TRUCK TALK
Hours of Service Regulations
In this Truck Talk segment, Jon Hollan walks through a commercial driver’s day as a 14-hour window with at most 11 hours of driving inside it. Loading, fueling, and inspections fill the leftover hours. The complete federal clocks, and how those clocks are proved after a truck accident, are on our Hours of Service episode. This page stays with the shift Hollan describes, the log categories that can hide driving time, and the scene clues that often show a fatigued driver.
Daily Driving Window
Property-carrying drivers may drive no more than 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty, and they may not drive after the 14th consecutive hour after coming on duty. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration states both limits in its hours-of-service summary of 49 CFR 395.3. The 14-hour clock starts with any work, not with the first mile. A lunch stop does not pause it.
Hollan’s point on camera is the split inside that window. Driving is capped at 11 hours. The leftover time is still on duty: pre-trip inspections, loading, unloading, fueling, and paperwork. When the 14-hour mark hits, driving has to stop even if unused driving hours remain. Ten consecutive hours off duty are required before a new window can start.
Break And Cycle Limits
Four other clocks sit beside that daily window. The same FMCSA summary records them for property-carrying drivers:
30-minute break
Required after 8 cumulative hours of driving. Any non-driving period of 30 consecutive minutes can satisfy it, including on-duty not driving, off duty, sleeper berth, or a mix of those taken in a row.
60/70-hour cycle
A driver may not drive after 60 hours on duty in 7 consecutive days, or 70 hours in 8 consecutive days, depending on whether the carrier runs every day of the week.
34-hour restart
Thirty-four or more consecutive hours off duty restart the 7-day or 8-day count. The restart is optional. It is not a required weekly shutdown.
Sleeper berth split
At least 7 consecutive hours in the berth, plus a separate period of at least 2 hours off duty, totaling at least 10 hours. When paired, neither period counts against the 14-hour window.
The 2020 revision, how each clock is reconstructed from supporting documents, and carrier liability for pushing a driver past them are on the Hours of Service episode.
Electronic Log Records
Handwritten logbooks could be rewritten after a trip ended. Most interstate drivers must now use a registered electronic logging device that connects to the engine and records driving when the vehicle is in motion. Some units run as an app on a phone or tablet tied to the diagnostic port.
An hours file is only as good as the identity attached to it. A second unregistered device, another driver’s login, or a disconnected adapter can hide driving time the engine still moved. Fuel receipts, toll records, weigh-station crossings, and GPS are the check against that file. What the device is required to capture, and the six-month retention window for records of duty status, are on our Modern Truck Technology episode and in the FMCSA hours-of-service summary.
Special Driving Categories
Two ELD categories let a moving truck avoid a Driving status. Personal conveyance is movement of the commercial vehicle for personal use while the driver is off duty and relieved of work. Yard moves are on-duty, not-driving movements, typically off public roads. The ELD still has to record the motion. That time cannot later be shortened into off duty, sleeper berth, or ordinary on-duty not driving.
The test is the reason for the movement, not whether the trailer is loaded. FMCSA’s personal-conveyance guidance allows a laden truck when the trip is not for the carrier’s commercial benefit. Labeling a loaded highway run as personal conveyance, or stretching a yard move onto a public road, keeps driving time off the 11-hour count. The annotation, the GPS trail, and the supporting documents are how that claim is tested.
National Drowsy Counts
Police reports rarely capture how often a driver was asleep at the wheel. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says investigators cannot pin down a complete drowsy-driving count. For 2017 it estimated 91,000 police-reported accidents involving a drowsy driver, about 50,000 people injured, and nearly 800 deaths, and it treats those figures as an undercount. An 80,000-pound truck does not fix that reporting gap. It does increase the harm when the drowsy driver is the one in the cab.
Fatigue Accident Signs
Investigators look for patterns because drowsiness is hard to code on a report. Common scene clues include:
No braking or evasive steering before impact.
A single-vehicle run off the road.
A rear-end collision at full speed.
An early-morning hour, 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m., or mid-afternoon.
A driver who cannot give a coherent account of what happened.
Those clues are not a diagnosis. They are reasons to pull the hours file, the ELD edit log, and supporting documents before the six-month retention window closes. Locking the truck and its electronics in place is the subject of our Truck Accident Investigations episode.
Commercial Truck Litigation Counsel
Handling catastrophic commercial truck collisions requires thorough knowledge of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, digital evidence preservation requirements, and corporate motor carrier discovery practices. Jon Hollan and Sam Aguiar maintain selection in the Trucking Trial Lawyers Association Top 10, directing complex commercial vehicle investigations against national transportation carriers.
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