Can I Take My Daily Rest in the Cab?
Yes — daily rest and reduced weekly rest can be taken in a stationary vehicle with suitable sleeping facilities. A regular weekly rest can't. Here's the detail.
Yes — you can take your daily rest in the cab. The assimilated EU rules allow daily rest periods to be taken in the vehicle, provided it's stationary and has suitable sleeping facilities for each driver. That covers both a regular 11-hour daily rest and a reduced 9-hour one. The important exception is that a regular weekly rest cannot be spent in the vehicle.
What the rule says
GOV.UK's assimilated drivers' hours guidance states that "daily rest periods may be taken in a vehicle," as long as "it has suitable sleeping facilities for each driver" and "the vehicle must be stationary." The same allowance extends to reduced weekly rest periods. So a night in the bunk between shifts, or a reduced weekly rest in a lorry park, is entirely within the rules — which is just as well, because that's how most trunking and long-distance work is run.
The regular weekly rest exception
Here's the line you must not cross. The guidance is explicit that it is "not permitted to take regular weekly rest periods" — nor any weekly rest of more than 45 hours that includes compensation for a previous reduction — in the vehicle. Those longer weekly rests must be taken in suitable accommodation with adequate sleeping and sanitary facilities, such as a hotel, hostel or similar. Daily rest in the cab: fine. Reduced weekly rest in the cab: fine. A full 45-hour weekly rest in the cab: not allowed.
Rest is not the same as a break
Don't confuse taking rest in the cab with taking a 45-minute break there. The break is a short in-shift recovery period with no accommodation condition attached; the daily rest is the long period between shifts, and a break never counts as rest. Both can physically happen in the cab, but they're governed by different parts of the rules, and only the rest carries the "suitable sleeping facilities, stationary vehicle" wording.
What to do
If you're kipping in the bunk between shifts, make sure it's a genuine stationary rest with the tacho set to rest, and that a modern sleeper cab gives you the facilities the rules expect. When your schedule reaches a full weekly rest, plan proper accommodation rather than the cab. The free drivers' hours calculator helps you see when a daily rest can be reduced and when a full weekly rest is due, and the UK daily and weekly rest rules cover both in full. For operators evidencing that drivers get compliant rest, that record-keeping is exactly what HaulGuard's compliance system supports.