How many vacation days do I actually have as a professional truck driver?

How many vacation days do I actually have as a professional truck driver?

20, 24, 30 or even more vacation days? How much recovery leave a professional truck driver actually has depends not only on their profession. The key factors are the regular working days, the employment contract, and possible collective agreement regulations. In addition, there are statutory leave entitlements, which must not be confused with annual leave.

Recently, I came across an article online about the vacation entitlements of professional truck drivers. Among other things, it mentioned additional vacation days that are said to result from various statutory and collective agreement regulations. This piqued my interest. After all, as a driver, I would certainly have no objection to having a bit more recovery leave.

But which of these entitlements actually exist? What does the Federal Leave Act regulate, what additional vacation days can arise from collective agreements, and what other possibilities for leave entitlements does labor law provide?

I therefore looked more closely at the relevant legal provisions and some decisions of the Federal Labor Court. My main aim was to place the different regulations in context and to find out under what conditions professional truck drivers can claim additional vacation days.

In long-distance transport, this is an important topic. Those who are on the road for several days in a row, have irregular working hours, and also drive at night know how difficult it can sometimes be to balance work and family life.

Therefore, it is worth looking not only at the statutory minimum leave but also at the history of collective agreements in freight transport. Because additional vacation days for long-distance drivers were actually agreed upon in collective agreements in the past.

However, one must distinguish between statutory recovery leave, collective agreement additional entitlements, special leave entitlements, and the prescribed rest periods. They have different legal bases and do not always serve the same purpose.

How much vacation is legally entitled to a professional truck driver?

The basis is the Federal Leave Act (BUrlG) .

According to § 3, the statutory minimum annual leave is 24 working days per year. The law assumes a six-day week, in which Saturday is also counted as a working day.

In the case of a regular five-day week, this corresponds to 20 working days. In both cases, the employee receives four weeks of paid recovery leave.

Those who work regularly on four days a week have at least 16 vacation days accordingly. The number of vacation days therefore depends on the distribution of working days, not simply on the number of working hours.

In the case of irregular working time models, the calculation can become more complex. Then it depends on how many days in the relevant period a working obligation exists.

The full statutory leave entitlement is first acquired after six months of employment under § 4 BUrlG. However, this does not mean that before that time, no vacation can be claimed at all. For certain cases, § 5 BUrlG provides for a partial leave entitlement.

Many employees receive more than the legally prescribed four weeks. For example, 30 working days in a five-day week correspond to six weeks of annual leave.

Such an entitlement can arise from a collective agreement or an employment contract agreement.

However, there is no nationwide statutory entitlement for professional truck drivers to have 30 vacation days. The key remains which provisions apply to the respective employment relationship.

The BMT-F: Long-distance drivers used to actually get additional vacation days

A look into the history of freight transport shows that special vacation regulations for long-distance drivers are by no means new.

In the Federal General Collective Agreement for Freight and Furniture Long-distance Transport (BMT-F) from July 14, 1988, additional vacation days were provided.

According to § 16 Abs. 6, entitled employees received two additional vacation days after six months of continuous employment. After five years, three more days were added.

Thus, under appropriate collective agreement conditions, a total of five additional vacation days could be granted.

This regulation is documented by a decision of the Federal Labor Court from August 26, 1997 (1 ABR 16/97). The court mainly dealt with compensation for night work, but also reiterated the relevant provisions of the BMT-F.

The duration of the regular annual leave was determined by the respective local collective agreements. In certain collective agreement situations, a total of 35 vacation days were possible.

That is quite interesting, because it shows that the special burdens of long-distance drivers were already the subject of collective agreement arrangements decades ago. However, the BMT-F from 1988 has already been terminated since the end of 1992. The drivers apparently do not want a new one.

A terminated collective agreement does not necessarily lose its effect immediately. According to § 4 Abs. 5 Collective Agreement Act, its legal norms can continue to have effect under certain conditions until they are replaced by another agreement.

Even employment contract references to collective agreement regulations can play a role.

However, this does not allow for a general claim for all currently employed professional truck drivers. Whether a previous regulation still has significance must be assessed based on the specific employment relationship.

The BMT-F shows above all that additional recovery leave for long-distance drivers is certainly possible through a collective agreement. Whether such claims still exist today is a different question.

