EU Driving-Hours Rules Now Cover Vans: What Changed on 1 July 2026

For years, vans between 2.5 and 3.5 tonnes operating across EU borders sat outside the tachograph regime that governs heavy trucks. That changed on 1 July 2026. Under Regulation (EC) No 561/2006, as extended by the Mobility Package, driving-hours and rest rules now apply to the carriage of goods in international transport or cabotage operations by vehicles with a total mass exceeding 2.5 tonnes, not just the old 3.5 tonne threshold.

IRU EU Director Raluca Marian called it a watershed moment, saying <cite index="34-1,34-2">this is the first time the LCV sector is fully brought under key EU transport rules that have long applied to heavy-duty vehicles</cite>, adding that <cite index="34-3">tachographs, driving and rest time rules, and posting obligations are complex requirements, especially for smaller operators and drivers with limited previous exposure to EU transport compliance</cite>. The scale of the change is significant: roughly <cite index="23-24">three million light commercial vehicles fall within the new scope</cite> across Europe.

The obligation applies to <cite index="22-20">vehicles and vehicle combinations (van plus trailer) with a permissible gross vehicle weight between over 2.5 tonnes and up to 3.5 tonnes when they are used for paid international carriage of goods or for cabotage</cite>. This means the gross combination weight counts, so a van pulling a trailer can tip into scope even if the van alone would not.

Not every light vehicle is caught. <cite index="11-19">National-only operations and vehicles at or below 2.5 tonnes are not affected</cite>. There is also an own-account exemption: <cite index="14-6">own account transport operations, where driving does not constitute the main activity of the person driving the vehicle, defined as occupying less than 30% of monthly working time, will not fall into scope</cite>. A separate craft and materials exemption exists too, but it only applies if <cite index="22-26,22-27,22-28">the permissible gross vehicle weight does not exceed 7.5 tonnes, the transport is carried out within 100 km of the company base, and driving is not the driver's main job</cite>, with all conditions required simultaneously.

Operators hoping for a soft launch were disappointed. Within days of the deadline, German roadside teams were already active. During checks on the A7, <cite index="24-5,24-6">officers found three vans that had no tachograph installed despite the requirement. Drivers were fined, and all three vehicles were barred from continuing until the non-compliance was resolved</cite>. As one report put it, <cite index="24-2">the checks suggest there is no grace period in practice, with enforcement starting immediately after the rules took effect</cite>.

Penalties vary by country but are not trivial. In Austria, <cite index="22-4,22-5">fines range from 400 to five thousand euro, and the vehicle is immobilised until the correct device is installed</cite>. Across the EU more broadly, reported penalty ranges run from <cite index="23-1">€41 for minor breaches to beyond €30,000 for tachograph tampering</cite>.

The driving-hours regime is the same one HGV drivers have followed for years: <cite index="28-1">a maximum of 9 daily driving hours, a mandatory 45-minute break after every 4.5 hours, and a minimum 11-hour rest between shifts</cite>. For van operations built around a single driver covering long distances overnight, that is a fundamentally different planning problem. As one freight buyer briefing put it, <cite index="2-1">mandatory 45-minute breaks and strict daily rest limits mean transit times for express van freight will lengthen to match standard HGV timelines</cite>.

Tachographs are only part of the picture. Operators sending a driver to work in another member state must also handle posted-worker obligations, submitting a posting declaration and ensuring the driver receives host-country pay conditions. IRU had flagged this risk well before the deadline, warning that <cite index="31-7,31-8">experience with trucks shows that last-minute compliance leads to device shortages and long queues in certified workshops, and without early action, the same risk looms for freight transport vans used in cross-border EU traffic</cite>.

If you run a mixed fleet, start by identifying every 2.5-3.5 tonne vehicle that does cross-border or cabotage work, since that is the population that needs a second-generation smart tachograph and updated procedures. Trade guidance issued ahead of the deadline recommended operators <cite index="7-13">identify any 2.5-3.5 t vehicles doing foreign routes and procure the Gen2 tachographs for them well before summer 2026</cite>, precisely to avoid the workshop backlogs that plagued the truck rollout.

Planning also has to change. Manual scheduling on spreadsheets, which was tolerable when vans were exempt from driving-time rules, breaks down once those constraints apply. As one logistics software provider observed, <cite index="23-9,23-10">for anyone running routes on spreadsheets today, the impact is particularly steep, since manual planning becomes impractical when delivery constraints meet driving-time constraints</cite>.

FleetlySolutions was built around the assumption that EU 561/2006 compliance is a planning problem, not just a hardware problem. Because the platform's route and driving-hours logic already models the 9-hour daily limit, the 4.5-hour break trigger and the 11-hour rest requirement for HGV operations, extending that same logic to the newly covered van fleet is a configuration exercise rather than a rebuild.

For hauliers and forwarders juggling mixed fleets across the 2.5, 3.5 and heavier weight bands, the practical value is being able to plan a route once and see, before the vehicle leaves the yard, whether the driver's hours, the break schedule and the realistic transit time actually add up, alongside the toll costs and per-kilometre pricing for that lane. No telematics box to fit, no separate system to reconcile against the tachograph data once it starts flowing in from the newly regulated vans.