Transport & Logistics · New Zealand

Every kilometre in transport is driven on last night’s sleep.

Drivers work long, irregular hours, nights and early starts at a monotonous task, and sleep apnoea risk runs high in driver workforces. A fatigue lapse at the wheel can cause a serious crash.

Regulation changed 9 Jul 2026 Change coming 1 Apr 2027

See your workforce snapshot

Who this page covers

Bulk, tanker and dangerous goods haulage
Bus operators - urban route
Coach, charter and interurban bus
Courier and last-mile delivery
Driver cohorts inside non-transport employers
Freight forwarding and logistics brokerage
Local and metro freight
Log haulage (also see Forestry)
Long-haul road freight
Postal services (also see Retail & Hospitality, Warehousing & Distribution)
Rideshare and taxi
School bus operators
Vehicle transport (car carriers)

Reg Watch

What’s changed, and what’s coming

Regulatory change that affects how you manage fatigue in transport & logistics: what has changed in the last 12 months, and what is on the way.

Recent changeFrom 9 July 2026

Applies across industries in New Zealand

The Health and Safety at Work Amendment Act 2026 became law on 9 July 2026. Your duties do not change until most of it commences on 1 April 2027, so use the lead time to evidence fatigue as a serious-harm risk.

Read the change

Upcoming changeExpected from 1 April 2027Within 12 months

From 1 April 2027 HSWA centres on 'critical risks'; fatigue is not on the Schedule 1A list, so it counts only where likely to cause death or notifiable harm. Where the Land Transport Act manages the same risk, complying with it can satisfy the matching HSWA duty. Small firms (under 20 workers) manage critical risks only.

Regulatory changes checked as at 1 October 2026.

Regulation

Who regulates it, and what they expect

Transport is the one NZ industry with a real, specific hours-of-work law for drivers, not just general safety guidance. Drivers must take breaks after set driving periods, can't work more than 13 hours in a 24-hour cycle, and must take a full day off after 70 cumulative hours. This is enforced by transport regulators and police, separately from general safety law. It's New Zealand's own rule, distinct from Australia's heavy-vehicle law. An official scheme lets well-managed operators apply for longer daily hours by proving a genuine fatigue system.

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi — Regulated by

Who regulates it

New Zealand's road transport industry answers to two regulators at once. Waka Kotahi (NZ Transport Agency) sets and administers work-hours and logbook rules for commercial drivers, and NZ Police enforces them on the road with checks and fines. Transport companies also remain ordinary employers, so WorkSafe and the general safety, employment and ACC framework continue to apply in full alongside these rules.

Your obligations

If your drivers hold a class 2 to 5 licence, carry goods for hire or reward, or drive a passenger service vehicle, statutory work-time limits bind them: a 30-minute break after no more than 5.5 hours of work time - work, not just driving - a maximum 13 hours of work time in a cumulative work day followed by a continuous 10-hour break, and a 24-hour break after 70 cumulative hours. Drivers must keep an approved paper or electronic logbook, retained 12 months. You can apply to extend the day to 15 hours under an alternative fatigue management scheme, but only with an audited fatigue system behind it. General fatigue duties apply on top.

Consequences

Breaking the hours-of-work rules carries real penalties. Drivers can be fined and lose their licence for a period, and logbook mistakes carry their own fines and demerit points. If a company's scheduling or workload pressure causes drivers to breach the rules, the company itself can be fined up to $25,000. Following the hours rules to the letter does not protect a company if a fatigue-related incident still happens - WorkSafe can and does prosecute transport companies separately under general safety law, because a driver can be legally compliant on paper while still too tired to drive safely.

Penalties

Real New Zealand transport court cases show fines and compensation reaching well into six figures for one serious incident - one company paid $212,000 in fines plus over $250,000 in compensation, another paid $150,000 plus over $107,000. Separately, the hours-of-work rules carry their own fines: up to $2,000 per driver breach plus a month's licence loss, logbook errors up to $500, and companies pressuring drivers into breaches fined up to $25,000.