Additional Leave for Shift Work: It’s Not Just About the Time of Day

One of the biggest challenges in the transport sector is the changing working hours.

Someone who starts early in the morning today, is on the road until late at night the next day, and has to drive at night in between experiences significant shifts in their sleep and recovery rhythm.

The health effects of such working time models are an important aspect of occupational safety.

However, it must be distinguished between colloquial changing working hours and legally defined shift or rotating shift work.

In various collective agreements, there are additional leave regulations for employees who regularly perform shift or rotating shift work.

A well-known example is § 27 of the collective agreement for the public service (TVöD). There, additional vacation days are provided for certain forms of shift work, provided the collective agreement conditions are met.

However, these regulations do not automatically apply to employees of private transport companies.

A professional truck driver therefore does not automatically gain an additional vacation entitlement just because their trips start at different times of the day.

This does not mean that additional leave for drivers is excluded. A relevant collective agreement or an appropriate employment contract regulation can certainly establish such a claim.

The jurisprudence of the Federal Labour Court regarding the calculation of vacation for shift work is also to be considered.

In the judgment of 21 July 2015 (9 AZR 145/14), the court dealt with a master in the switchgear service who worked in a fixed rotating shift model.

The collective agreement for the supply companies applied to his employment relationship. This provided for 30 vacation days in a five-day week and required a corresponding conversion if the distribution of working hours was different.

Since the employee’s night shifts spanned two calendar days, the court had to clarify how many working days should be considered in this calculation.

In the specific case, this resulted in a claim for 33 instead of 30 vacation days.

At first glance, this sounds like three additional days of rest. In reality, it was about the fact that the employee needed more vacation days due to his shift model to have the same six weeks of continuous vacation as an employee with a normal five-day week.

A calculated increase in the vacation account does not necessarily mean more rest time.

This judgment is therefore interesting for the calculation of vacation under special working time models. However, it does not establish a general additional vacation entitlement for professional truck drivers with changing working hours.

Night Work: Compensation Can Actually Be Prescribed

A particularly legally interesting point is night work.

According to § 6 Abs. 5 of the Working Time Act, night workers have a claim to an appropriate compensation, provided the conditions mentioned there are met, unless collective agreement compensation regulations exist.

This compensation can be achieved through paid free days or through an appropriate supplement to the gross wage.

For employees in road transport, the special provisions of § 21a ArbZG must also be considered.

Not every driver who occasionally travels at night automatically fulfills the legal conditions of a night worker. Important are, among other things, the legal definitions and actual working hours.

Whether a claim exists and how high the appropriate compensation must be therefore depends on the individual case.

Also interesting in this context is the older jurisprudence regarding the BMT-F.

In the decision of 26 August 1997 (1 ABR 16/97), the Federal Labour Court dealt with the question of whether the then existing collective agreement provisions already provided an adequate compensation for night work.

The court concluded that the BMT-F of 1988 did not contain an appropriate collective agreement compensation regulation.

This jurisprudence is particularly relevant for the transport sector.

However, it remains important to distinguish: paid free time compensation for night work is not automatically additional annual leave.

Additional Leave for Persons with Disabilities

A clear legal additional leave regulation can be found in the Social Code Book IX.

According to § 208 SGB IX, employees with disabilities have a claim to five additional paid working days of leave per year when working a regular five-day week.

If the distribution of working days is different, this claim is adjusted accordingly.

People are generally considered disabled from a degree of disability (GdB) of 50.

Employees with a GdB of 30 or 40 can be considered equal to disabled persons under certain conditions.

However, there is an important difference here.

According to § 151 Abs. 3 SGB IX, the statutory additional leave under § 208 is explicitly excluded from the regulations that apply to employees considered equal.

Therefore, being considered equal at a GdB of 30 or 40 does not automatically result in five additional vacation days.

More favorable collective agreement or company regulations can certainly exist.

Those who wish to claim such a right should therefore take into account both their recognized degree of disability and the regulations applicable to their employment relationship.

Paternity Leave: What the European Directive Provides

The compatibility of work and family life plays a special role in long-distance transport.

With the Regulation (EU) 2019/1158 , the European Union has among other things established provisions for a paternity leave of ten working days around the birth of a child.

The general implementation deadline ended on August 2, 2022. However, in Germany, there is still an ongoing legal discussion about how far existing regulations meet the European Union’s provisions.

