By Michael Nielsen, Publisher | 15+ Years in Diesel Repair
Last Updated: October 2026
Hours of service rules are the federal limits in 49 CFR Part 395 on how long a commercial driver may drive and be on duty before taking rest. For property-carrying drivers, the core limits are 11 hours of driving within a 14-hour window after 10 consecutive hours off duty, a 30-minute break after 8 hours of driving, and 60 hours in 7 days or 70 hours in 8 days.
This Heavy Duty Journal guide covers each current limit, the exceptions that cause the most errors, and where FMCSA's 2026 pilot programs actually stand as of October 2026. It corrects three claims from the earlier version and drops the rest of what could not be traced to a primary source.
Key Takeaways
- ✓The core limits are the 2020 rule. FMCSA revised four provisions effective September 29, 2020, and the 11-hour, 14-hour, 30-minute break, and 60/70-hour limits still stand.
- ✓The 2026 pilots are not available to most drivers. FMCSA finished small pre-tests in August 2026 and plans larger pilots of 256 drivers each in 2027, so using a 6/4 or 5/5 split now is a violation.
- ✓HOS was the top driver out-of-service category at Roadcheck 2025. It made up 32.4 percent of driver out-of-service violations, ahead of no CDL (24.4 percent) and no medical card (14.9 percent).
- ✓Penalty ceilings are $19,246 and $4,812. Appendix B to Part 386 sets non-recordkeeping maximums of $19,246 for a carrier and $4,812 for a driver.
- ✓A revoked ELD counts as no ELD. After FMCSA's 60-day replacement window ends, drivers using a revoked device can be placed out of service.
In This Guide
- Hours of Service Rules: What They Are and Who Must Follow Them
- Core Limits for Property-Carrying Drivers
- Split Sleeper Berth and Adverse Driving Conditions
- Passenger-Carrying and Team Drivers
- Short-Haul and Other Exceptions
- Personal Conveyance
- ELD Requirements and Revoked Devices
- FMCSA's 2026 Pilot Programs: Where They Stand
- Penalties and Enforcement
- Staying Compliant Day to Day
- Frequently Asked Questions
- The Bottom Line
Hours of Service Rules: What They Are and Who Must Follow Them
Most drivers of a commercial motor vehicle in interstate commerce must follow the rules. FMCSA's hours of service page defines a CMV as a business vehicle weighing 10,001 pounds or more (by GVWR or GCWR), one designed or used to carry 9 or more passengers for compensation or 16 or more without compensation, or one hauling placarded hazardous materials. The rules are in 49 CFR Part 395.
The rules exist to manage fatigue. FMCSA's Large Truck Crash Causation Study, which used data from 2001 to 2003, coded fatigue as an associated factor for about 13 percent of the large trucks in the study. See the FMCSA analysis brief.
Core Limits for Property-Carrying Drivers
On June 1, 2020, FMCSA revised four provisions of the rules, with compliance required from September 29, 2020: the short-haul exception, adverse driving conditions, the 30-minute break, and the sleeper berth provision. The four core limits below still apply, and nothing in 2026 has replaced them.
| Rule | Limit | What resets or satisfies it |
|---|---|---|
| 11-hour driving limit | No more than 11 hours of driving | 10 consecutive hours off duty |
| 14-hour window | All driving within 14 consecutive hours after coming on duty | 10 consecutive hours off duty |
| 30-minute break | Required after 8 cumulative hours of driving | 30 consecutive minutes off duty, in the sleeper, or on duty not driving |
| 60/70-hour limit | 60 hours on duty in 7 days or 70 hours in 8 days | 34 consecutive hours off duty (optional restart) |
The 14-hour window is an on-duty clock, not a driving clock. It starts when a driver comes on duty and keeps running through loading, fueling, and waiting, so a driver can be under 11 hours of driving and still be out of time. Off-duty time shorter than 10 hours does not stop it, except under the split sleeper berth provision.
The 30-minute break is required after 8 cumulative hours of driving. Since the 2020 rule, an on-duty not-driving period can satisfy it, so a driver waiting at a dock can meet the requirement without going off duty.
