Peak Hours of Service reminder

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Hours of Service (HOS) regulations set limits for when and how long a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) driver can operate a vehicle. HOS on-duty/off-duty (§395.2) definitions include:

Off-duty time: Any time that is not “driving time,” “on-duty time,” or “sleeper berth” as defined in the FMCSA regulations.

Driving time: All time spent at the driving controls of a CMV in operation, including delays in traffic.

On-duty time: All time from the moment a driver begins to work or is required to be ready to work until the time the driver is relieved from all responsibility for performing work.

The HOS Peak update reviews drive time rules listed in 49 CFR Part 395, including:

• 10-hour

• 11-hour

• 14-hour

• 30-minute break

• 70-hour

An example of the 70 hours in eight days’ rule is shown in the table below. The driver has accumulated a total of 67 on-duty (driving and on-duty) hours in an eight-day period. If this driver is operating on the 70-hours/eight-days rule, he/she would be in compliance with the HOS rules in this example. Once the driver reaches the 70-hour mark, the driver cannot drive the commercial motor vehicle (CMV) until he/she has taken enough off-duty hours to operate again. In this particular example, when the driver reaches the ninth day of the cycle (the second Monday), the hours from Day one of the cycle (the first Sunday) would drop off, and the driver would then be calculating his or her hours for Days two through nine (Monday–Monday).

In order to reduce invalid hours of service violations, all times should be entered in the STAR IV scanner in military (24-hour) format. This includes on-duty, dispatch, return, off-duty times, and others. The Pickup & Delivery application was updated to reflect this change with version 12.4.