An independent, generally applicable claim for ten paid days of paternity leave was not explicitly adopted into German labor law.

It must also be distinguished between private employment relationships and employment relationships in the public service. Under certain conditions, EU regulations can acquire immediate significance for public sector employers, while they generally do not create immediate obligations for private employers.

In September 2025, for example, the Cologne Administrative Court granted a federal civil servant ten days of paternity leave based on the EU regulation. The decision was initially not final and concerned a civil servant relationship, not employment with a private freight company.

Therefore, for professional drivers, it depends on which legal and possibly contractual provisions apply in the specific employment relationship.

Regardless, paternity leave is a leave of absence in connection with the birth of a child.

It is not equivalent to an additional annual holiday entitlement.

Care of a family member: up to ten days of leave

Also in the case of caring for close family members, German labor law provides special protective provisions.

According to § 2 of the Care Leave Act, employees may take up to ten working days off from work if this is necessary to organize or ensure the care of a close family member in an acute care situation.

Under the statutory conditions, a claim for care support allowance can be made for this period.

However, the employer is not necessarily required to continue paying regular wages. Whether a claim for remuneration exists depends on the applicable statutory or contractual provisions.

This leave of absence is also tied to a specific occasion.

Therefore, it cannot be planned like regular holiday leave and used at will.

Ten possible days of care leave are not ten additional annual holiday days.

Special leave for marriage, death, or relocation

During the course of a working life, there are situations in which employees must be temporarily released from their work.

This can include, for example, their own wedding, a death in the immediate family, or under certain circumstances, a necessary relocation.

Corresponding claims can arise from collective agreements, employment contracts, or under certain conditions from § 616 BGB.

However, there is no general statutory regulation according to which every employee automatically receives two or three paid special leave days for each of these events.

The extent depends on the specific occasion and the applicable legal basis. Moreover, § 61, BGB can be restricted or excluded in the employment contract.

For annual leave, another point is decisive: such leaves of absence are not available every year independently of a specific event.

Therefore, they are not simply part of the regular annual leave balance.

Public holidays during leave: Not every public holiday is automatically free

For professional drivers who regularly work at different times, public holidays can also raise questions regarding leave calculation.

In general, annual leave is intended to free employees from existing work obligations.

If an employee does not have to work on a public holiday anyway, this day can generally not be additionally used as a leave day.

It can be different if working on a public holiday is legally permissible and there is an actual work obligation for that day.

The Federal Labor Court addressed the issue of leave calculation for an employee in the rescue service in its ruling of August 19, 2025 (9 AZR 216/24).

In doing so, the court clarified that annual leave claims are generally calculated based on working days and not simply on all calendar days.

Annual leave can also be granted on public holidays if the employment on those days is legally permissible and there is a corresponding work obligation.

The court also had to take into account the particularities of the applicable collective agreement and a rotating shift schedule. The Land Labor Court had to decide on the remaining details of the leave calculation after the case was referred back.

For the freight transport sector, the respective applicable statutory employment prohibitions, exceptions, and the specific work obligation must also be considered.

Whether a public holiday appears on the annual leave balance can therefore not be answered solely based on the date.

What work time records and tachographs can prove

In the transport sector, numerous activity and time data are recorded.

The digital tachograph documents, among other things, driving times, other work, readiness times, as well as driving interruptions and rest periods.

In addition, company work time records or, under certain conditions, GPS data can play a role.

Such records can be important in disputes over actual working times or specific compensation claims.

However, the data themselves do not create a claim for annual leave.

It is essential first to determine whether a legal, collective agreement, or employment contract provision provides a claim. Subsequently, it can be checked with appropriate records whether the corresponding conditions are met.

Personal location data must not be arbitrarily collected or evaluated. Here, data protection requirements and, if applicable, the co-determination rights of the works council apply.

Rest periods are not additional vacation days

In freight transport, the distinction between recovery leave and rest periods is particularly important.

The Regulation (EC) No. 561/2006 regulates, among other things, daily and weekly rest periods for drivers.

These provisions serve primarily the purpose of health protection and traffic safety.

However, they are not a substitute for the paid annual leave under the Federal Leave Act.

Similarly, an unpaid week does not automatically become a vacation week just because the driver is at home during that time.

