DOT Hours of Service Regulations: Limits, Exceptions, and Penalties

The DOT hours of service regulations cap how long a commercial driver can work and drive before mandatory rest. Property-carrying drivers can drive up to 11 hours inside a 14-hour duty window after 10 consecutive hours off. Passenger-carrying drivers can drive up to 10 hours inside a 15-hour window after 8 hours off. Weekly on-duty time is capped at 60 hours in 7 days or 70 hours in 8 days, and a 34-hour break resets that count. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration writes and enforces these rules under 49 CFR Part 395, and violations can lead to fines in the thousands of dollars per instance plus an out-of-service order at the roadside.

Who Has to Follow the Rules

The rules apply if you drive a commercial motor vehicle in interstate commerce. Under 49 CFR 390.5, a vehicle is commercial if any one of these is true:1eCFR. 49 CFR 390.5 – Definitions

  • Gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating of 10,001 pounds or more.
  • Designed or used to carry more than 8 people, including the driver, for compensation.
  • Designed or used to carry more than 15 people, including the driver, without compensation.
  • Transporting hazardous materials in quantities that require federal placarding, regardless of size.

Cross a state line in a vehicle that fits any one of those, and you fall under federal jurisdiction. Purely intrastate operations are governed by state rules, though many states adopt the federal standards without changes.

Daily Limits for Freight Drivers

Three limits run at the same time for property-carrying drivers:2eCFR. 49 CFR 395.3 – Maximum Driving Time for Property-Carrying Vehicles

  • An 11-hour driving limit after 10 consecutive hours off duty.
  • A 14-hour duty window from the moment you come on duty. Once the window starts, it keeps running. Naps, meals, and time sitting at a dock do not pause it.3Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Summary of Hours of Service Regulations
  • A 30-minute break requirement. After 8 cumulative hours of driving, you cannot drive again until you have taken at least 30 consecutive minutes off from driving. The break can be off-duty, sleeper berth, on-duty non-driving, or any mix of those.2eCFR. 49 CFR 395.3 – Maximum Driving Time for Property-Carrying Vehicles

The 14-hour window is where most drivers get squeezed. A three-hour wait at a shipper still eats three hours out of your window, even though you never drove during that time. Plan your day around the duty window rather than the 11-hour driving cap, because the window is usually what runs out first.

Daily Limits for Bus and Motorcoach Drivers

Passenger-carrying drivers work under a separate section:4eCFR. 49 CFR 395.5 – Maximum Driving Time for Passenger-Carrying Vehicles

  • Up to 10 hours of driving after 8 consecutive hours off duty.
  • No driving after 15 hours on duty following that 8-hour break.

The required off-duty period is shorter than the 10 hours required for freight drivers. The 30-minute driving break that applies to property-carrying drivers does not apply here.5Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Hours of Service for Motor Carriers of Passengers

Splitting Rest in the Sleeper Berth

Property-carrying drivers with a compliant sleeper berth can break the 10-hour off-duty requirement into two pieces. One period must be at least 7 consecutive hours in the berth. The other must be at least 2 consecutive hours off duty, spent either in the berth or elsewhere. The two together must total at least 10 hours.6Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. What Rest Periods Qualify for the Split Sleeper Berth Provision

Used correctly, neither period counts against the 14-hour duty window, which lets you spread a productive shift across a longer calendar day without violating the rules.7Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. How Are Split Sleeper Berth Rest Periods Used in Determining Compliance With the 14-Hour Driving Window Rule The berth itself must meet federal dimensions and safety standards. Not every cab qualifies, and using the split without a compliant berth turns what you thought was valid rest into a violation at inspection.

Weekly Limits and the 34-Hour Restart

Beyond daily caps, rolling weekly limits apply. A property-carrying driver cannot drive after accumulating 60 on-duty hours in 7 consecutive days or 70 on-duty hours in 8 consecutive days. Carriers that do not run every day use the 60/7 schedule. Carriers running daily use the 70/8 schedule.3Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Summary of Hours of Service Regulations Passenger-carrying drivers use the same 60/70-hour structure.5Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Hours of Service for Motor Carriers of Passengers

Taking at least 34 consecutive hours off duty or in a sleeper berth resets the rolling total to zero and starts a fresh 7- or 8-day period with full available hours. Drivers who skip the restart have to watch their running total closely, because once you hit the weekly cap you cannot drive again until older on-duty time falls off the trailing edge of the window. Inspectors reconstruct your rolling total on the spot, and sloppy records at a scale house become an out-of-service order.

