I drove for 11 months on agency before anyone sat me down and properly explained what the bed symbol on the tachograph switch actually meant. Eleven months. In that time I'd used it as a catch-all for 'not driving' — which is half right and half completely wrong.
Set the wrong mode and your rest period doesn't count. Set the wrong mode at a ferry port and you might lose the daily rest exemption that was the entire point of the crossing. Set it wrong consistently across a working week and you've built a false picture of your hours that nobody — including you — can rely on.
Four symbols. Each one means something specific. Here's what they are.
The four modes, one by one
Drive (the steering wheel symbol)
This one selects itself. As soon as the vehicle speed exceeds about 2 km/h with your card inserted in slot 1, the tachograph automatically switches to drive mode. You don't have to do anything. It records your driving time. When you stop, it doesn't automatically leave drive mode — you have to manually switch to whatever comes next.
The mistake here is stopping for a break and forgetting to change mode. You're sitting in the services having a bacon roll. The tacho is still on drive. Every minute of that break is being recorded as driving time. By the time you pull back on to the M6, your driving record says you drove straight through. That's a false record, and at a roadside check it creates an infringement that didn't need to exist.
Work (the crossed-hammer or briefcase symbol)
Work mode records time when you're on duty but not driving. Loading and unloading, waiting for a bay to clear, pre-trip walkaround, admin, anything where you're working but not behind the wheel. It counts toward your daily duty time. It does not count toward your daily driving time.
This is the mode most drivers understand reasonably well — because it's the obvious alternative to drive. But the exact boundary matters. If you're sitting in the cab waiting for a bay and you're being paid for that waiting time, it's work mode. If you're waiting on a voluntary basis and have no obligation to remain — no instruction to stay, free to sleep — that shades into availability. The distinction matters when your daily rest is tight.
Rest (the bed symbol)
Rest mode is exactly what it says. You're off duty, not working, and the time records as rest. This is what needs to be running during your daily rest period for it to count as legal daily rest under EU 561. The 11 hours — or 9 hours on a reduced daily rest — need to be showing as rest mode on the tachograph, not as work, not as drive, not as a blank record where you forgot to insert your card.
This is the one that bites drivers on nights out. You park up, pull your card, and go to sleep without setting rest mode — or without your card inserted at all. Under 561, rest periods need to be recorded. If there's no card in the unit, the vehicle unit records the time as 'unknown driver.' When an enforcement officer reads the unit and sees an unattended vehicle with no driver card inserted and no rest time recorded, that flags a problem. Not always a fine. But a conversation you'd rather not have at six in the morning in a layby off the A74.
Availability (the crossed-arrow or person-standing symbol)
This is the one I got wrong for the better part of a year. Availability records time where you're accompanying the vehicle or on-call, but you're not required to work and you can rest. Classic examples: second driver in a double-manning setup who isn't driving, waiting at a ferry terminal with no obligation to unload, on-call at a depot but not actively working.
The crucial bit: availability time is not rest time. It counts toward your daily duty time but does not count toward your rest period. You cannot build up your 11-hour daily rest on availability mode. You also cannot use availability mode to substitute for work mode during loading — if you're expected to assist, that's work.
But availability does have one very specific use case that many drivers never learn until it bites them: the ferry exemption.
Why availability mode matters for the ferry exemption
Article 9 of EU 561/2006 allows drivers crossing by ferry or train to interrupt their daily rest period twice, provided the interruptions don't total more than one hour. The idea is that you take your daily rest, get on the ferry, you might be disturbed by the crossing, and you complete the rest on the other side.
For this exemption to apply correctly, the time you spend on the ferry — or waiting to board — needs to be recorded in availability mode if you're not actively resting. Time spent in the canteen, time on deck, time waiting in the cab without actually sleeping — technically that should be availability if you're not at liberty to fully rest. When you do sleep, that's rest mode.
Get this wrong and the rest period doesn't qualify. I covered the full Article 9 detail in the post on ferry and train exemptions — but the short version is that the mode selection during the crossing is not optional bookkeeping. It determines whether the interruption counts.
Multi-manning and the second driver's mode
In a double-manned vehicle, the driver who isn't currently driving is — by definition — not driving. But they're in the cab, accompanying the vehicle. That time should be in availability mode, not rest mode, unless they're genuinely asleep in the bunk and not expected to be available.
The reason this matters: a second driver who records their non-driving cab time as rest is claiming rest periods they may not legally have taken. The definition of daily rest under 561 requires that it be taken in conditions of genuine rest — not just 'not driving.' If you're sitting in the passenger seat awake, responding to the driver, watching the road — that's availability. Rest mode is for when you actually sleep.
The post on multi-manning rules goes into the detail on how the second driver's clock works. The mode selection piece is a component of that, not a separate issue.
Card out of the vehicle — and why mode still matters
When your card is out of the unit — say you've taken a rest in a cab at a truckstop overnight — the vehicle unit records activity as 'unknown driver.' When you insert the card the next morning, the unit prompts you to manually enter what you were doing during the unrecorded period: out of vehicle (rest), or other (work/available).
That manual entry creates a record. The problem is that drivers sometimes enter the wrong activity — or skip the prompt entirely — which produces a tachograph record that doesn't match reality. DVSA at a roadside stop can see the manual entry, can see what it claims, and can ask you to justify it. If your rest declaration covers a period when you were actually loading, that's a false record. Not just an administrative error.
The practical rule for nights out: leave the card in slot 1 and set rest mode before you sleep. You don't get a download requirement for doing it right. You do get a potentially awkward conversation if you get it wrong.
The most common mode errors I see
Roughly in order of frequency, from what I've seen in yards and from talking to other drivers:
- Forgetting to switch out of drive mode after stopping — break time records as driving
- Using rest mode during availability-type situations on double-manning runs
- Removing the card without recording the reason for the gap when reinserting
- Using work mode during what should be availability time at a ferry terminal
- Not switching to rest mode for an overnight stop — leaving the unit on work or even drive
None of these are usually deliberate. But 'not deliberate' doesn't mean anything at a roadside check. The tachograph record is what it is. What mode you meant to set doesn't appear on the printout.
Took me an infringement and a fairly pointed conversation with a transport manager at a depot in Birmingham to take mode selection seriously. It felt like admin. It isn't. It's your proof of compliance, and the proof only works if it reflects what you actually did.
If you want to track your mode selections and hours against your legal limits before the next roadside stop, ShiftOwt gives you the dashboard view your transport manager sees — £5.99/month for drivers, agency pricing on request.