Hours of service rules for truck drivers, explained

Hours of service (HOS) rules set how long you may drive and stay on duty before you must rest. For property-carrying drivers, four limits do most of the work: 11 hours of driving, a 14-hour on-duty window, a 30-minute break after 8 hours of driving, and a weekly cap of 60 or 70 on-duty hours. The rules are in 49 CFR Part 395, mainly sections 395.1 to 395.3.

The limits at a glance

Passenger-carrying drivers follow 49 CFR 395.5 instead: 10 hours of driving after 8 consecutive hours off duty, and no driving after 15 hours on duty.

The 11-hour driving limit

After 10 consecutive hours off duty, you may drive a total of 11 hours. Driving time means all time at the controls of a commercial motor vehicle in operation, so the clock moves only while you drive. Once you reach 11 hours, you need another 10 consecutive hours off duty, or a qualifying sleeper berth split, before you drive again.

The 14-hour window

The 14-hour clock starts when you come on duty after 10 hours off, which is usually your pre-trip inspection, and it runs straight through. You may not drive after the 14th consecutive hour. Meal stops, fuel stops, the 30-minute break and time waiting at a dock all count against it.

You can still do on-duty work that isn't driving after the window closes, such as paperwork or helping unload, but that time counts toward your 60/70-hour total. The 11-hour and 14-hour rules guide covers how the two clocks interact.

The 30-minute break

Driving is not permitted once you have driven 8 hours without at least a 30-minute consecutive interruption in driving status. The 8 hours are cumulative driving time, not time on the clock. The break can be off duty, sleeper berth, on-duty not driving, or a consecutive combination of those, so a 30-minute live load counts. The 30-minute break rule guide has worked examples.

The 60/70-hour limit and 34-hour restart

You may not drive after 60 hours on duty in any 7 consecutive days if your carrier does not operate trucks every day of the week. If it does, the limit is 70 hours on duty in any 8 consecutive days. The total is rolling, so each day the oldest day drops out of the period, and all on-duty time counts, not just driving.

The 34-hour restart is the shortcut. Under 395.3(c), any 7- or 8-day period may end with the start of an off-duty period of 34 or more consecutive hours, which brings your total back to zero. The 70-hour rule and 34-hour restart guide walks through the math.

The sleeper berth split

If your truck has a sleeper berth, you can meet the 10-hour off-duty requirement with two rest periods instead of one block. Under 395.1(g)(1):

• One period must be at least 7 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth.
• The other must be at least 2 consecutive hours, in the sleeper berth or off duty.
• The two periods must add up to at least 10 hours.
• Driving before and after each rest period, added together, may not exceed 11 hours or break the 14-hour limit.

Common pairings are 7 and 3 or 8 and 2. Neither qualifying period counts against the 14-hour window, and your limits are recalculated from the end of the first of the two periods. The sleeper berth split guide covers the calculation step by step.

Adverse driving conditions

Under 395.1(b)(1), if you encounter adverse driving conditions and cannot safely finish the run within your limits, you may drive up to 2 additional hours to complete the run or reach a safe place. FMCSA's summary of the rules confirms that the extension applies to both the 11-hour driving limit and the 14-hour window.

The definition in 395.2 is narrow. It covers snow, ice, sleet, fog, other adverse weather, or unusual road or traffic conditions that were not known, and could not reasonably be known, before you started the duty day or started driving after a qualifying rest break or sleeper berth period. It also requires that your carrier couldn't have known when it dispatched you. Conditions you could reasonably have known about before starting fall outside that definition. More detail is in the adverse driving conditions guide.

The short-haul exception

The 150 air-mile short-haul exception in 395.1(e)(1) applies when all of these are true:

• You operate within 150 air miles (172.6 statute miles) of your normal work reporting location.
• You return to that location and are released from work within 14 consecutive hours.
• You have at least 10 consecutive hours off duty between each 14 hours on duty.
• Your carrier keeps accurate time records for 6 months.

Drivers who qualify are exempt from the record of duty status rules in 395.8 and 395.11, so they don't need ELD logs, and they don't have to take the 30-minute break. The 11-hour driving limit and the 60/70-hour limit still apply. A separate exception in 395.1(e)(2) covers drivers of property-carrying vehicles that don't require a CDL.

A worked example day

Here is one legal day for a driver on the 70-hour, 8-day schedule who has just had 10 consecutive hours off duty.

How the rules apply to this day:

• The one-hour unload counted as the 30-minute break. After it, the driver drove 5 more hours, under the 8 that would require another break.
• At 7:00 p.m. the 11-hour limit runs out, one hour before the 14-hour window would. The earliest the driver can drive again is 5:00 a.m.
• On-duty time for the day is 13 hours (11 driving, 2 not driving), and all 13 count toward the 70.

How Fort Route helps

Fort Route's trip planner applies the 11-hour, 14-hour, 8-hour break and 70-hour rules to the route you're about to drive. You enter your current clocks (there is no ELD sync), and the app places 30-minute breaks, 10-hour resets and 34-hour restarts at real truck stops and rest areas along the way. It then shows a legal arrival time that already includes those stops.

While you drive, the hours rings show the Break, Drive, Shift and Cycle time you have left, and HOS reminders come up along the route. Fort Route is a planning aid; your ELD record is the legal record of your hours.