Split Sleeper Berth and Adverse Driving Conditions
The sleeper berth provision lets a driver meet the 10-hour off-duty requirement in two periods: at least 7 hours in the sleeper berth plus at least 2 hours off duty, inside or outside the berth, with the two totaling at least 10 hours. When used together as specified, neither qualifying period counts against the 14-hour driving window. The familiar 8/2 and 7/3 splits are examples.
Adverse driving conditions expand the driving window by up to 2 hours. They cover conditions the driver or carrier did not know about when the trip was dispatched, such as sudden snow, fog, or a crash ahead, not routine congestion. Note the condition in dispatch records when it happens, not months later.
Passenger-Carrying and Team Drivers
Passenger-carrying drivers have tighter limits: a maximum of 10 hours of driving after 8 consecutive hours off duty, within a 15-hour on-duty window. The 60/70-hour limits and the 34-hour restart apply, and the 30-minute break is a property-carrying requirement. Confirm passenger limits against Part 395 if you run motorcoaches.
Team drivers follow the same individual limits. HOS rules apply per driver, not per vehicle, so each team member logs their own driving, window, and off-duty periods, and sleeper berth time can count toward a driver's own rest while the other drives, if it meets the split requirements.
Short-Haul and Other Exceptions
The short-haul exception, as revised in 2020, covers a qualifying property-carrying driver who stays within 150 air miles of the normal work reporting location, returns there, and is released within 14 consecutive hours. Such a driver is exempt from the record of duty status, the ELD, and the 30-minute break, but not from the 11-hour driving limit or the off-duty requirement.
If a driver misses any condition, the exception does not apply that day and a full record of duty status is required. Keep time records for exempt drivers for six months, because without them you cannot prove the exception applied. A separate 16-hour exception in 395.1(o) lets certain drivers extend the 14-hour window once every 7 consecutive days, so check its conditions in the rule before relying on it.
Other exceptions are narrow. The agricultural commodity exception covers farm products within 150 air miles of the source during state-defined seasons, and waiting time at oil and gas well sites is not on-duty time. Verify each one against Part 395 for your operation.
Personal Conveyance
Personal conveyance is movement of a CMV for personal purposes while a driver is off duty, and qualifying time is not on-duty time. FMCSA's guidance sets no fixed mileage cap, and the test is whether the driver is relieved of all work and the movement is for the driver's own purpose. See FMCSA's personal conveyance guidance.
Repositioning toward tomorrow's pickup serves the carrier and belongs on duty. Inspectors look for that pattern in logs and trip data. HDJ's ELD tampering and falsification guide covers how misuse of personal conveyance is detected.
ELD Requirements and Revoked Devices
Most drivers who must keep a record of duty status need an ELD under 49 CFR 395.8. Drivers using paper records for 8 or fewer days in a rolling 30-day period, and drivers covered by the short-haul exception, are not required to use one. HDJ's ELD mandate compliance guide covers the requirements.
Devices must be on FMCSA's registered list. FMCSA gives carriers up to 60 days to replace a revoked ELD, and after that deadline the driver is treated as operating without an ELD and can be placed out of service. Check each ELD model against the registered and revoked lists on a schedule, since a device that passed last year may have been removed.
At roadside, an officer may ask for an ELD data transfer. Make sure every driver knows how their device transfers records and has the instruction sheet, and review it at onboarding, not just at initial training. HDJ's ELD compliance for fleet management guide covers device selection.
FMCSA's 2026 Pilot Programs: Where They Stand
FMCSA's pilot programs are part of the "Pro-Trucker Package." The Flexible Sleeper Berth pilot would let participants split the 10 hours in any combination, including 6/4 and 5/5, as long as the periods total at least 10 hours and one has at least 5 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth. The Split Duty Period pilot would let participants exclude up to 3 hours of qualifying non-driving time from the 14-hour window each day.