Sources: Land Transport Rule: Work Time and Logbooks 2007; Land Transport Act 1998; NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi guidance; WorkSafe New Zealand court summaries (Herberts Transport, Sorensen Transport); Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.

Fatigue-critical roles

Where fatigue matters most in transport & logistics

The roles where a fatigued worker is most likely to cause serious harm, the tasks that carry the risk, and why fatigue builds up in them.

Role	Risk	High-risk tasks	Why fatigue builds
Truck driver (Class 4/5 heavy vehicle) Rules Regulatory designation Driver under Land Transport Rule: Work Time and Logbooks 2007 Hours and rest Work Time and Logbooks Rule 2007: 30-min break after 5.5 h, 13 h work then 10 h rest, 70 h then 24 h rest; logbook	Critical risk	Line-haul driving through 00:00-06:00 on a single-driver roster; heavy combination handling; driving after loading and unloading work	Night and early-morning driving, long shifts at the limit of hours rules, irregular schedules, sleeping in cabs, queuing at depots
Bus driver (P endorsement) Rules Regulatory designation Driver under Land Transport Rule: Work Time and Logbooks 2007 Hours and rest Work Time and Logbooks Rule 2007: 30-min break after 5.5 h, 13 h work then 10 h rest, 70 h then 24 h rest; logbook	Critical risk	Driving full passenger loads on early-morning or late-night routes and split shifts; long-distance coach driving overnight	Split shifts, starts before 05:00, late finishes, overnight coach runs, short turnarounds
Dangerous goods / fuel tanker driver Rules Regulatory designation Driver with D endorsement (Land Transport Rule: Dangerous Goods 2005); Work Time Rule driver Hours and rest Work Time and Logbooks Rule 2007: 30-min break after 5.5 h, 13 h work then 10 h rest, 70 h then 24 h rest; logbook	Critical risk	Driving fuel or chemical tankers on early-morning runs; hose connection and decanting at sites; night line-haul with hazardous loads	Pre-dawn starts, night line-haul, long shifts, waiting at terminals
Courier / delivery driver Rules Regulatory designation None specific - general duty (HSWA s 36) Hours and rest Work Time Rule only for vehicles needing a Class 2+ licence or passenger services	High risk	Multi-drop driving to tight time windows; night parcel runs; motorcycle and scooter delivery in traffic	Long days, night and early sort-centre starts, piece-rate incentives, platform multi-apping
Taxi / rideshare driver (small passenger service) Rules Regulatory designation Small passenger service driver (P endorsement); Work Time Rule driver Hours and rest Work Time Rule cl 2.1: 7 h continuous allowed for short in-town fares; 13 h work then 10 h rest	High risk	Carrying passengers through late-night and early-morning hours; long shifts chasing fares and surge periods; airport runs after overnight queues	12 h shifts, night work, income pressure to extend hours, multi-apping

Stories

When fatigue made the record

Published findings and prosecutions from regulators, courts and investigators in New Zealand.

