Guides / Working Time

France — Shift span, working time, breaks: the words that decide your pay

Updated on 9 September 2026 · by Yann, working truck driver

Shift span, working time, driving time, break, rest… We use them every day, but we often mix them up. Yet each concept follows a different rule, and it is precisely on these differences that pay disputes hinge.

👉 For the full check of your payslip, start with the pillar guide: checking and challenging a truck driver's payslip.

Understanding these terms means understanding why you are paid what you are and where an error may be hiding. Here are the four essential concepts, in the order they nest within each other. Then the two weekly limits that frame them.

1. The shift span: the length of your day

The shift span is the total time elapsed between the start and the end of your working day, breaks included. You start your shift at 6 am and finish at 6 pm: your shift span is 12 hours, even if you took a 1h30 break in the middle. It is the overall envelope of your day.

The shift span calculation for a truck driver therefore comes down to one subtraction: finish time minus start time, with nothing deducted. That is what makes a truck driver's shift span so deceptive — a 13-hour shift span can contain only 9 hours of actual work, and yet it is the shift span that is capped.

2. Working time: what is actually worked

Working time (or effective working time) counts only the periods actually worked: driving, loading/unloading, manoeuvres, waiting ordered by the employer, maintenance. It is always less than or equal to the shift span, since genuine breaks are deducted. It is on this figure that your hours and overtime are calculated.

Example:

Shift span 12h − 1h30 genuine break = 10h30 working time. It is these 10h30 that feed your hours counter, not the 12h.

3. Driving time and breaks

Driving time is a sub-part of working time: solely the time spent behind the wheel. It is subject to strict European safety rules, in particular the break of at least 45 minutes after 4h30 of driving (splittable into 15 min then 30 min, in that order).

Beware the trap: these driving breaks serve road safety, not the calculation of your pay. A period may be a "break" in the tachograph sense without actually deducting from working time if you remain at the employer's disposal.

4. Ordered waiting ≠ genuine break

This is the point that generates the most disagreements. A genuine break, where you are free to use your time as you wish, is generally not working time. But ordered waiting — you are waiting at the dock, on standby, without being able to freely use your time — can count as working time. If it is treated as a simple pause, hours disappear from your pay.

✅Likely working time: imposed dock waiting, manoeuvres, loading, ordered availability.

➖Generally not working time: break where you are free to do as you please.

The exact classification depends on the specific situation and the applicable collective agreement. If in doubt, seek support (union, legal advice).

5. The weekly working-time limits

Three limits, often confused. Driving is capped at 56 hours per week and 90 hours over two weeks (Regulation 561/2006). Working time — driving plus loading, manoeuvring, maintenance — has its own: 60 hours in a single week, and 48 hours on average over four months (Directive 2002/15/EC, Article 4).

📅60 h in a single week. No individual week may exceed 60 hours of working time, whatever the average.

⏱48 h on average over four months. The average is calculated over a four-month reference period, extendable to six by collective agreement.

➖Availability does not count here. Waiting whose duration you know in advance is part of your service time and your pay, but Article 3 of the Directive excludes it from these two limits.

Hence a week that is perfectly legal on driving and over the line on working time: 45 h at the wheel plus 18 h on the dock make 63 h of work, without a single breach of Regulation 561/2006. TruckerMaster computes the two separately and shows your average as soon as the reference period is covered.

🛠 Visualise shift span and working time day by day

TruckerMaster reads your driver card and breaks down each day: shift span, driving, work, breaks, rest. You clearly see what counts as working time and can compare it with your pay slip.

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