Quick Reference

Off duty before driving

Consecutive hours off duty required before a property-carrying driver may drive at all.

The window

Opens when you come on duty after the required rest and runs on wall time. It does not stop for loading, waiting or meals, and no driving is permitted once it closes.

Driving inside the window

Total driving time available within the 14-hour window — a separate limit that can be unused when the window shuts.

Driving before a break

Driving time after which no further driving is permitted until a 30-minute interruption of driving status has been taken.

The interruption

Consecutive minutes of non-driving status — off duty, sleeper berth, on-duty not driving, or a combination.

On duty in 7 days

Applies where the employing carrier does NOT operate commercial motor vehicles every day of the week. Which limit applies is a fact about the carrier, not a choice.

On duty in 8 days

Applies where the carrier does operate every day of the week.

The restart

Consecutive hours off duty that may end a 7- or 8-day period, restarting the weekly count.

Short-haul radius

The radius of the normal work reporting location within which the short-haul exceptions can apply. Both exceptions remove the record, not the driving limits.

Adverse conditions

Additional driving time available to a driver who encounters adverse driving conditions and cannot safely complete the run within the normal limits.

To submit your log

Within which the driver must submit the record of duty status to the carrier, counted from the 24-hour period it covers. Supporting documents run on the same clock.

Logs in your possession

The previous consecutive days of records a driver must have on hand and available for inspection while on duty.

Carrier retention

Minimum period a carrier retains records of duty status and their supporting documents, from the date of receipt.

Not more than 8 in 30

A carrier may keep a driver on paper rather than an electronic logging device where a record of duty status is needed on not more than 8 days in any 30-day period.

Malfunction notice

Within which a driver must give the carrier WRITTEN notice that the electronic logging device has malfunctioned.

Reconstruction

Previous consecutive days to reconstruct on graph-grid paper after a malfunction, plus the current 24-hour period — unless the records are already held or retrievable.

Carrier repair

Within which the carrier must act to correct the malfunction, running from its own discovery or the driver’s notification, whichever comes first.

Extension request

Within which a carrier needing longer than 8 days to correct an electronic logging device malfunction must notify the FMCSA Division Administrator, running from the driver’s notification.

The testing-program prohibition

Alcohol concentration at or above which a driver may not report for or remain on duty performing safety-sensitive functions.

The stand-down band begins

From 0.02 up to but not including 0.04, a driver tested under the program is kept off safety-sensitive functions rather than found in violation of the 0.04 rule.

Minimum stand-down

Inside the 0.02-to-0.04 band, and until the start of the driver’s next regularly scheduled duty period — whichever is longer.

Pre-duty use

After using alcohol, before performing any safety-sensitive function.

At the wheel, the stricter rule

§ 392.5 prohibits ANY measured concentration or detected presence of alcohol while on duty or in physical control — no threshold at all — and places the driver out of service for 24 hours. Clearing the testing-program figures above does not clear this.

Post-accident: to be CITED

Window within which a citation for a moving traffic violation makes the post-accident ALCOHOL test required, where the accident involved injury with immediate treatment away from the scene or a tow-away. A fatality requires testing with no citation at all.

Post-accident: to be TESTED

A different clock sharing the same figure. If the alcohol test has not been administered within 8 hours of the accident the employer must cease attempts and record why; at 2 hours it must record why it was not yet done.

Post-accident: controlled substances

Both the citation window for the controlled substances test and the deadline after which attempts cease.

Clearinghouse visibility

Since the violation determination — one of four conditions that must ALL be met before a violation stops being released to employers querying the database.

A refusal reaches all of them

Pre-employment, post-accident, random, reasonable suspicion, return-to-duty and follow-up. Refusing any of the six is prohibited conduct in its own right, not a declined procedure.

Commercial learner’s permit

Minimum age to hold a commercial learner’s permit. Not the same figure as the qualification age below, and § 3.3 is where the two are reconciled: different thresholds for different things, not a conflict.

To be QUALIFIED

First of the seven conditions of being a qualified driver. A driver can hold a permit at 18 and not be qualified to drive in interstate commerce under Part 391.

The safety-regulation line

Gross vehicle or combination weight rating, or actual weight, whichever is greater — the weight at which the federal safety regulations reach a vehicle.

The license line

Where the commercial driver’s license definition begins, far above the safety-regulation line. A vehicle can be fully inside the safety regulations and need no license.

Below the weight line

Designed to transport 16 or more passengers including the driver — one of two routes that require a license regardless of weight. Placardable hazardous materials is the other.

Passing a knowledge test

Minimum proportion of questions an applicant must answer correctly on each knowledge test.

Endorsements

Double/triple trailers, tank vehicle and hazardous materials are tested by knowledge alone; passenger and school bus add a skills test.

To obtain the driving record

Within which the carrier must obtain the driver’s motor vehicle record after employment begins.

Reach of the checks

How far back the initial record inquiry and the safety performance history investigation reach.

The annual cycle

Between annual record inquiries, and between annual reviews of the driving record.

Medical certificate

Maximum gap between medical examinations. A shorter certificate may be issued, and the certificate is not the license — they expire on different clocks.

First major offense

First conviction of a major offense while operating a commercial motor vehicle. Convictions in your OWN vehicle count toward the same table.

First, carrying hazardous materials

Where the commercial motor vehicle was transporting hazardous materials at the time of the violation.

Second major offense

Second conviction, in a separate incident, of any combination of major offenses. Two offenses — the controlled-substance felony and the trafficking-in-persons felony — are life on a first conviction and are not eligible for reinstatement.

Possible reinstatement

After which a State MAY reinstate a lifetime disqualification, on completion of an approved rehabilitation program. A permission held by the State, not a driver’s entitlement.

Second serious violation

Serious traffic violations disqualify only on a SECOND conviction, in a separate incident, within a 3-year period. A third or subsequent within that period carries 120 days.

Periodic inspection

Every commercial motor vehicle must have passed an inspection within the preceding 12 months, with documentation ON the vehicle. Each unit in a combination counts separately — tractor, semitrailer and full trailer each.

Inspection report retention

How long a carrier keeps the driver vehicle inspection report, the certification of repairs and the certification of the driver’s review.

Roadside certification

Within which the carrier must certify that violations noted on a roadside inspection report have been corrected. The completed form is retained for 12 months from the inspection date.

First cargo check

Within which a driver of a truck or truck tractor must inspect the cargo and its securement after beginning a trip. Re-examination follows at whichever comes first of a duty-status change, 3 hours, or 150 miles.

Warning devices

Within which warning devices must be placed after stopping on the traveled portion of a highway or its shoulder. The hazard flashers go on IMMEDIATELY — a separate duty with no grace period.