Feb 2025 · Southland, New Zealand
Log truck driver flagged four times by in-cab drowsiness monitor diagnosed with severe sleep apnoea; dismissal paused once CPAP treatment starts
- Legal
A log truck driver for a log transport company in Southland triggered four in-cab 'Fatigue - drowsiness' alerts from the company's driver monitoring system within two weeks. After he was suspended, a company-supplied sleep study found severe sleep-disordered breathing, his doctor would not clear him to drive, and he was dismissed for medical incapacity. Once he started CPAP treatment, an occupational physician confirmed he met national driver licensing requirements. The Employment Relations Authority ordered interim reinstatement on condition that he prove he was using CPAP consistently.
Case NZ-transport-21Report an issue
Dec 2022 · New Zealand
Truck driver 15.5 hours on duty without rest breaks crosses into path of shunt train
- Safety
In the early afternoon a truck and trailer drove over a level crossing near a regional city without stopping and was struck by a shunting train, which derailed; a rail worker riding the train broke a collarbone. The truck's crew had started their shift at 11.15 pm the night before and, by the time of the collision, had been on duty about 15.5 hours without taking the statutory rest breaks. The Transport Accident Investigation Commission found it likely that the driver's ability to scan and perceive the road environment was reduced by fatigue, on top of the distraction of a phone call.
Case NZ-transport-03Report an issue
Aug 2021 · Waikato, New Zealand
Courier van driver fresh off a 12-hour shift crosses median; oncoming driver killed
- Safety
A courier van driver who had just finished a 12-hour shift crossed the painted median on a sweeping downhill curve on a state highway in Waikato and collided head-on with an oncoming car, killing its driver. Police crash investigators found fatigue was a contributing factor: the van driver had worked long hours, said he was tired, and there was no braking or attempt to avoid the crash. The coroner endorsed recommendations including a review of delivery drivers' daily hours, electronic monitoring of driving hours, driver fatigue monitoring cameras and company fatigue plans, and sent the finding to major courier companies.
Case NZ-transport-20Report an issue
Mar 2021 · New Zealand
Trucking firm fined NZ$366,000 after driver denied proper rest dies in late-night rollover
- Safety
- Legal
- Financial
A heavy truck driver carrying steel pipes on a long inter-city run failed to take a 55 km/h curve late at night; the truck tipped over and caught fire and he was killed. He had driven from mid-morning until after midnight and was back at work before 7am, and the company's records showed a persistent trend of breaches of work and rest time rules. The District Court found the company did not make sure rest breaks were taken, that a manager's request for a rest was never enforced, and that a culture of silence encouraged drivers to keep driving regardless of their energy levels.
Case NZ-transport-09Report an issue
Jan 2020 · New Zealand
Truck driver on four hours' sleep convicted after crossing centre line and killing motorist
- Safety
- Legal
- Financial
A commercial truck driver who had slept only about four hours before starting a long-haul run crossed the centre line twice within ten minutes, the second time on a bridge, colliding with an oncoming vehicle whose driver later died. He was also in breach of the rule requiring a rest break every five and a half hours. Sentencing him, the District Court judge said he should have stopped and slept, and warned that fatigued drivers are dangerous to others.
Case NZ-transport-08Report an issue
Jun 2019 · Taranaki, New Zealand
Truck driver starts 1am shift with little sleep after a 181 km drive; truck leaves road on bend at 3.45am, driver killed
- Safety
A heavy truck driver who told a friend he was tired drove 181 km to start a 1am shift, leaving very little time to sleep beforehand. At about 3.45am his truck, towing a trailer of building materials, failed to take a slight right-hand bend on a state highway in Taranaki and hit an embankment; he was ejected through the windscreen and died. The coroner found good evidence he started work in a state of sleep deprivation, alongside illness, methamphetamine use and not wearing a seatbelt, and commended the national transport agency's fatigue advice for shift workers and employers.
Case NZ-transport-01Report an issue
Mar 2019 · Waikato, New Zealand
Truck crosses centreline in head-on truck collision; coroner calls for fatigue-detection and lane-departure devices
- Safety
A truck driver was killed when his truck crossed the centreline on a state highway in Waikato and collided head-on with another truck. Police crash investigators said it was possible he was fatigued and had fallen asleep. His truck had no lane-departure warning or driver-fatigue camera, and the road had no centreline rumble strips; the coroner said either device may have alerted him, and recommended the national transport agency gather crash data to support requiring such devices, particularly in commercial vehicles on long, repetitive journeys.
Case NZ-transport-19Report an issue
Nov 2018 · Gisborne, New Zealand
Logging truck driver without required 10-hour break drifts into wrong lane; oncoming driver killed
- Safety