A regular weekly rest period can offer necessary recovery. However, the statutory annual leave pursues an independent purpose and is subject to other regulations.

According to Article 8, paragraph 8a of Regulation (EC) No. 561/2006, transport companies must organize the work of their drivers in such a way that they can return to their home or workplace within the specified time periods to spend certain rest periods.

From this organizational obligation, no additional recovery leave claim arises.

The number of weeks a driver spends at home during the year cannot simply be calculated from his vacation days.

A driver in regional freight transport may return home every day. A driver in international long-distance transport may spend several days or weeks on the road continuously.

Both can, however, still have the same annual leave entitlement.

How is my actual annual leave calculated?

For the calculation of annual leave, it is first essential to determine how many working days the regular working hours are spread over.

In a five-day week, 20 vacation days correspond to four weeks of recovery leave. Someone with 30 vacation days can thus be free from work duties for six weeks. In a six-day week, however, 24 vacation days are required to obtain four weeks of leave.

I can explain this with my own employment relationship. I work mostly five days a week, from Monday to Friday. Occasionally, however, I also work on Saturdays.

My employer grants us about 30 vacation days per year. Based on a five-day week, this corresponds to six weeks of recovery leave, which is significantly more than the legally mandated four weeks.

Just because I occasionally work on Saturdays does not automatically mean that I am entitled to additional vacation days. What is essential is how my regular working hours are distributed and which agreements apply to my employment relationship.

If Saturday were regularly part of my working week, the calculation would have to be adjusted accordingly. Because in a six-day week, more vacation days are required to achieve the same number of vacation weeks.

In irregular working time models, the claim may have to be recalculated accordingly. The aim is to ensure that employees receive the duration of their recovery leave regardless of how their working hours are distributed.

A higher vacation balance does not necessarily mean that an employee can take more vacation.

Additional tariff or employment contract claims may also apply. For example, if there is a valid agreement on additional vacation days for certain tasks or employment periods, these must be considered in the calculation.

This is different with purpose-bound releases. Someone who is allowed to stay away from work due to an acute care situation does not receive additional days for free vacation planning. An adjustment for night work or the legally mandated weekly rest periods are not automatically part of the annual recovery leave.

How many days a professional truck driver actually has entitlement to can therefore only be answered once the regular distribution of working hours and the applicable legal, tariff, and contractual regulations for the employment relationship are known.

Why more recovery leave for long-distance drivers would still be beneficial

Amid all these legal distinctions, one thing should not be overlooked: Working conditions in long-distance transport can bring about considerable stress.

This applies not only to the driver himself but also to his family.

Someone who is regularly away for several days may miss birthdays, school events, or other events that are part of family life.

This is compounded by the physical and health-related strains of long working days and irregular sleep times.

As a professional truck driver with about 30 years of experience, I know these problems from my own practice. Therefore, I consider it quite sensible to discuss additional recovery times for long-distance drivers.

The historical BMT-F shows that such improvements were already regulated by collective agreements in the past.

This also means that better working conditions do not necessarily have to arise from new legal minimum requirements.

They can also be achieved through collective bargaining, works council agreements within their legal possibilities, or individual employment contract provisions.

In a sector that has been discussing a lack of professional truck drivers and youth problems for years, additional recovery times and better-planned free time should certainly play a role.

Because a workplace is not only attractive through salary. There are many factors that influence how attractive a profession is. A few of them I mentioned in my longer post The driver shortage is not a youth problem – but the symptom of an industry under pressure .

If employees regularly have difficulties planning their free time or spending time with their families, the question of better working conditions inevitably becomes more important.

And in this context, we drivers are also being asked.

Those who want to achieve better working conditions must also be willing to do something together with their colleagues. Tariff improvements do not fall from the sky. They also do not result from sitting on the sofa on Sundays with a phone in hand, getting upset on Facebook about the poor conditions in the transport sector, and loudly demanding change. Venting on social media may sometimes feel good. But better wages, more vacation days, or reasonable working hours are not negotiated in Facebook comment sections. For that, you have to organize and become active together.

Collective bargaining and workplace representation offer possibilities to jointly address such demands.

The BMT-F is an interesting historical example of this. It shows that long-haul drivers not only demanded additional vacation days but could also successfully enforce them through collective agreements.

