Commercial freight haulers must understand all DOT driving hour requirements, including the 16- and 14-hour limits. Other than preventing severe fines and penalties, according to DOT driving hour limits, these are crucial for the safety of other drivers and yourself.
If you want to know what these 14- and 16-hour rules are, this post will dive deeper into these two guidelines and some additional DOT driving requirements.
What Are the DOT Driving Hours?
Federal guidelines known as the DOT driving hours apply to interstate freight drivers. To avoid burnout and driver fatigue, they place restrictions on the number of hours a truck driver can operate their vehicle or perform any work-related tasks. This keeps drivers from operating heavy vehicles on the road while they are fatigued.
In addition to ensuring driver safety, strict adherence to DOT driving hour requirements is necessary to prevent incurring severe fines and penalties. For instance, if a police officer witnesses you driving while distracted and looks through your logbook to find that you have been driving too long, you may be subject to further fines and a penalty from your carrier company in addition to possible penalties from the government.
Why Are These Regulations in Place?
In simple terms, the DOT sets restrictions on driving hours to reduce collisions.
Operating a sizable vehicle, such as a typical freight truck, entails significant accountability. Given the size of the cars, careless driving can cause serious collisions that cause serious injuries or even fatalities.
Truck drivers should therefore only operate a vehicle when they possess the necessary stamina and focus safely. Unfortunately, the trucking sector strongly encourages extended periods of driving since truck drivers typically earn more money the more miles they drive.
Regardless of skill level, all freight drivers must abide by DOT driving laws to reduce that risk. When driving in interstate commerce, all drivers must abide by these restrictions. Even drivers who engage in intrastate trade are nonetheless subject to hourly and state-specific driving restrictions.
You can keep track of the number of hours you log on duty at once and the days you work in a row by using an electronic logging device or ELD. In addition to tracking your on-duty time, an ELD can also be used to track your relaxation periods.
What Are The Different Regulations?
There are several important guidelines that you should constantly remember to follow. Let’s check out the most significant DOT driving hour rules.
14-Hour
The 14-hour rule is a rigid restriction that forbids freight drivers from operating a vehicle (or, more precisely, from working) until 10 consecutive hours passed after they begin their shift, or after the 14th consecutive hour (or 840 consecutive minutes) of duty.
To put it another way, under no circumstances can you work for more than 14 hours straight. It makes no difference if you are running late or are transporting a load that is delicate or sensitive to temperature. You are required to take a 10-hour uninterrupted break after 14 hours.
To put it briefly, any work you perform on your truck or related to your work counts as “on duty.” As a result, you are still on duty if you inspect your vehicle, complete your logbook, or make client calls. It is crucial to understand what the Department of Transportation considers to be “on duty” and “off-duty.”
After working or being on duty for 14 hours straight, you are not allowed to engage in those activities for 10 hours. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s hours of service regulations stipulate that you must stop for a half-hour after eight hours of driving. Both long- and short-haul operators of commercial motor vehicles are covered by these.
The 11-hour driving limit and the 14-hour on-duty limit are closely related. According to this, freight drivers are not permitted to drive for more than eleven hours after ten hours off-duty. You could, for instance, work for three hours after driving for eleven hours nonstop (checking your car, filling out documents, etc.).
If your truck has a sleeper berth, you can take that break in it, but the HOS requirements require it to be a distinct compartment.
16-Hour
The 16-hour rule is an exception to the previously stated 14-hour rule. Stated differently, property-carrying drivers are qualified to work 16 hours instead of 14 if they completed their workdays at the same location for the prior workweek (or the preceding five workdays). This is designed to allow drivers to finish more paperwork or perform more maintenance at a home base.
Keep in mind that the 11-hour driving limit is still valid despite the 16-hour regulation. Even now, you can only drive for eleven hours nonstop before needing to take a ten-hour break. The 16-hour guideline merely provides you with a little more time to work on career-related non-driving tasks.
A commercial driver who has benefited from this exemption must be dismissed from duty after the 16-hour time has elapsed. Furthermore, you are only permitted to use the 16-hour exception once every 34-hour restart cycle, regardless of what is stated in your driving contract.
In addition, drivers may be eligible for the short-haul exception, which spares them from using electronic logging devices (ELDs) to track their activities, if they operate within 150 air miles of their regular reporting location and do not go over the 14-hour maximum on-duty period.
Interstate Vs Intrastate
First of all, it’s important to understand the difference between the traffic law of intrastate and interstate.
There is interstate commerce among the states. If you transport freight between states or the other way around, you are involved in interstate commerce. Only transactions inside the same state are considered intrastate. If you pick up a load in one location and deliver it in another, and both locations are in the same state, then you are engaging in intrastate commerce.
All that is required of you if you engage in intrastate business is adherence to the motor carrier safety laws of your state. For instance, Texas allows you to drive for 12 hours after eight hours of rest or off-duty time, although the federal DOT Hours of Service requirements only permit you to drive for 11 hours.
Exception For Adverse Driving Conditions
One exception to be aware of is the poor driving circumstances. This means that truck drivers are allowed to add two hours to both the 11-hour driving restriction and 14-hour duty window in case of poor driving conditions.
For instance, you can drive for up to 13 hours straight instead of 11 if there is a snowstorm during the long haul freight session, allowing you to meet your deadline.
Tips For Following DOT Regulations
Always maintain a thorough logbook of your driving hours to comply with DOT driving hour rules. In this manner, you may monitor the amount of time you have left in the driving window and the amount of time you have until you can resume operating a vehicle.
Additionally, you should never attempt to “combine” driving windows, meaning that you should never drive for 11 hours in the late part of one day and then drive from midnight until eleven in the morning the following day. Since you have to take a 10-hour break in between the two work sessions, doing so is against the DOT’s driving hour requirements.
Different regulations apply to how long drivers who transport passengers can work or be on duty.
Final Notes
If you wish to keep your driver’s license and avoid facing severe penalties, you must abide by the DOT driving hour limits.
After all, DOT driving standards allow you to have adequate time to rest and recover after a long day of driving and keep you and other drivers safe.
Check out our free resources if you want to learn more about DOT’s Driving Hours:
