive at the hotel at eleven at night, the coach won't leave at seven the next morning. So schedule breakfast and the first visit at a time when the driver has had their rest, and ask the coach company if you're unsure. After a week comes a weekly rest of normally forty-five hours; on a long tour the coach company plans this in itself, or changes drivers.

Part 6 of 11

What a second driver does and doesn't solve

With two drivers the driving time doubles: each of them is still bound by their own nine hours, so together they can get considerably further. What a second driver does not extend is the length of the shift. Twenty-six hours away from home is still twenty-six hours, even with two drivers. That's why a day trip to a distant destination usually fails not on driving time but on the length of the day.

And a second driver isn't free: they appear as a separate item in the price as soon as the journey needs one.

Part 7 of 11

When a second driver is included in your price

We look day by day, not at the trip as a whole. If the coach is driven for more than nine hours behind the wheel on one day, we charge a second driver for that day. A three-day trip with two long travel days and a quiet day in between therefore needs a second driver on two days, not on three.

If the second driver has to come along on both the outward and the return journey, and the coach stays with the group, they stay with the group too. We then charge their hotel for the nights in between, and no day rate for the days they don't drive. What this means for your trip appears as a separate item on your price overview.

Part 8 of 11

How we estimate the driving time of your journey

Your price overview shows how many hours will be driven. That's an estimate, and this is how we make it: we calculate the first hundred kilometres of each leg at 65 kilometres per hour, for towns, villages and motorway slip roads. After that at 75 kilometres per hour, which is on the cautious side for a coach on the motorway. A leg is one continuous drive: the outward journey, the return journey, or one day's route from your programme.

We count the compulsory breaks separately. They're part of the time the coach is on the road and part of the price, but they don't count towards the nine-hour limit, because that is about time behind the wheel. If the estimate is off, we'd rather flag a journey as too long than say one fits when it doesn't.

Part 9 of 11

Four ways to make a day that's too long shorter

If our overview says the journey doesn't fit as it is, this is the order in which it is usually solved:

Head back earlier. Leaving the destination an hour earlier is almost always the smallest change, and often enough.
Leave later, and cut the waiting. A group that leaves at eight instead of six makes the shift shorter without losing any of the programme.
Book an overnight stay for the driver. That puts a night's rest between the outward and the return journey, and both days fit comfortably.
Spread the journey over two days. For a distant destination that's not a compromise but simply how such a trip works.

Part 10 of 11

What we show, and what we don't do

On your price overview we check these limits using the same hours your price was calculated with: how many drivers the journey needs, how much compulsory break time it includes, and what time the coach will then be back. What we don't do is filter out a coach because we think it won't fit. We don't know whether the company will send two drivers or has an arrangement we don't know about, and filtering out a coach on an assumption sends you away from someone who could have helped you perfectly well. So it's there as information, not as a refusal.

Part 11 of 11

The coach company has the final say

The main rules above are fixed; the exceptions we don't know. There is a rule that allows twelve consecutive days for occasional international passenger transport, outside the European Union a different agreement applies, and a company may have agreed something with its drivers that is stricter than the law. So take our notice as a warning and not as a final verdict. The coach company's planner knows what its drivers have already driven that week; we don't.

Written and checked by Martijn Smeets, founder of BusOffer.com. Last updated on 10 October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

How long may a coach driver drive in one day?

Nine hours, and ten twice a week. That's the time behind the wheel; breaks and waiting don't count as driving time, but they do count as working time.

Does waiting at the destination count as rest?

No. As long as the driver is with the coach and available, they are working. That's why a day trip with little driving and a lot of waiting can still be too long.

Does a second driver solve everything?

It doubles the driving time, not the length of the day. A twenty-six-hour shift is still too long, even with two drivers. Then an overnight stay or an earlier return journey is the solution.

What happens if I request a journey that's too long anyway?

Your request goes ahead as normal and you see prices as normal; we don't filter anything out. But your overview does show what doesn't fit, so you can change it before a coach company has to say no.

How many hours' rest does a coach driver need between two travel days?

At least eleven hours uninterrupted, and three times between two weekly rests that may be nine hours. So don't plan the first drive of the next day too soon after arriving the evening before.

How many hours may a coach driver drive per week?

At most 56 hours a week, and at most 90 hours in total over two consecutive weeks. On a long trip, the coach company also looks at what the driver has already driven that week.

When is a second driver included in my price?

On every day on which, by our estimate, the coach is driven for more than nine hours behind the wheel. We look day by day, so a trip with one long and two short days only gets one on that one day.

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