Exceptions That Extend or Waive the Limits

150 Air-Mile Short-Haul Exception

If you operate within a 150 air-mile radius of your normal reporting location and return there within 14 consecutive hours, you are exempt from keeping a formal record of duty status and from the ELD requirement. The 11-hour driving limit, the 14-hour window, and the 30-minute break rule still apply.8Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Hours of Service Regulations Visor Card Your carrier must maintain time records showing when you reported, total daily on-duty hours, and when you were released. On any day you break the radius or miss the 14-hour return, you need a full record of duty status for that day.

16-Hour Duty Window Exception

Property-carrying drivers who regularly come home to the same terminal can extend the 14-hour window to 16 hours once, if released from duty at the normal reporting location on each of the previous five duty tours and if they have not used the exception in the prior six consecutive days. A 34-hour restart resets that six-day count.9eCFR. 49 CFR 395.1 – Scope of Rules in This Part A separate 16-hour provision applies to non-CDL property drivers within a 150 air-mile radius, allowing the extension on up to two days in any seven-day period.

Adverse Driving Conditions

Snow, ice, sleet, fog, or unusual road or traffic conditions that were unknown to both the driver and the carrier before dispatch can extend the driving limit and the duty window by up to 2 hours each.10eCFR. 49 CFR 395.2 – Definitions3Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Summary of Hours of Service Regulations The condition has to be genuinely unforeseen. A storm forecast the night before you left does not qualify. A whiteout that developed after you were rolling does.

Agricultural Commodities

Hours of service rules do not apply while a driver hauling agricultural commodities operates within 150 air miles of the location where the commodity was loaded. Cross that boundary and full HOS applies until you return inside the radius. Driving an empty truck to pick up agricultural goods is covered, provided the trip’s sole purpose is that pickup.11Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The Agricultural Commodity Exemption in 49 CFR 395.1(k)(1)

Personal Conveyance and Yard Moves

Personal conveyance lets you use the truck off duty without burning driving hours. Driving to a restaurant, commuting between home and the terminal, and moving to a safe rest location after unloading are common examples. The truck can be loaded, as long as you are not moving the cargo for the carrier’s commercial benefit at that moment.12Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Personal Conveyance

Using personal conveyance to advance the load is where drivers get caught. Repositioning empty toward the next pickup, moving at the carrier’s direction, and bypassing rest areas to get closer to the delivery point all cross from personal use into commercial operation. FMCSA treats those situations as record falsification, not a technical HOS problem. Individual carriers can also impose stricter limits or ban personal conveyance outright.

Yard moves let you record vehicle movement as on-duty not driving instead of driving time, but only inside a restricted area closed to public travel, such as a carrier terminal, a gated customer facility, or a repair yard with access controls. Truck stops and public lots do not qualify. Select the yard move status on your ELD before you enter that mode and annotate the record. Yard move time still counts against the 14-hour duty window even though it is not driving time.

Electronic Logging Devices

Most drivers subject to HOS rules must record duty status on an electronic logging device that connects to the engine and automatically captures driving time. ELDs replaced paper logs for the majority of the industry.13eCFR. 49 CFR Part 395 Subpart B – Electronic Logging Devices You must certify your logs at the end of each 24-hour period and be able to transfer records to an officer electronically at a roadside inspection.14eCFR. 49 CFR Appendix A to Subpart B of Part 395 – Functional Specifications for All Electronic Logging Devices

If the ELD malfunctions, switch to paper records and notify the carrier within 24 hours. Running on paper for more than 8 days without an FMCSA extension can result in an out-of-service order.15Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. ELD Malfunctions and Data Diagnostic Events Short-haul drivers using the timecard exception, drivers keeping records on 8 or fewer days in any 30-day period, drive-away/tow-away operations, and vehicles from before model year 2000 are exempt from the ELD mandate.16Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Who Is Exempt From the ELD Rule

Penalties for HOS Violations

Penalty amounts are set in 49 CFR Appendix B to Part 386 and adjusted periodically. Current maximums:17eCFR. Appendix B to Part 386 – Penalty Schedule

  • Non-recordkeeping violations by a carrier: up to $19,246 per violation.
  • Non-recordkeeping violations by a driver: up to $4,812 per violation.
  • Recordkeeping violations: up to $1,584 per day the violation continues, capped at $15,846 total.
  • A CDL holder who operates during an out-of-service order: at least $3,961 for a first offense and $7,924 for later offenses.
  • A carrier that allows operation during an out-of-service order: between $7,155 and $39,615.

FMCSA treats egregious driving-time violations, defined as exceeding the driving limit by three or more hours, as warranting the maximum penalty. Beyond the fine, an inspector who finds a violation at the roadside can place you out of service on the spot, meaning you cannot drive again until you have accumulated enough off-duty time to come back into compliance. Those events feed the carrier’s safety rating and can trigger a federal audit of the whole operation.