The hours-of-service rules are the part of this rulebook a working driver meets most often, and the whole of § 395.3 rests on two terms § 395.2 defines carefully. Driving time is all time spent at the driving controls of a commercial motor vehicle in operation. On-duty time is much broader: all time from when a driver begins work, or is required to be in readiness to work, until relieved from work and from all responsibility for performing work — which expressly includes waiting to be dispatched at a terminal or shipper, and time spent inspecting or servicing the vehicle. The distinction is the reason two drivers can spend the same hours at work and have very different amounts of driving left.

For a driver of a property-carrying vehicle, § 395.3 then sets the day’s shape. You may not drive without first taking 10 consecutive hours off duty. Once you come on duty after that break, a 14-consecutive-hour window opens, and you may not drive after it closes — the window runs on the clock, not on how much of it you spend driving. Inside that window you may drive a total of 11 hours. And driving is not permitted once more than 8 hours of driving time have passed without at least a consecutive 30-minute interruption of driving status, which can be satisfied by off-duty time, sleeper-berth time, on-duty-not-driving time, or a combination.

Two longer limits sit on top of the daily ones. You may not drive after being on duty 60 hours in any 7 consecutive days if your carrier does not run vehicles every day of the week, or 70 hours in any 8 consecutive days if it does — which of the two applies to you is a fact about the carrier, not a choice you make. Either period may end with the beginning of an off-duty period of 34 or more consecutive hours, which is what drivers mean when they talk about restarting the clock. The panel gathers the numbers. Exceptions exist and matter — § 395.3 opens by deferring to § 395.1, which carries the short-haul and adverse-driving provisions — and Chapter 7 takes the whole envelope apart including those. How the hours are recorded, on paper or by electronic logging device, is Chapter 8.