Victorian Consolidated Regulations

2 Reg. 302A(1)(b): S.R. No. 27/1999. Reprint No. 2 as at 15 December 2002. Reprinted to S.R. No. 114/2002. Subsequently amended by S.R. No. 87/2003. - SECT 501

PART 5 FATIGUE MANAGEMENT

Calculation of time

501. Calculation of time



(1) In the calculation of work time for the purposes of Part 10A of the Act, a
period of less than 15 minutes counts as 15 minutes.

Examples A period of working for 14 minutes counts as 15 minutes work time. A
period of working for 17 minutes counts as 30 minutes work time. A period of
working for 53 minutes counts as 1 hour work time.

(2) In the calculation of rest time for the purposes of Part 10A of the Act, a
period of time is calculated in blocks of no less than 15 minutes.

Examples A period of not working of only 14 minutes does not count as rest
time (because 14 minutes is less than 15 minutes). A period of not working for
17 minutes counts as 15 minutes rest time (because 17 minutes is more than 15
minutes, but is less than 2 lots of 15 minutes, i.e. 30 minutes). A period of
not working for 53 minutes counts as 45 minutes rest time (because 53 minutes
is more than 3 lots of 15 minutes, i.e. 45 minutes, but is less than 4 lots of
15 minutes, i.e. 60 minutes).

(3) In calculating time in a period for the purposes of Part 10A of the Act,
the time must not be counted from within rest time, but must be counted
forward-

   (a)  if calculating rest time and 1 or more major rest breaks are relevant
        to the period, from the end of a relevant major rest break; or

   (b)  in any other case, from the end of a relevant period of rest time.

Example A driver works standard hours. The driver completes 7 continuous hours
rest time at 7 am on a relevant day, starts work at 7 am, works until 12.15
pm, has a 1 hour rest break, then works until 7.15 pm. In calculating the
number of hours worked by the driver on that day, the counting must start from
the rest period that finished at 7 am. Adding the periods 7 am to 12.15 pm and
1.15 pm to 7.15 pm results in a total of 111/4 hours worked that day (which is
not a breach of maximum work time for the period from 7 am to 7.15 pm).
However, in calculating the number of continuous hours worked in the second
work period that day, the counting must start from the rest period that
finished at 1.15 pm. Adding the periods 1.15 pm to 7.15 pm results in a total
of 6 continuous hours worked (which is a breach of maximum work time for the
period from 1.15 pm to 7.15 pm).

(4) If a driver undertakes a journey and is in a different time zone from the
time zone of the driver's base at the time when a period of time is relevant
for the purposes of Part 10A of the Act, the period must be calculated by
reference to the time zone of the driver base.

Example If it is necessary to determine the night hours of a driver with a
base in Western Australia while the driver is in Victoria on a journey, those
night hours are the period between 12 midnight and 6 am in the Western
Australian time zone in which the driver's base is situated, even if those
hours equate (for instance) to 3 am to 9 am in Victoria.