Why keep a daily driving and rest hours log?
Long hours at the wheel and short rest between shifts are a direct fatigue risk, and driving and rest limits apply to many commercial drivers. A daily log shows, driver by driver, whether a schedule stayed within those limits, and gives you a record to correct the next schedule before it becomes a habit.
This driving hours log in Excel records each duty in a few cells and checks five things: daily driving, extended days in the week, continuous driving before a break, rest between shifts, and weekly and 14-day totals.
What are the driving and rest limits in Saudi Arabia?
The defaults on the Settings sheet follow Transport General Authority (TGA) limits as reported in the Saudi press, as of October 2026. Those reports predate the 2025 executive regulations, so confirm whether the new regulations restate them. Weekly rest is reported as 48 hours for goods transport and 45 hours for buses:
| Limit | Default | Where it is checked |
|---|---|---|
| Daily driving | 9 h | Over 9 h counts as an extended day |
| Extended daily driving | 10 h, twice a week | Over 10 h, or a third extended day in the week, is flagged |
| Break | 45 min after 4.5 h of driving | Longest continuous driving |
| Weekly driving | 56 h | Week-to-date driving |
| Driving in 14 days | 90 h | Rolling 14 days ending on the log date |
| Daily rest | 11 h | Rest before the shift |
Sources: Argaam, 31 January 2023 (specialized, rental and international bus drivers, applied from 30 April 2023); Al Bilad, 23 March 2025 (truck drivers); Al Yaum, 17 July 2018 (goods transport). The bus rules also set 45 hours of continuous weekly rest after at most six working days, and the truck reports mention 48 hours of weekly rest; weekly rest is not checked in this template. Rules differ by activity and can change, so check the current TGA requirements and edit the limits to match. This template is a record-keeping aid, not legal advice.
How to use the driving hours log
- Check every limit on Settings against the rules for your activity, and choose the first day of your week.
- List your drivers on Drivers.
- Add one row per driver per day on Daily log. Type times as h:mm: 06:00 for a duty start, 4:30 for a driving period.
- Type driving periods in order, with the break after each one. If a duty ends after midnight, type the real end time; the sheet adds a day.
- Read the Flags column daily and the Weekly summary at the end of each week.
How are driving time, breaks and rest checked?
All limits come from Settings, so the checks follow any change you make. Times are rounded to the minute before they are compared. A break shorter than the minimum does not reset continuous driving, and the sheet does not recognize split breaks; if your rules allow them, check those days by hand.
Worked example: two drivers, first three days of the week
The week starts on Sunday (set on Settings). On Sunday Ahmed drives 8:30 in three periods. On Monday he drives 4:30, takes 45 minutes, drives 4:00, takes another 45 minutes and drives 1:30: 10:00 in total. That is over 9 hours, so it is his first extended day, but it does not pass 10 hours and is not flagged. His duty ends at 17:00.
On Tuesday he starts at 03:00, only 10 hours later, so rest before the shift is flagged. He drives 5:00, stops for 30 minutes and drives 3:00. The 30-minute stop is shorter than 45 minutes, so the run continues: longest continuous driving is 8:00, well over 4.5 hours. His week to date is 26:30.
Khalid drives 10:30 on Monday, which passes the 10-hour extended limit and is flagged. On the Weekly summary both drivers show Check.
- Rest under 11 hAhmed, Tuesday: 10:00 between 17:00 and 03:00.
- No breakAhmed, Tuesday: 8:00 of driving with only a 30-minute stop.
- Driving over 10 hKhalid, Monday: 10:30 of driving.
Common mistakes in a driver hours log
- Typing hours as decimals. 4.5 is not a time, and the sheet will not accept it. Type 4:30.
- Counting loading and waiting as breaks. A break is time off work. Leave other work out of the break cells.
- Two rows for the same driver and day. Use one row per day with up to four driving periods; the daily checks are per row.
- Leaving out the duty end. Without it, the rest before the next shift cannot be checked.
- Copying limits without checking them. Bus, goods and other activities can have different rules.
Limits of a spreadsheet log
The log is only as accurate as the times typed into it, and it records what drivers or supervisors report rather than what the vehicle did. It does not check weekly rest, split breaks or other work time, and the rest check looks only at the gap between two duties. For a quick check of one driver's planned schedule, use the Driving and Rest Hours Checker; to keep driver licenses and cards in date, use the Driver Document Expiry Tracker.