A logging truck travelling on the wrong side of the road collided head-on with a car at the bottom of a hill in Gisborne at about 8am, killing the car's driver. The coroner found the truck driver worked shift patterns and had not had the required 10-hour break between shifts, that several formal predictors of fatigue were present, and that the truck most likely drifted into the oncoming lane through inattention or fatigue. The coroner stressed that heavy vehicle drivers must observe the regulatory breaks between and during shifts.
Case NZ-transport-18Report an issue
Mar 2018 · New Zealand
Truck driver over work-hour limits with falsified logbook fails to stop in holiday traffic; two young children killed
- Safety
- Legal
In heavy holiday traffic on a state highway, the driver of a truck and trailer who was following too closely failed to stop and ran into the rear of a car, pushing it into the vehicles ahead. Two young children in the car died. The truck driver pleaded guilty to careless driving causing death, falsifying a logbook entry, exceeding work hours and failing to take mandatory rest, and his employer, a transport company, pleaded guilty to two counts of allowing a vehicle to be used with a falsified logbook. The coroner endorsed WorkSafe recommendations on electronic logbooks and scheduling for rest compliance, and referred the case to WorkSafe to consider a health and safety prosecution.
Case NZ-transport-02Report an issue
Nov 2017 · New Zealand
Truck driver over work-day limit without required rest jailed after van crash kills one, injures five
- Safety
- Legal
- Financial
On his fifth day with a new transport employer, a double-trailer truck driver who had exceeded the 13-hour work-day limit and had not taken the required 10 hours' continuous rest collided with a van carrying six people at about 9pm. One passenger was killed and five were injured, two airlifted to hospital. He also admitted falsifying his logbook, and the judge called him a menace to the trucking industry and an accident waiting to happen.
Case NZ-transport-07Report an issue
Jun 2017 · Auckland, New Zealand
Taxi driver given 4.45am job at 11.45pm crashes with passengers aboard; coroner questions short-notice allocation
- Safety
A contracted taxi driver who was sleeping in her van at a hospital was rung by her employer at 11.45pm and asked to take a 4.45am booking. She left at 3.56am, got lost, and passengers later reported erratic driving before the van failed to take a bend on a rural road in Auckland; she died and her passengers were seriously injured. She had earlier told her GP she had fallen asleep at the wheel after a late shift. The coroner raised concern about the short-notice job allocation, finding she may have been less fatigued with 8 to 10 hours' notice, and noted that her prescribed medication may also have contributed to her fatigue.
Case NZ-transport-17Report an issue
Mar 2017 · New Zealand
Truck driver told by employer to keep going past hours limit convicted after possible sleep crash
- Safety
- Legal
A truck driver who had been driving for more than 14 hours crashed on a rural bend, with no skid marks to show any evasive action. He had told his employer he could not finish the run without breaching work-time rules but was told to carry on, and he accepted it was possible he had fallen asleep. The District Court convicted him of dangerous driving and exceeding the 13-hour work-day limit, and disqualified him from heavy vehicles.
Case NZ-transport-06Report an issue
Jan 2017 · Waikato, New Zealand
Truck driver who knowingly skipped required rest loses control on wet bend and kills motorcyclist; inadequate sleep an aggravating factor in manslaughter sentence
- Safety
- Legal
A truck and trailer driver on the last leg of a three-day mussel delivery trip from Waikato to Nelson lost control on a wet downhill bend in Waikato, crossed the centre line and killed a motorcyclist. He had not taken the required rest periods, was sleeping only a few hours at a time, often in his truck, and had made false logbook entries. The High Court treated his knowingly inadequate sleep and rest as an aggravating feature, alongside excessive speed, misuse of the engine retarder and a disabled braking system, and jailed him for manslaughter.
Case NZ-transport-16Report an issue
Mar 2016 · New Zealand
Tour van driver who likely fell asleep at 94 km/h sentenced after passenger killed
- Safety
- Legal
- Financial
A worker for an overseas tour company, driving a rented passenger van carrying a tour group, failed to take a left-hand bend, crossed the centre line and ran about 150 metres on the wrong side of the road before hitting a culvert. One unrestrained passenger was killed and five others were injured. The District Court heard the driver conceded he might have fallen asleep at about 94 km/h, and that he was not licensed to drive a passenger service vehicle.
Case NZ-transport-05Report an issue
Nov 2014 · Canterbury, New Zealand
Truck driver set unachievable tasks works 77 hours in a week, falls asleep and crashes; freight company and dispatcher fined
- Safety
- Legal
- Financial
A long-haul truck driver employed by a freight company crashed into a tree in the early hours after falling asleep on a bend near a river bridge in Canterbury, suffering a spinal fracture and a brain injury. He had worked about 77 hours that week, missed his mandatory 10-hour rest and falsified his logbook to complete tasks that the company and its dispatcher accepted could not be done within legal work time limits. The court found the company had failed to allocate work in a way that guarded against driver fatigue, and fined both the company and the dispatcher under workplace health and safety law.
