Hours of Service Guide

Who This Applies To

• Drivers of property-carrying commercial motor vehicles who need to track the daily 11-hour driving limit, the 14-hour on-duty window, and the 60- or 70-hour weekly cycle.
• Carriers and dispatchers planning pickup and delivery schedules around a driver's available hours, remaining cycle time, and off-duty reset requirements.
• New CMV drivers learning which rules apply to their operation type — property-carrying and passenger-carrying operations have different daily limits and reset requirements.
• Operations claiming short-haul, agricultural, or adverse driving conditions exceptions that need to verify whether all current conditions for those exemptions are met.

What To Verify

• Whether the operation is property-carrying or passenger-carrying. Daily driving limits, the on-duty window, and the off-duty reset period differ between the two. Property-carrying: 11-hour driving, 14-hour window, 10-hour reset. Passenger-carrying: 10-hour driving, 15-hour window, 8-hour reset.
• The current eCFR Part 395 text for any exemption being claimed. Short-haul, agricultural, and adverse conditions exceptions have specific numerical conditions that have changed in past rulemaking cycles.
• Whether the carrier operates 7 days per week or fewer — that determines whether the 60-hour/7-day or 70-hour/8-day weekly limit applies.
• That ELD records match what the driver actually did. Unassigned driving segments, location gaps, and incorrect duty-status entries create HOS exposure during roadside inspections.

Step-by-Step Overview

1. Establish the right baseline: property-carrying drivers get 11 hours of driving time inside a 14-hour window, after 10 consecutive hours off. Get this foundation right before adding exceptions.
2. Track cumulative driving hours separately from total on-duty hours. Being on duty but not driving counts against the 14-hour window — it does not count against the 11-hour driving cap.
3. Plan the 30-minute non-driving break before reaching 8 cumulative hours of driving in the shift. The break resets the 8-hour driving clock. It does not extend or pause the 14-hour window.
4. Watch the weekly cycle in parallel with the daily limits. Drivers who stay within daily caps can still hit the 60- or 70-hour weekly ceiling if on-duty hours accumulate across the week.
5. Review ELD records before certifying at end of shift. Unresolved unassigned driving or gaps are easier to address immediately than days later, and certified errors carry more weight during inspections.

Common Mistakes

• Treating the 14-hour window as a driving limit. It is an on-duty window that starts when the driver first comes on duty and runs continuously — it is not paused by rest breaks within the shift.
• Assuming an off-duty period during the shift pauses the 14-hour clock. For property-carrying operations it generally does not. The window keeps running from first on-duty regardless of stops taken.
• Watching only daily limits while missing the weekly cycle. Drivers sometimes reach the 60- or 70-hour weekly cap mid-shift without realizing it because on-duty hours from earlier in the week weren't being tracked.
• Claiming an exemption without confirming all conditions qualify. The short-haul exception has specific radius and return-to-location requirements. The adverse conditions exception requires the conditions to have been unforeseeable at the start of the shift.
• Certifying ELD logs without reviewing them. Errors signed off by the driver are harder to correct and carry more weight in an inspection than unresolved annotations that could still be addressed.