Hours of service, without the folklore
Eleven driving hours inside a fourteen-hour window, a thirty-minute break counted off driving time, and a restart that resets less than most drivers think. Here is the rule as FMCSA publishes it.
- Author
- Relay Dispatch Desk
- Published
- 17 Aug 2026
- Verified
- 15 Aug 2026
- Re-checked
- quarterly
Key takeaways
- Eleven driving hours, but only inside a fourteen-hour window that runs on wall-clock time and does not pause for a wait at a shipper.
- The thirty-minute break is triggered by eight cumulative hours of driving — not by eight hours on duty.
- The 34-hour restart resets the weekly 60- or 70-hour limit. It does not give back driving hours inside a window.
- Adverse driving conditions can extend the driving and window limits by up to two hours. Congestion you could have planned around is not adverse conditions.
Four limits run at the same time, which is why a driver can be legal on one and out of hours on another. They are short enough to hold in your head, and FMCSA publishes all of them on a single page.
The 14-hour window
The window is the one that catches people. It opens the moment you come on duty after ten consecutive hours off, and it runs on elapsed time. A two-hour wait at a shipper spends the same two hours of your window as two hours of driving, and nothing short of another ten-hour break stops it.
You may not drive after the fourteenth hour, whether or not you still have driving hours left. Work that is not driving may continue; the driving stops.
The 11-hour driving limit
Eleven hours of driving after ten consecutive hours off duty. The eleven hours do not have to be consecutive, and the ten hours off is the only thing that resets them.
- Ten consecutive hours off duty before the window opens.
- Eleven driving hours available inside the fourteen.
- No driving after the fourteenth hour, whether or not driving time remains.
The 30-minute break
Required after eight cumulative hours of driving without at least a thirty-minute interruption. The trigger is driving time, not duty time — a driver who has been on duty nine hours but has driven six does not yet owe a break. The interruption may be off-duty, sleeper berth, or on-duty not driving.
60 and 70 hours, and the restart
Sixty hours in seven consecutive days, or seventy in eight, depending on whether your carrier operates every day of the week. The 34-hour restart resets that weekly total — and only that. It does nothing for the fourteen-hour window you are currently inside.
Sleeper berth, and adverse conditions
The sleeper-berth provision lets a driver split the required off-duty time into two periods — 7 and 3, or 8 and 2 — with neither period counting against the fourteen-hour window. It is the most underused tool in the rule.
Adverse driving conditions — weather or road conditions you could not have known about when you started — allow up to two extra hours of driving and two extra hours of window. Traffic you could have planned around does not qualify.
Sources
- FMCSA · Summary of Hours of Service Regulations · accessed 15 Aug 2026
- FMCSA · Interstate Truck Driver's Guide to Hours of Service (Apr 2022) · accessed 15 Aug 2026
- eCFR (GPO/OFR) · 49 CFR Part 395 — Hours of Service of Drivers · 49 CFR Part 395 · accessed 15 Aug 2026
Re-verified quarterly. Educational summary — the regulation controls. Not legal advice.
Found a broken link? Tell us.
One flat 12%, and a dispatcher who answers.
We plan the week around your hours and your equipment — and we keep the compliance calendar so it stops ambushing you.