Case NZ-transport-15Report an issue
May 2012 · Otago, New Zealand
Courier driver on 3.45am start after possible rest-period breach likely lapsed into microsleep; fatal crash
- Safety
- Legal
A contract courier driver who regularly left home at 3.30am failed to negotiate a left-hand bend in Otago and hit a power pole, dying at the scene. Commercial vehicle investigators calculated he could have breached his rest-period obligations, having been at the courier company's depot until about 6pm the previous evening before starting at about 3.45am, and found the company had not followed its own work time controls or monitored its contractor; an improvement notice was issued. The coroner considered a microsleep at that early hour the more likely cause and asked the national transport agency and police to re-appraise driving hours issues, noting courier drivers were not required to keep logbooks.
Case NZ-transport-14Report an issue
Mar 2009 · New Zealand
Truck driver who began falling asleep after almost 15 hours' work jailed for killing cyclist
- Safety
- Legal
A truck driver who had started work at 2.30am but logged a 4am start had worked almost 15 hours, and driven over seven hours without the required break, when he began to fall asleep at the wheel at about 5.45pm and struck and killed a cyclist. Records showed he had breached driving-hour rules 13 times in the two months before the crash. He was convicted of reckless driving causing death and falsifying his logbook and sent to prison.
Case NZ-transport-04Report an issue
Feb 2007 · New Zealand
Night truck driver's trailer tips over after accumulated fatigue; dismissal without investigation unjustified, but remedies cut by two thirds
- Safety
- Legal
- Financial
A truck driver on overnight delivery runs from Auckland into Waikato and Bay of Plenty had a breakdown on a run that began at 11pm and did not finish until just before 7pm the next day. He started his next night shift that evening with an inadequate break and was then required to work the following night too. At 7.30am during that third night shift he lost concentration and his trailer tipped over, causing about NZ$22,000 of damage, and he was later dismissed without any investigation. The Employment Relations Authority found that fatigue had accumulated and caused the carelessness, that the employer probably should not have let him work the second night and had required him to work the third, and that the dismissal was unjustified; it cut his remedies by two thirds because he had not done what he could to manage his own fatigue risk.
Case NZ-transport-13Report an issue
Jun 2002 · Otago, New Zealand
Truck driver's lapse at the end of an overnight line-haul shift put down to sheer tiredness; visitor seriously injured by forklift, employer acquitted
- Safety
- Legal
A senior truck driver at a transport depot in Otago drove an overnight line-haul run, returned to the yard at about 5.30 am and unloaded his truck. At about 10 am, as he was about to finish work, he gave in to a visiting drilling company worker's demands to lift a pump by its strap with a forklift extension fork, in effect using the forklift as a crane; the extension broke off and struck the visitor on the head, causing significant concussion. The court inferred the driver's lapse in judgment arose through sheer tiredness at the very end of a long day of driving trucks and working in the yard. The charge against the employer was dismissed because it had trained the driver and taken all practicable steps, and the court treated the incident as operator failure.
Case NZ-transport-12Report an issue
Jun 2002 · Canterbury, New Zealand
Gas filler sent on deliveries after overnight cylinder-filling shift goes home too tired; dismissal without asking about his hours unjustified
- Legal
- Financial
A gas cylinder filler and delivery driver at a gas company, normally on a 50-hour week, worked through the night filling and loading gas cylinders and was then asked to make out-of-town deliveries in the morning. He was so tired he completed only two deliveries, returned the truck and went home to bed, and was dismissed by phone after several days' absence. The Employment Relations Authority found it likely he had told his manager he was tired and that the employer should have asked about the hours he had worked and his tiredness before dismissing him; it reduced his remedies by 40% because he had not told anyone he was too tired to finish and was going home.
Case NZ-transport-11Report an issue
Oct 1998 · Waikato, New Zealand
Truck driver who nearly fell asleep driving home after a shift ending at 1am sacked for lateness; dismissal unjustified
- Legal
- Financial
A driver for a transport company worked days of 9 to 17 hours on a run to Auckland and asked to come off it because of the long hours. After a shift that began at 7am, following a 14-hour shift the day before, he got back to the depot at about 1am, was very tired and had almost fallen asleep driving home, then reported late the next morning. He was sent away and effectively dismissed. The Employment Tribunal found the dismissal unjustifiable, noting the employer had not considered his reasonable explanation that sleeping in after those hours was understandable.
Case NZ-transport-10Report an issue

