FMCSA 14-Hour Rule: Limits, Breaks, Exceptions, and Penalties

The FMCSA’s 14-hour rule gives a property-carrying commercial driver a single 14-consecutive-hour window, starting the moment you come on duty after 10 hours off, in which all driving for that shift must be completed.¹ Once those 14 hours elapse, you cannot drive again until you’ve taken another full 10 consecutive hours off. The clock runs continuously whether you’re behind the wheel, fueling, doing paperwork, or waiting at a dock.

When the Clock Starts and What Keeps It Running

Your 14-hour window begins the instant you go on duty following at least 10 consecutive hours off. Report at 6:00 a.m. and the window closes at 8:00 p.m., full stop. A three-hour wait at a shipper in the middle of the day still burns three hours off the window.¹ Meals, short breaks, and detention do not pause it. Outside of the split sleeper berth provision described below, nothing pauses it.

On-duty time is broader than driving time. Under the federal definitions, you are on duty any time you’re working or required to be ready to work: inspecting or servicing the vehicle, loading or unloading (or standing by while someone else does), waiting for dispatch at a terminal, repairing a breakdown, providing a drug or alcohol test sample, or performing any other compensated work for any employer.² Paid work for a non-trucking employer counts too. A side job on your day off can quietly eat into your available hours.

The 11-Hour Driving Cap Inside the Window

Within your 14-hour window, you can spend a maximum of 11 hours actually driving.¹ The two limits run independently. Burn most of your day on non-driving tasks and the window can close with driving hours still on the books. Move efficiently and you may hit 11 hours of driving with an hour or two of window left. Whichever limit hits first ends your driving day until you complete another 10 consecutive hours off.

In practical terms, there are roughly three hours of non-driving work baked into every duty day. Pre-trip inspections, fueling, paperwork, and detention at shippers all draw from that buffer. Drivers who regularly face long loading times run out of drivable window well before the 11-hour cap.

Resetting the Window and the Mid-Shift Break

Only one thing resets the 14-hour window: 10 consecutive hours off duty.¹ Consecutive is the operative word. Nine hours off, a quick call from dispatch, then another hour off does not qualify. The 10 hours can be off duty, in the sleeper berth, or a mix of both, but the block must be uninterrupted.

Inside the window, after 8 cumulative hours of driving you must take a break of at least 30 consecutive minutes before driving again. The break can be off-duty time, sleeper berth time, or on-duty not driving.³ The trigger is 8 hours of driving, not 8 hours on duty. Drive four hours, spend two at a shipper, drive four more, and the shipper stop has already covered the requirement because on-duty not driving qualifies. That break does not stop the 14-hour clock either.

The One Way to Effectively Pause the Clock: Split Sleeper Berth

The split sleeper berth provision is the sole mechanism that lets you take time in the middle of a shift without burning your window. Instead of taking 10 hours off in a single block, you divide it into two qualifying rest periods that together total at least 10 hours.⁴

One period must be at least 7 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth. The other must be at least 2 consecutive hours, either off duty or in the sleeper berth. Common combinations are 7/3 and 8/2. The longer period must be logged as sleeper berth time specifically; logging it as off-duty invalidates the split, and that mistake is among the most common violations tied to this provision.

When the split is used correctly, neither rest period counts against your 14-hour window. If you had used 5 hours of your window before a 7-hour sleeper berth break, you would resume with 9 hours still available. Once the second qualifying rest period is complete, your available driving time recalculates based on what was used in each segment.

Exceptions That Extend or Suspend the Window

Adverse Driving Conditions

Unexpected weather, road closures, or traffic delays that were not foreseeable when you started your trip can extend both the 11-hour driving limit and the 14-hour window by up to 2 hours.³ That gives you a 13-hour driving cap and a 16-hour on-duty window at most. The conditions must have been unknown when you started the trip or your last qualifying rest break. If your carrier dispatched you knowing about a winter storm advisory, the exception does not apply.⁵

Emergency Conditions

A separate exception covers true emergencies. If an unforeseeable event occurs mid-trip, you can complete the run without an hours-of-service violation, provided the run could reasonably have been completed without the emergency.⁵ There is no fixed 2-hour cap. The exception lets you finish the run in progress; it does not authorize starting a new one.

