Hours of Service Explained
11-hour driving rule – A driver may drive up to 11 hours total before he is required to take a 10-hour break. The 11-hour clock only ticks while the truck is actually being driven.
14-hour on duty shift rule – As soon as a driver changes his status to On Duty or Driving to start his day, a 14-hour clock starts ticking. This clock DOES NOT STOP ticking, even if the driver switches to Off Duty or Sleeper Berth. Once the 14 hours is up, the driver must take a 10-hour break before driving any more.
70-hour in 8 days rule (or 60 in 7) – Total time spent Driving and On Duty cannot exceed 70 hours in any 8-day period. So add up the time spent Driving and On Duty today, plus the prior 7 days. That total cannot be over 70 hours. A driver may “gain back” time at midnight when the oldest day in his 8-day window falls out of the time range. To completely reset the 70-hour clock requires a 34-hour restart (see below). There is also a variation of this rule that works the same way, but limits work time to 60 hours in 7 days. Fleets can decide which of these two variations they want to use.
8-hour, 30-minute break rule – When the driver comes off a break and changes to On Duty or Driving, an 8-hour clock starts ticking. Before the 8 hours is up, the driver must take at least a 30-minute rest break in Off Duty or Sleeper status. After the 30-minute break, the driver has at most another 8 hours to work before he is required to take another 30-minute break.
10-hour break – If time on the 11-hour or 14-hour clock has expired, the driver must take at least 10 consecutive hours in Off Duty and/or Sleeper Berth status to reset those clocks.
34-hour restart – If a driver is running low on time on his 70-hour in 8 days clock (or 60-hour in 7 days), he can complete a 34-hour restart to reset the 70-hour clock. A restart must be 34 consecutive hours of Off Duty and/or Sleeper Berth time. (Note: there used to be some additional rules placed on the 34-hour restart. These old rules dictated that it could only be used once every 7 days and that it had to include two mornings from 1am-5am. These rules were suspended in 2014 and are no longer in effect)"
Personal Conveyance – When the driver is using the vehicle on his own time for personal transportation. This time does NOT count against a driver’s log time; it is counted as Off Duty time. But as of the mandate, personal driving must be visible on the ELD device for law enforcement. Personal Conveyance can only be used in certain circumstances. The driver is truly on personal time, relieved of all work-related duties and responsibilities. This can also be used for Off Duty.
Yard Moves – The ELD Mandate has introduced a new special status called “Yard Move”. The exact rules for using this status are not yet completely clear, but the idea is that driving done in a limited access lot or yard can be performed in On Duty status (rather than Driving status). The goal here is to allow drivers to move their trucks within a large facility, without counting that as real road-driving time. It may apply to moving within truck stop parking lots as well, but this is not yet clear.
Short Haul 100 / 150 Air Mile Exemption – Short haul drivers that consistently operate within a 100 air-mile radius (or 150 for non-CDL drivers) of their central work location may be exempt from keeping Hours of Service logs at all. They can instead simply keep a time card used to report their daily hours. There is a long list of requirements to qualify for these two possible exemptions, so it is best to read the FMCSA regulation itself thoroughly before deciding if your drivers qualify.
8/2 Sleeper Split – Normally 10 consecutive hours of Off Duty/Sleeper time is required to reset the 11 and 14-hour clocks. However, these 10 hours can sometimes be split up into two segments. This is called an 8/2 Split or Sleeper Split. If the driver worked part of the day and has some time left-over on their 11 and 14-hour clocks, they can stop early and take at least 8 straight hours in the sleeper berth. During these 8 hours, their 14-hour clock does not keep ticking (and obviously neither does their 11-hour drive time clock). After 8 full hours, they can get up and drive for any time remaining on their 11 and 14 from before their 8-hour rest. Once that leftover time is done, they must take at least a 2-hour break.
***Our ELD device does not support any variation of split sleeper berth shifts beside 8 hr / 2 hr and vice versa. A driver cannot split their sleeper berth time in 7/3 hr segments or any other combination besides 8/2 and 2/8.***
Adverse Driving Conditions — If unexpected adverse driving conditions slow you down, you may drive up to 2 extra hours to complete what could have been driven in normal conditions. This means you could drive for up to 13 hours, which is 2 hours more than allowed under normal conditions. Adverse driving conditions mean things that you did not know about when you started your run, like snow, fog, or a shut-down of traffic due to a crash. Adverse driving conditions do not include situations that you should have known about, such as congested traffic during typical “rush hour” periods.
Even though you may drive 2 extra hours under this exception, you must not drive after the 14th consecutive hour after coming on duty, and you must comply with the minimum 30-minute rest break provisions. This regulation is found in Section 395.1(b).
Question: What if they are stuck on the highway, over their 14 hour limit and can’t legally park on the side of the road. What are they supposed to do?
• In this case, they would be able to use the adverse conditions exemption, which would give them up to 13 hours of drive time for the day. If that puts them over their 14 hours, they can use personal conveyance to find a safe place to park. In order to use personal conveyance legally, however, the driver must go to the nearest, safe place to park – even if it’s in the opposite direction of their next work-related stop: https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/sites/fmcsa.dot.gov/files/docs/regulations/hours-service/405201/list-proper-uses-personal-conveyance.pdf"
Agricultural Exemption — When operating within the 150 air-mile radius – the driver can either identify the movement of the commercial motor vehicle as authorized personal use on the ELD or refrain from logging
into the ELD.
- If the driver logs into the ELD and identifies the movement as authorized personal use then driver must also make an annotation on the ELD explaining that the movement is exempt per the agriculture exemption. Upon exiting the 150-air mile radius the driver must then identify the movement of the vehicle as on duty driving.
- If the driver does not log into the ELD while operating within the 150 air-mile radius then upon exiting the 150 air-mile radius, the driver must then log into the ELD, identify the movement of the vehicle as on duty driving.