Truck Driver Scheduling and Regulation (EC) No 561/2006

Abstract

Since April 2007 working hours of truck drivers in the European Union are regulated by regulation (EC) No 561/2006. According to the new regulations, road transport undertakings must organise the work of drivers in a way that drivers are able to comply with the regulations and can be made liable for infringements committed by the drivers. Although of particular importance in long-distance haulage, regulations on working hours of truck drivers have only received very little attention in the scheduling literature. This paper presents a method for scheduling work weeks of truck drivers which fully considers regulation (EC) No 561/2006 for journeys made on roads in the European Union. It is proven that, given a sequence of locations to be visited within specified time windows, the approach finds a schedule complying with the regulation if such a schedule exists.