Long - Night work time

Any work time that exceeds 12 hours or recorded between 12am and 6am is collectively called long/night work time.

What is long/night work time?

Under the Heavy Vehicle (Fatigue Management) National Regulation, long/night work time means any work time:

  1. in excess of 12 hours in a 24-hour period, or
  2. between 12 midnight and 6am (or the equivalent hours in the time zone of the driver’s base if the driver is travelling in a fatigue-regulated heavy vehicle in a different time zone.

Common misconceptions

The previous method of counting long hours and night hours as separate categories no longer applies under the current regulation. Any work time that exceeds 12 hours, or work time recorded between 12am and 6am, are now collectively called long/night work time and must be counted as such.

Therefore, you would only add ‘long hours’ for the hours exceeding 12-hours in a 24-hour period that occur after 6am and before the end of the counting period.

Key rules

A solo driver operating under NHVAS Basic Fatigue Management (BFM) must not exceed 36 hours of long/night work time in a 7-day period.

Once the 36 hours of long/night work time limit is reached, the driver:

  • cannot exceed 12 hours of work in a 24-hour period
    or
  • cannot work between 12 am and 6 am, until their total long/night work time is less than 36 hours.

A driver operating under NHVAS Advanced Fatigue Management (AFM) or Alternative Compliance Accreditation – Fatigue (ACA - Fatigue) should check long/night work conditions as outlined on the accreditation certificate. If long/night work is not on the certificate, there may be no limitation on the amount of long/night work hours. You can email fatigue.management@nhvr.gov.au to find out more. 

Overlapping periods

Sometimes there will be overlapping 24-hour counting periods, each containing long/night work hours. Any long/night hours that occur over multiple 24-hour counting periods are only to be counted once, and then totalled for the counting period for which the limitation applies (e.g., 36 hours in 7 days under BFM).

Examples

Scenario 1

A solo BFM driver who works for 13 hours between the hours of 6am to 11pm, would accumulate a total of 1 long/night hour.

Scenario 2

A solo BFM driver who works for 14 hours between the hours of 1pm on a day until 6am the next day, and they worked between the hours of 12am to 6am would accumulate a total of 6 long/night hours.

Scenario 3

A solo BFM driver who works for 13 hours between the hours of 5pm on a day and 9am on the next day, having worked between the hours of 12am to 6am, and in addition from 8am to 9am, would accumulate a total of 7 long/night hours.

Key takeaways

Table 1: Key takeaways for long/night work time
1Long/night work time now combines long hours and night hours into the same definition.
2Under BFM solo, up to 36 hours of long/night work time can be accumulated over a 7-day period. For AFM and ACH, check your accreditation certificate to see if there is a long/night work condition.
3If a driver accumulates 36 hours of long/night work time, they cannot work anymore long/night work time until the total of accumulated long/night work time is less than 36 hours.
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