Mobility Package and LCVs: van driving time limits explained simply

Everyone talks about the tachograph, but the real change in July 2026 is what the device records: driving and rest times. The Mobility Package extends the European social regulation 561/2006 — until now reserved for heavy goods vehicles — to LCVs over 2.5 t on international routes. Here is what it means, plainly, for a van operator.

What is the Mobility Package?

The Mobility Package is a set of EU rules adopted to harmonise road transport across the Union: driver working conditions, cabotage, posting, and above all vehicle equipment. Its most structural part for long-distance vans takes effect on July 1, 2026: the smart tachograph requirement and the application of driving-time rules to LCVs over 2.5 t.

LCV driving times, rule by rule

From July 2026, an international LCV driver is subject to exactly the same limits as a heavy-truck driver:

• Daily driving: 9 h maximum, extended to 10 h twice a week.
• Break: 45 min mandatory after 4 h 30 of driving (splittable into 15 + 30 min).
• Daily rest: 11 h, reducible to 9 h three times between weekly rests.
• Weekly driving: 56 h maximum, and 90 h maximum over two consecutive weeks.
• Weekly rest: 45 h, reducible to 24 h under compensation conditions.

The difference from “before” is not the rule itself — it already existed for trucks — but the fact that it becomes impossible to bypass: the tachograph records everything, automatically.

What it changes on a real route

Let’s take three typical corridors to grasp the concrete impact:

• Barcelona → Lyon (~640 km, ~7 h): doable in a day, but the 45-min break eats the margin on a next-day commitment.
• Milan → Paris (~850 km, ~9 h): right at the 9 h limit, no slack if anything goes wrong (customs, traffic).
• Berlin → Paris (~1,050 km, ~10-11 h): simply impossible legally in a single day.

As soon as the trip exceeds ~9 h of driving, you must either add a rest (so +1 day), add a second driver (so +cost), or hand the French leg to a local operator.

The border relay: keeping driving time intact

The logic of the border relay is simple: the foreign driver only does the “outside France” part of the trip, which fits within their 9 h. They drop off at the border, and a French operator takes over for the last mile. Their driving-time counter does not run on French soil, their rotation stays profitable, and your deadline is met.

In summary

• The Mobility Package applies 561/2006 driving times to LCVs > 2.5 t on international routes from July 2026.
• Key limits: 9 h/day, 45-min break every 4 h 30, 11 h rest, 56 h/week.
• Any trip > 9 h of driving becomes impossible in a day without rest or a second driver.
• The border relay preserves the foreign driver’s driving time and keeps deadlines.