No Load is Heavier than Fatigue: The Law that Protects the Driver

When Manuel confirmed to me that he was being pressured to not only drive but also work for the same pay loading or unloading the goods his truck was transporting, I was appalled.
“Do you know how much you’re risking if you submit to that practice?” I asked him. Driving well is a great challenge, especially because driving in geography that can be adverse is already a matter to consider.
“Fatigue does not forgive, Manuel,” I told him, worried about this risk, and I set out to search for updated information on how legislation protects vehicle drivers, all of them in general who do it professionally.
The recent Spanish legislation, led by Royal Decree-Law 3/2022 and nuanced by resolutions such as that of the DGT (Directorate-General for Traffic) from January 2025, is nothing but the formal recognition of a logical reality and unquestionable road safety.
The express prohibition for drivers of vehicles over 7.5 tons from performing loading and unloading tasks is based, above all, on the physical and cognitive incompatibility of both tasks. A driver must begin his day at the wheel in an optimal state of rest and alertness. The physical demand of unloading the goods—with frequent intense efforts, forced postures, and handling of weights—generates muscular fatigue and exhaustion that directly diminish his reflexes, his concentration capacity, and his reaction time, dangerously increasing the risk of suffering an accident on the road.
This regulation acts as a crucial shield for collective road safety. A truck is a potentially very dangerous vehicle in case of an accident, and driving it requires absolute precision. A driver fatigued from having acted as a laborer is more prone to suffering micro-sleeps, becoming distracted, or incorrectly evaluating a risk situation. Furthermore, the law clarifies the responsibility over stowage: secure loading is a technical competence that falls upon the loader, not the driver. Preventing the driver from intervening prevents negligence due to fatigue or lack of specialized training that could lead to a shift in the load and a vehicle rollover, thus protecting the professional himself and the rest of the road users.
The 2025 DGT Resolution impacts indirectly by establishing very strict circulation restrictions for heavy vehicles. This reinforces the need for the driver to focus exclusively on his task: planning the route within the permitted hours and driving safely and efficiently to meet deadlines. If the obligation to unload is added to this time pressure, the driver’s stress and fatigue would multiply, creating an explosive combination. The law, by freeing him from this task, allows him to optimize his time and energy for the true core of his profession, which is driving within the legal framework of driving and rest times.
From a labor and responsibilities perspective, the regulation resolves a historical conflict of attributions. By explicitly transferring the obligation to load and unload to the staff of the loader or recipient, any ambiguity is eliminated in case of damage to the goods, theft during handling, or workplace accidents. Who is responsible if a driver injures his back unloading? The law now makes it clear: it is not his function. This protects the carrier from claims and places him in a position of greater legal security, defining his role as that of a specialist in transport, not in the physical handling of the cargo.
The introduction of the maximum waiting time of one hour is the logical and necessary complement for this protection to be effective. It establishes a limit that forces recipients to be organized and have adequate staff, preventing the prohibition of the driver unloading from turning into endless waits that paralyze the vehicle and harm the carrier. This measure not only improves logistical efficiency but also ensures that the driver’s right not to perform a task that does not correspond to him does not become an economic detriment to his activity.
In conclusion, current Spanish legislation represents a monumental advance in the dignification and professionalization of the transport sector. It recognizes that driving a heavy vehicle is a high-risk profession that requires specialization, concentration, and rest. By freeing drivers from physically demanding and potentially dangerous auxiliary tasks, it not only protects their long-term health—preventing musculoskeletal injuries—but also elevates their status to that of a crucial and specialized link in the logistics chain, whose only and vital mission is to ensure that the goods arrive at their destination safely.
Indeed, the previous explanation of how loading and unloading undermine the quality of driving is the fundamental pillar on which all the new Spanish legislation is based. The regulation is not a simple logistical guideline; it is a road safety and occupational health measure based on irrefutable logic.
Royal Decree-Law 3/2022, by prohibiting drivers of over 7.5 tons from performing these tasks, acts directly on the first and most critical point: incompatible fatigue. The law recognizes that a driver cannot be an elite athlete at 6:00 in the morning unloading pallets and, immediately afterwards, transform into a precision pilot at 7:00 to handle 40 tons on a highway. Intense physical effort—with its consequent muscular and mental exhaustion—is a burden the driver takes to the wheel. The regulation, therefore, prioritizes collective road safety by ensuring that whoever drives a large-mass vehicle does so in an optimal state of alertness, with their reflexes intact and without the risk of micro-sleeps caused by prior weariness.
Furthermore, the law addresses with precision the problem of stowage and active safety. By transferring the responsibility for handling the goods to the loader or recipient, it ensures that this task is performed by personnel presumably trained for it, with adequate equipment and without the rush or fatigue of a driver who wants to get back on the road. This greatly mitigates the risk of poor securing or distribution of the load, which is one of the main causes of serious accidents such as rollovers. The regulation protects the driver by preventing him from, due to lack of training or fatigue, involuntarily becoming the cause of a dangerous situation for himself and others.
The 2025 DGT Resolution, with its circulation restrictions, adds an additional layer of complexity that reinforces the need for this separation of functions. A driver who must plan his route meticulously to avoid penalties for driving during restricted hours cannot be detained or fatigued by tasks unrelated to driving. The law allows him to concentrate all his cognitive resources on his main task: meeting delivery deadlines within the strict legal framework of circulation, safely and efficiently.
Finally, the regulation resolves the conflict of responsibilities and protects the professional’s long-term health. By clearly delimiting that loading/unloading is the client’s obligation, disputes over damage to the goods are avoided and chronic injuries in drivers are prevented, such as disc hernias or lower back pain, which shortened their working life and diminished their quality of life. In essence, Spanish legislation has taken a crucial step by understanding that the professionalization of the transport sector involves specialization: the driver is an expert in safe driving, and his day and his strength must be preserved entirely for that critical task.