Declared Emergency Exemptions

During officially declared emergencies, HOS rules can be suspended for drivers providing direct assistance. Scope and duration depend on who declares the emergency:⁶

Presidential declaration: all HOS regulations suspended for up to 30 days from the initial declaration, or the duration of the emergency, whichever is shorter.
Regional declaration by a Governor or the FMCSA: driving-time and on-duty-time limits suspended for up to 14 days.
Local emergency: driving-time and on-duty-time limits suspended for up to 5 days.

These exemptions cover only loads providing direct assistance related to the emergency. Hauling a regular commercial load through an affected area does not qualify.

Short-Haul Exception

Drivers who operate within a 150 air-mile radius (about 173 statute miles) of their normal work reporting location and return within 14 consecutive hours are exempt from keeping a full record of duty status and from using an ELD.⁵ The 14-hour window, 11-hour driving limit, and 30-minute break requirement still apply. The exception only removes the detailed logging burden; the carrier maintains time records showing report time, total hours on duty, and release time each day.

A broader version applies to drivers of property-carrying CMVs that do not require a CDL. Those drivers get a 16-hour on-duty window on 2 days out of every 7 consecutive days, with the standard 14-hour window applying the other 5.⁵ They must still stay within the 150 air-mile radius and return to their work location each day.

Personal Conveyance

You can drive your CMV for personal reasons while off duty without the time counting against your 14-hour window. The FMCSA permits this even when the vehicle is loaded, since the cargo is not being transported for commercial benefit at that point.⁷ You must genuinely be relieved of all work responsibilities. Driving past available rest stops to get closer to your next pickup does not qualify. Neither does repositioning an empty trailer at your carrier’s direction, hauling the vehicle to a maintenance facility, or driving a passenger-carrying CMV with passengers aboard. Carriers can impose stricter limits than the federal guidance, such as distance caps or a flat ban on personal conveyance while loaded.

What a Violation Costs

Hours-of-service violations carry real financial consequences, and enforcement happens both at roadside inspections and during carrier audits. As of March 2026, a driver who violates the hours-of-service rules faces civil penalties of up to $4,812 per violation. A motor carrier that permits or requires the violation can be fined up to $19,246 per violation.⁸ For egregious violations, defined as exceeding the driving-time limit by more than 3 hours, the agency treats the gravity as sufficient to warrant the maximum penalty allowed by law.

A violation caught at a roadside inspection can put you out of service on the spot. You’re parked until you have accumulated enough off-duty time to come back into compliance, and you are not earning miles during that time.

Violations also feed into the carrier’s safety record through the FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System. HOS infractions raise the carrier’s percentile ranking in the HOS Compliance category and remain on the record for 24 months.⁹ A poor enough ranking triggers FMCSA interventions ranging from warning letters to full compliance investigations, higher insurance costs, and lost contracts with shippers who screen for safety scores. For drivers, a pattern of violations makes you a hiring liability.

A Note on Passenger-Carrying Vehicles

The 14-hour window is the property-carrying rule. Bus and motorcoach drivers work under a different set of limits: a 15-hour on-duty window, a 10-hour driving cap, and an 8-hour reset.¹ If you drive both vehicle types, applying the property-carrying numbers to a passenger run (or vice versa) is a real compliance risk.

1
eCFR. 49 CFR Part 395 – Hours of Service of Drivers
2
eCFR. 49 CFR 395.2 – Definitions
3
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Summary of Hours of Service Regulations
4
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). What Rest Periods Qualify for the Split Sleeper Berth Provision
5
eCFR. 49 CFR 395.1 – Scope of Rules in This Part
6
eCFR. 49 CFR 390.23 – Automatic Relief From Regulations
7
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Personal Conveyance
8
eCFR. Appendix B to Part 386 – Penalty Schedule Violations and Monetary Penalties
9
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Hours-of-Service Compliance BASIC Factsheet