- If you have spent more than 8 consecutive hours on duty since your last off-duty (or sleeper-berth) period of at least 30 minutes, you must take an off-duty or sleeper berth break of at least 30 minutes before driving.
The break does not have to be spent resting. “The driver must be off duty for at least a half hour. Meal breaks or any other off-duty time of at least 30 minutes qualifies as a break. Drivers carrying certain explosives, who are required to attend the vehicle at all times, are allowed to count attendance time, which is on duty, toward the break if they do no other work during that time.
Any off-duty or sleeper-berth period of 30 minutes or more will meet the requirement.
- No changes were made to the basic rule of 11 hours of drive time. However, with the requirement of the 30-minute break, the effective use of the 14-hour duty day has been reduced to 13.5 hours.
- Time spent waiting to be loaded or unloaded is on-duty time and COUNTS toward your 14-hour max. unless the driver has been released from all responsibility for the truck. Except for drivers attending loads of certain explosives, on-duty time cannot be considered as a break.
- The definition of on-duty time has changed. It will no longer include “any time resting in a parked vehicle, or up to 2 hours in the passenger seat of a moving property-carrying CMV, immediately before or after 8 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth.”
For team drivers: “this rule continues to require drivers to take 8 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth and allows them to take an additional 2 hours in the passenger seat when the vehicle is moving, without artificially confining them to the sleeper berth for the entire 10-hour period. This provides team drivers an opportunity to “keep the truck moving” as much as possible, by having driver A drive for 10 hours while driver B obtains a full daily rest period without having to stay in the sleeper berth for 10 straight hours.”
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