Story 1 of 21

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How the suite fits

How each product connects to your obligations

Grades describe how strongly a product connects to an obligation. None discharges an obligation, and none carries a compliance warranty.

Sleepfit

Supports your general duty of care

No New Zealand road transport rule names a sleep screen. The Work Time and Logbooks Rule limits hours, and an approved alternative fatigue management scheme must manage fatigue risk. Sleepfit supports your s 36 health duty. It screens; diagnosis stays with your clinicians.

About Sleepfit

Fatiguefit4Duty

Supports your general duty of care

The Work Time and Logbooks Rule 2007 limits driving hours and names no pre-duty check. If you run an approved alternative fatigue management scheme, it must manage fatigue risk. A fitness-for-duty check, not a fitness-for-duty decision - the duty call stays with you.

About Fatiguefit4Duty

Awareness eLearning

Supports your general duty of care

No New Zealand road transport rule names fatigue training. Your general training duty under s 36(3)(f) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 applies, and Awareness eLearning supports it with fatigue and sleep content for your drivers.

About Awareness eLearning

Was It Fatigue?

Supports your general duty of care

You must notify WorkSafe of a notifiable event under s 56 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015; no road transport rule requires you to assess fatigue after a crash. Was It Fatigue? supports your review. A structured judgement aid, not a determination of cause.

About Was It Fatigue?

SleepWellBaby

No New Zealand road transport rule reaches sleep in new-parent households; the Work Time and Logbooks Rule concerns driving hours. SleepWellBaby is offered to parents in your workforce as a benefit.

About SleepWellBaby

Recommended bundle

Where we’d start in transport & logistics

Every bundle is priced on prevalence: your whole cohort gets access, and you pay for the share predicted to need each product. How pricing works.

Recommended · Levels 2 and 3

Prevention Bundle

Proactive fatigue risk: assess, manage and train, with sleep screening underneath.

Alternative · Levels 2, 3 and 5

Fatigue Lifecycle Bundle

Assess, manage, investigate: from the Census to the point of duty to the post-incident review.

Why this pairing in New Zealand

The Work Time and Logbooks Rule limits hours and names no check; an approved alternative fatigue scheme must manage fatigue risk. Under HSWA 2015 s 36, Sleepfit screens drivers, Fatiguefit4Duty adds a pre-trip check, Awareness eLearning trains. Fatigue Lifecycle adds crash review.

See what sleep and fatigue mean for your transport & logistics workforce.

Tell us roughly how many people you employ. Your snapshot models how many are likely sleeping poorly and what it costs, from published research for transport & logistics. Then choose who you’d cover, and we’ll take you to the right next step.

See your workforce snapshot

A sample workforce snapshot on a tablet: modelled sleep problems and the cost of poor sleep for 1,400 people in transport and logistics.

Every kilometre in transport is driven on last night’s sleep.

Who this page covers

What’s changed, and what’s coming

Who regulates it, and what they expect

Who regulates it

Your obligations

Consequences

Penalties

Where fatigue matters most in transport & logistics

When fatigue made the record

Log truck driver flagged four times by in-cab drowsiness monitor diagnosed with severe sleep apnoea; dismissal paused once CPAP treatment starts

How each product connects to your obligations

Sleepfit

Fatiguefit4Duty

Awareness eLearning

Was It Fatigue?

SleepWellBaby

Where we’d start in transport & logistics

Prevention Bundle

Fatigue Lifecycle Bundle

See what sleep and fatigue mean for your transport & logistics workforce.