As of FMCSA's August 27, 2026 announcement, small pre-tests are complete: nine drivers from three carriers in each pilot, six weeks each. FMCSA plans larger pilots of 256 drivers each, a combined 512, with participants staying about four months. Trade reports place that rollout in 2027, so these remain studies for approved participants, not rules.
Key Recommendation
Treat any driver who mentions a 6/4 split or a paused 14-hour window as a question for FMCSA's pilot staff, not as a new rule. Confirm enrollment in writing before it appears on a log.
Check FMCSA's hours of service page for current enrollment before advising drivers, because the pilot terms and dates can change. If your ELD does not support a pilot status, do not log a split manually.
Penalties and Enforcement
Appendix B to Part 386 sets civil penalty ceilings: up to $19,246 per non-recordkeeping violation for a carrier or entity and up to $4,812 for a driver. Recordkeeping violations carry up to $1,584 per day, with a maximum of $15,846, and the same ceiling applies to knowingly false records. See Appendix B on eCFR. Amounts are adjusted periodically, so check the schedule.
Appendix B also treats driving more than 3 hours past a limit as egregious, according to summaries of the schedule. At roadside, a driver over the 11-hour or 14-hour limit can be placed out of service until eligible to drive again, whatever the delivery deadline.
32.4%
Share of driver out-of-service violations that were hours of service at CVSA's 2025 International Roadcheck (1,076 violations).
At CVSA's 2025 International Roadcheck, hours of service made up 32.4 percent of driver out-of-service violations (1,076), ahead of no CDL at 24.4 percent and no medical card at 14.9 percent. Falsified logs were another 10 percent, or 332 violations. Roadside violations feed the Hours-of-Service Compliance BASIC, and HDJ's CSA score guide explains how that data is used. HDJ's hours of service violations guide covers penalties and prevention.
Staying Compliant Day to Day
Dispatch to the clock the driver actually has. A driver 90 minutes from the end of the 14-hour window should not take a load that needs two hours, and routing should use remaining ELD time in real time, not a schedule built the night before.
Audit short-haul exception use each month. A driver who occasionally runs a longer route needs that day logged under standard rules, because the exception is a daily qualification, not a status. Keep time records the same way you would keep full logs.
Free DOT Status Check
Enter a USDOT number and quickly review public carrier status, operating authority and key FMCSA registration data.
Train dispatchers to document adverse driving conditions at the time they occur, and track ELD device status as a recurring task. HDJ's fleet driver safety program guide covers how hours rules fit with training, monitoring, and incident response.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many hours can a truck driver drive in a day?
A property-carrying driver may drive up to 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty, all within a 14-hour window, with a 30-minute break after 8 hours of driving.
Have the core HOS rules changed in 2026?
No. The limits from the 2020 rule still apply. The 2026 changes are pilot studies for approved participants only, and FMCSA plans larger pilots in 2027, not a new rule for everyone.
What is the 34-hour restart?
It is an optional provision that resets the 60/70-hour clock after 34 consecutive hours off duty. A driver can also track rolling 7- or 8-day totals without ever using a restart, as long as limits are not exceeded.
Can I use a 6/4 or 5/5 sleeper split now?
Only if you are an approved participant in FMCSA's Flexible Sleeper Berth pilot. Without enrollment, those splits are violations of the standard rules, not an early version of a new one.
What happens if a short-haul exception condition is missed?
The exception does not apply that day, and the driver must have a full record of duty status for it. Any hours over the standard limits become real violations.
The Bottom Line
The core hours of service rules are stable: 11 hours of driving, a 14-hour window, a 30-minute break after 8 hours of driving, and 60/70-hour limits. What changes is the environment, including penalties, ELD enforcement, and pilot studies that do not apply to most drivers.
Heavy Duty Journal's guidance at heavydutyjournal.com, from publisher Michael Nielsen and the HDJ editorial team, is to plan from the clock a driver actually has and to verify any pilot or penalty detail against FMCSA before acting on it.
As of October 2026, FMCSA's pilot status and penalty schedules change, so confirm current terms before updating procedures.
Share This With Your Dispatch Team
Pass it to anyone who plans loads from memory, so they work from the current limits and the real status of the pilots.