And such improvements do not necessarily have to be limited to companies that belong to an employer association or have signed a collective agreement themselves. According to § 5 of the Collective Agreement Act, it is possible to declare a collective agreement generally binding. Then its provisions apply within its scope of effect also for employers and employees who are not bound by a collective agreement.

For this, the parties to the collective agreement must jointly submit an application and fulfill the legal prerequisites. The decision is made by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in agreement with the Tariff Commission.

This could also create more uniform working conditions in the German transport sector, which would not depend on whether an individual employer voluntarily pays according to tariff rates or grants additional vacation days.

Such a model would at least come closer to the nationwide collective agreements we know, for example, from Belgium or the Netherlands. Although the respective national collective agreement systems differ, the goal is comparable: negotiated working conditions should benefit as many employees in a sector as possible, not just those of individual tariff-bound companies.

And just to mention it briefly: A loading and unloading ban for certain goods, as exists in Romania in the future and has already been in place for a long time in Spain and Portugal, would be entirely feasible with such a collective agreement.

For this, however, trade unions and employer associations would first have to negotiate appropriate collective agreements and then jointly apply for their general applicability. This does not happen on its own.

Conclusion: What matters is which claim actually exists

Professional truck drivers have the same statutory minimum vacation entitlement as other employees. In addition, tariff or employment contract regulations can provide for additional vacation days.

The history of the BMT-F shows that such agreements already existed in the long-haul sector decades ago. However, not every historical regulation is still applicable to an employment relationship today.

Equally important is the distinction between recovery leave and other statutory leave entitlements. Shift work does not automatically entitle to additional vacation, while for certain night work, a specific compensation may be prescribed. Also, equal treatment with disabled people at a GdB of 30 or 40 does not lead to a statutory additional vacation under § 208 SGB IX.

Those who want to know how many vacation days they actually have entitlement to should first check their employment contract and any applicable collective agreement. Especially when working irregular hours, it is also worthwhile to closely examine how vacation days are calculated.

Regardless of these legal entitlements, I consider additional recovery time for long-haul drivers to be very beneficial. Long absences from home and irregular working hours are burdens that should be considered when designing better working conditions.

The former BMT-F demonstrates that such improvements can be agreed upon in collective agreements. Perhaps it would therefore be sensible to place such regulations more strongly in the center of the discussion about working conditions in freight transport.

For this, however, there needs to be common interest representation and employees who are willing to fight for better conditions.

Because there is a difference between the vacation that legally belongs to us today and the vacation that we could achieve through a collective agreement in the future. And exactly this difference is something we should know.

Legal Foundations and Case Law

The legal explanations are based on the following legal provisions and court decisions:

Laws and European Regulations

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• Bundesurlaubsgesetz (BUrlG), especially §§ 3–5 – Legal minimum vacation, waiting period and partial vacation.
• Tarifvertragsgesetz (TVG), § 4 – Effect and retroactive effect of collective agreements.
• Tarifvertragsgesetz (TVG), § 5 – General applicability – Extension of collective agreement provisions to non-collective agreement employers and employees.
• Arbeitszeitgesetz (ArbZG), § 6 – Night and shift work as well as compensation for it.
• Arbeitszeitgesetz (ArbZG), § 21a – Special working time regulations for road transport.
• Sozialgesetzbuch IX, § 151 – Equality of disabled people.
• Sozialgesetzbuch IX, § 208 – Legal additional vacation for severely disabled employees.
• Pflegezeitgesetz, § 2 – Short-term work interruption for the care of close relatives.
• Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, § 616 – Right to compensation for temporary personal incapacity.
• Directive (EU) 2019/1158 – Compatibility of work and private life for parents and carers.
• Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 – Driving times, rest periods and organisation of driver return.

Judicial Decisions

• BAG, Decision of 26 August 1997 – 1 ABR 16/97 – Historical BMT-F and compensation for night work. The decision also documents the additional vacation days at that time.
• BAG, Judgment of 21 July 2015 – 9 AZR 145/14 – Conversion of the vacation entitlement in a special shift model.
• BAG, Judgment of 19 August 2025 – 9 AZR 216/24 – Calculation of vacation based on working days and consideration of public holidays.

Additional Source on Paternity Leave

• Gewerkschaft der Polizei, 5 February 2026: Paternity Leave According to EU Directive – On the German implementation and administrative court case law.