An Introduction to Simplified Trucking Regulations

It’s been over a year since the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration implemented their new Hour of Service rules and the industry is still reeling. Industry representatives continue to call for clarification, with little guidance on how to remain compliant with the new regulations. To help TTS agents,carriers and customers, I am taking a stab at putting the FMCSA’s guidance into layman’s terms. Please bookmark this page as I will continue to make updates over the coming months.

First, and foremost, we must understand the new definitions of on-duty and off-duty time, as well as commercial vehicles, and interstate commerce versus intrastate commerce.

Essentially,on-duty is any time dedicated to making money, whether that’s driving, taking care of the vehicle (e.g. pumping gas/dealing with a breakdown, etc.), securing a load, doing paperwork, or even working a second job. Whereasoff-duty is time dedicated to relaxing,such as sleeping, spending time with family, or doing hobbies (remember, you can’t be paid for the hobby.)

Different regulations apply depending on if you conduct interstate versus intrastate commerce. If a company only transports goods within a single state and never crosses state lines, then they are exempt from following the federal hours of service rules. Rather, their activities would be regulated on a state level.If a company conducts interstate commerce, they are bound by the federal hours of service rules.

In terms of how the regulations define commercial vehicles, they note that they must be trucks or tractor-trailers involved in interstate commerce and:

• whose gross vehicle weight or combination rate rating is 10,000 pounds or more; or,
• are transporting hazardous materials in a quantity requiring placards.

With these definitions in mind, we can now discuss the hours a commercial truck driver is allowed to work.

Each day,drivers have a 14 hour window to drive up to 11 hours.This means that within 14 hours, drivers should have ample time to drive 11 hours and take breaks to prevent driver fatigue. In addition, drivers are required to take a 30 minute break within the first 8 hours of driving. If they drive less than 8 hours, they are allowed to drive the entire distance without a break.

Once 14 hours have passed, they are required to stop and get at least 10 hours of rest,or off-duty time, before starting again. So, if a driver begins their workday at 8 am, but doesn’t start driving until 5 pm, they are still required to stop driving at 10 pm.

Each week, drivers are allowed either 60 hours of on-duty time within a seven day period, or 70 hours within an eight day period.To qualify for the 70/8 day period, the company for which the driver works must operate vehicles every day of the week. If the company does not operate vehicles every day, then their drivers can only qualify to work the 60/7 day period.

Both the 60/7 and 70/8 are based on rolling weeks where each day starts a new “week.” The idea here is to allow for continuous weeks.

Take the example of a rolling week. The total number of hours at the end of the week is less than 60. So, on the following Monday, the previous Monday’s hours fall off and the driver can work up to 11 hours again. Basically, as long as the driver keeps their on-duty time below 60 hours in a 7 day period or 70 hours in an 8 day period, they can drive every day.

If the driver maxes out their hours, they are required to rest for a full 34 hours. This is called the 34 hour restart.

Take the example of a maxed-out week.

In this example, the hours have been maxed out. The driver will rest for approximately a day and a half before driving again. However, there are, of course, a couple of stipulations:

1. The 34 hour restart includes 2 nights of rest between 1 am to 5 am

Let’s say the driver stops on Sunday at 1pm. Under this rule, the driver will not be allowed to drive again until Tuesday morning at 5 am in order to include the two nights of rest. So, even though 34 hours are technically up at 10 pm on Monday, the driver has to wait until 5 am on Tuesday to begin the next week.

2. The 34 hour restart can only be used once per 168 hours

Let’s say the driver starts their week at 5 am on Monday and maxes out their hours by Friday at 8 pm. Only 85 hours have passed since they began their on-duty time. The driver has to wait another 83 hours before they can begin their 34-hour restart (Monday at 9 am) – AND they aren’t allowed to do any work while waiting. So, the driver will essentially be unable to work from Friday at 8 pm to Wednesday at 5 am.

From the 34-hour restart to the regulated driving periods, these regulations represent the ground-level of the FMCSA’s Hours of Service rules. In my upcoming blogs, we will delve into the intricacies of exceptions, along with driving log requirements and electronic logging devices, so stay tuned!