Hours of Service Rules Explained: The Complete Guide
The FMCSA hours-of-service rules limit property-carrying drivers to 11 hours of driving within a 14-hour window after 10 hours off, require a 30-minute break after 8 hours of driving, cap weekly on-duty time at 60/70 hours, and allow a 34-hour restart. ELDs record compliance automatically.
Hours of service rules are the federal limits on how long a commercial driver may drive and work before taking required rest. Set by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), these rules apply to property-carrying drivers operating commercial motor vehicles in interstate commerce, and they are among the most enforced regulations in trucking. An hours-of-service violation can put a driver out of service at the roadside and land on a carrier's safety record.
For drivers, the hours of service rules define the shape of every workday: an 11-hour driving limit, a 14-hour work window, a 30-minute break after eight hours of driving, and weekly caps of 60 or 70 hours of on-duty time. For carriers and dispatchers, the rules are the hard constraints around which every load must be planned. Misunderstanding them means missed appointments, rejected loads, and violations that follow the company for years.
Most compliance today is recorded automatically. The electronic logging device (ELD) in the cab tracks driving time, duty status changes, and rest breaks, and inspectors at the roadside can review those logs on the spot. But the device only records what happens — it cannot make good planning decisions. This guide explains every core hours-of-service rule in plain language so drivers, owner-operators, and dispatchers can plan legally and profitably.
The 11-Hour Driving Limit
After ten consecutive hours off duty, a property-carrying driver may drive a maximum of 11 hours before going off duty again. This is the single most important number in the hours-of-service rules: the driving clock stops only with qualifying rest, and once the 11 hours are used, driving must stop until the driver takes another qualifying break period.
The 11-hour limit counts only time spent actually driving — time behind the wheel with the vehicle in motion. On-duty time that is not driving, such as loading, fueling, or waiting at a shipper, does not consume the 11-hour driving limit, but it does consume the 14-hour window described below. That distinction is why a driver can run out of legal driving time even on days with modest mileage: a long detention at a dock eats the window without touching the driving limit.
The 14-Hour Driving Window
The 14-hour window starts the moment a driver comes on duty after ten consecutive hours off. Within that 14-hour period, the driver may drive up to 11 hours, and all driving must be completed before the 14th hour ends. Once the window closes, the driver may not drive again until taking ten consecutive hours off duty.
Critically, the 14-hour window does not pause. Off-duty time taken during the window — a meal stop, a nap, time waiting at a facility — extends nothing; the window keeps running. The only partial exception is a qualifying sleeper berth split, which can effectively pause the window for compliant split rest. This is the rule that punishes poor planning most harshly: detention, traffic, and slow shippers all burn the same window as highway miles.
Dispatchers who understand the 14-hour window plan loads backward from the driver's available hours rather than forward from the pickup. A 600-mile run is legal in an 11-hour driving day but impossible inside a 14-hour window that already lost four hours to detention. Smart dispatch means knowing the driver's remaining window before accepting the load, not after.
The 30-Minute Break Requirement
A driver may not drive more than eight cumulative hours without taking a 30-minute break. The break must be off-duty or sleeper-berth time (or a qualifying combination), and it must be completed before the driver exceeds eight hours of driving since the last qualifying break. The electronic logging device tracks this automatically and will flag a violation if the driver drives past the eight-hour mark without the break.
The 30-minute break is one of the most frequently violated hours-of-service rules, not because drivers refuse to rest but because they misjudge the clock. Short stops that feel like breaks — fueling, checking the load, a quick restroom stop logged as on-duty — do not satisfy the requirement. The break must be logged as off duty or in the sleeper berth. Training drivers on exactly how to log the break is one of the cheapest compliance investments a carrier can make.
There is no requirement that the break be taken at a specific time; it can be taken any time before eight hours of driving accumulate. Many drivers take it at a natural stopping point — a fuel stop or a meal — but the safest habit is to watch the ELD's break timer and stop with margin rather than squeezing the last minutes.
The 60/70-Hour Weekly Limits
In addition to daily limits, the hours-of-service rules cap total on-duty time over a rolling period: 60 hours in seven consecutive days for carriers that do not operate every day of the week, and 70 hours in eight consecutive days for carriers that do. Every hour of on-duty time — driving and non-driving work alike — counts toward the cap.
The weekly cap uses a rolling calculation, not a calendar week. At midnight, the oldest day's hours drop off the seven- or eight-day total and become available again — the familiar 'recap' of hours. Drivers and dispatchers who understand the recap can keep running indefinitely on returning hours, while those who don't either burn out their clock early or sit idle with hours they could have used.
Which cap applies depends on the carrier's operation. Most interstate trucking companies operate seven days a week and use the 70-hour/8-day rule. Smaller operations that shut down on weekends use the 60-hour/7-day rule. An owner-operator who occasionally runs weekends may need to track which framework governs a given period — when in doubt, the more conservative 60/7 calculation is the safe planning assumption.
The 34-Hour Restart
A driver who has used up the weekly hours may take 34 consecutive hours off duty to 'restart' the 60/70-hour calculation back to zero. The restart is entirely optional — a driver can also simply wait for recap hours to return — but it is the fastest way to reset a fully consumed clock, and many long-haul drivers use a weekend restart as a normal part of their rhythm.
The restart must be 34 consecutive hours of off-duty or sleeper-berth time, uninterrupted. Any on-duty activity breaks the restart and the clock starts over. In practice, this means a restart taken at home covers a full day and a half, while a restart on the road requires the driver to remain completely off duty for the entire period.
The strategic question is restart versus recap. A restart gives a full 70 hours back at once, which suits drivers who run hard and then take real time off. Recap running suits drivers who prefer steady daily hours without a full day and a half parked. Neither is inherently better; the right choice depends on the freight, the home time needs, and the driver's rhythm.
The Sleeper Berth Provision
Drivers using a sleeper berth may split their required ten hours of off-duty time into two periods under FMCSA's split-sleeper rules. The current framework allows splits such as a longer period paired with a shorter qualifying period, and when done correctly, a qualifying split can pause the 14-hour driving window — the only way to stop that clock short of a full ten hours off.
The split rules have specific conditions on the length of each period and how they combine, and they changed in recent years, so drivers should confirm the current configuration against FMCSA guidance rather than relying on old habits or truck-stop advice. An incorrectly logged split is worse than no split at all: it produces a log that looks compliant to the driver but flags violations on inspection.
Sleeper splits are a team-driving essential and a solo-driver strategic tool. Teams routinely run on split rest so one driver sleeps while the other drives. Solo drivers use splits to manage appointments — sleeping through a long detention in a way that also preserves the 14-hour window. Like every hours-of-service tool, the split rewards drivers who plan and punishes those who improvise.
HOS Planning for Drivers and Dispatchers
Hours-of-service compliance is ultimately a planning discipline, not a logging discipline. The ELD records what happened, but the decisions that keep a driver legal — which load to accept, when to fuel, where to take the 30-minute break, whether to restart or recap — are made hours or days before the violation would occur. Carriers with the fewest HOS violations are almost always the ones whose dispatchers plan around the driver's clock.
For owner-operators, this is one of the strongest arguments for working with a dispatcher who understands the rules deeply. A dispatcher who knows a driver's remaining 11 and 14, tracks the weekly recap, and books loads with realistic transit plus detention buffers turns the hours-of-service rules from a constraint into a competitive advantage — more legal miles, fewer violations, better appointment reliability.
JackRick Logistics works this way by design. Shay Denise, a freight strategist and licensed commercial insurance broker based in Hampton Roads, Virginia, has run dispatch for owner-operators since 2022 with HOS-aware load planning built into every booking. Drivers who want loads planned around their clocks — not against them — can reach the team at (757) 744-2484.
| Rule | Property-Carrying Limit | What It Controls |
|---|---|---|
| Driving limit | 11 hours | Maximum driving after 10 hours off duty |
| Driving window | 14 hours | All driving must finish within 14 hours of coming on duty |
| Break | 30 minutes | Required before 8 cumulative hours of driving |
| Weekly cap | 60 hours / 7 days or 70 hours / 8 days | Total on-duty time on a rolling basis |
| Restart | 34 consecutive hours off | Optional full reset of the weekly calculation |
| Sleeper berth | Split of required rest | Two qualifying periods; can pause the 14-hour window |
Key takeaways
- 11 hours of driving within a 14-hour window after 10 hours off is the core daily limit.
- The 14-hour window never pauses; only a qualifying sleeper berth split stops it.
- A 30-minute off-duty break is required before 8 cumulative hours of driving.
- Weekly caps are 60 hours in 7 days or 70 in 8, on a rolling calculation.
- The 34-hour restart is optional; recap hours work too.
- HOS compliance is a planning discipline — plan loads around the clock, not against it.
Questions carriers ask
What are the basic hours-of-service rules for truck drivers?
Property-carrying drivers may drive up to 11 hours within a 14-hour window after 10 consecutive hours off duty, must take a 30-minute break before 8 hours of driving, and are capped at 60 hours in 7 days or 70 hours in 8 days of on-duty time. A 34-hour restart resets the weekly calculation.
Does the 14-hour window pause when I stop?
No. The 14-hour window runs continuously from the moment you come on duty and does not pause for meals, fuel stops, or detention. The only way to pause it is a qualifying sleeper berth split; otherwise, all driving must be completed before the 14th hour ends.
What counts toward the 11-hour driving limit?
Only time actually driving counts toward the 11-hour limit. On-duty non-driving time — loading, inspections, fueling, detention — does not use the 11-hour clock but does consume the 14-hour window and the weekly 60/70-hour cap. All on-duty time counts toward the weekly limits.
Is the 34-hour restart required?
No, the restart is optional. You can keep driving on recap hours as older days drop off the rolling 7- or 8-day calculation. The 34-hour restart simply resets the weekly total to zero at once, which is useful when the clock is fully consumed and freight is waiting.
What happens if I violate hours-of-service rules?
Roadside inspectors can place a driver out of service until enough rest is taken to become compliant, and the violation is recorded against the carrier's safety record, where it affects CSA scores and can influence insurance and shipper decisions. Check current FMCSA guidance for how specific violations are processed.
Do hours-of-service rules apply to intrastate drivers?
The federal rules apply to interstate commerce. Many states adopt the federal rules for intrastate operations, but some have their own variations — check your state's motor carrier guidance to confirm which limits apply to purely intrastate driving.