Hours of Service Crash Course: General Rules, Exemptions and Split Sleeper

hey guys welcome back to another video happy monday for us this past week has been rough on so many levels and today was just the cherry on top but you know what i say roll with the punches and take it a day at a time so today's video is going to be a little bit different i will actually be showing you guys a very long video a crash course that i made on hours of service now this is part of my dispatching course that i made about two years ago so you'll see that i'm referring to drivers as clients because that's what they are for a dispatcher but this hours of service video should be able to help you whether you're a newbie in this industry and are just learning about this stuff or whether you're seasoned in this industry and just trying to brush up or understand some concepts now what prompted me to do this video well a couple of days ago i was talking to one of our team members about potentially using a split shift in order to make an early delivery and of course like a normal human being he asked me what kind of time he will get back on a split shift and i blinked blinked must be code for my brain doesn't work 97 of the time because i'm a and i don't want to admit it split shifts can be very tricky and it takes me a very long time to figure out what kind of time is coming back what is not coming back so i decided to make this video not just for you guys but also for me to reference whenever this kind of question gets asked ready let's go there are a few important terms i want to go over before diving into the topic of hours of service first there is the on duty time this is anytime a driver is working or has a job responsibility things like pre-trip and post-trip inspections refueling maintenance and so on are considered on duty times drive time refers to the time the driver spends behind the wheel anytime your client is driving he must record it as drive time off-duty time is when the driver is off work and has no job responsibilities off-duty time can be anything from eating breakfast at a restaurant to going to the movies or going home finally sleeper birth sleeper birth is any time that the driver spends in the bunk area of the truck to sleep or rest now let's talk about time limits first there's the 14 hour limit a driver has a 14 hour window to be on duty once this time has passed the driver has to take 10 consecutive hours of rest after the 10 hours of rest the 14 hour limit is replenished the 14 hour limit includes any on duty or drive time next there's the 11 hour driving period a driver has 11 hours available to drive within the 14 hour period once this time has passed the driver cannot drive again until they have 10 hours of consecutive rest the 11 hour drive period only applies to drive time then there's the 30 minute break a driver cannot operate a truck for more than eight consecutive hours without taking a 30 minute break this break must be recorded as on duty off duty or sleeper birth in other words a driver can drive a maximum of 8 hours straight before having to rest for 30 minutes they cannot drive during the 30-minute break finally the 60-hour 7-day or 70-hour 8-day limit a driver can choose to work meaning be on duty or drive 60 hours in a seven day period or 70 hours in an eight day period after this time has passed the driver cannot drive anymore without taking at least 34 consecutive hours of duty which is called a restart we will get into this concept in just a few minutes let's look at the 14 hour limit once a driver switches to on duty the 14 hour clock starts there is no way to pause or stop the clock once it starts ticking down this means that even if your client stops 5 minutes after going on duty the clock will still continue to run down now this is true unless your client takes a split sleeper shift we will go into that later in the lesson now the driver must be off duty or in sleeper birth 14 hours after the start of the clock in order to stay in compliance let's look at this example here is an example of a log your client is off duty from midnight to 4 am at 4 am he is on duty when does this 14-hour clock run out well it runs out 14 hours later which is at 6 00 p.m at 6 p.m your client must be either off duty or in sleeper berth in order to be compliant now let's talk about the 11 hour driving period within the 14 hour limit the driver has 11 hours to drive once a driver switches to driving the 11 hour clock starts unlike the 14 hour limit the 11 hour drive clock will stop when the driver is not driving here is the example of the log we just saw the driver started his on-duty time at 4 00 am which means that the 14 hour clock will run out 14 hours later at 6 00 pm within this time period the driver has 11 hours to drive now what happens if the driver begins his drive time at 1pm even though he was on duty since 4 am this means that he only has 5 hours of drive time his 14 14-hour clock started ticking down from four in the morning and therefore must end at six in the evening because he cannot drive past the 14-hour shift he is only allowed to drive until 6 pm which gives him 5 hours of drive time now let's take a look at the 30 minute break rule a driver must take a 30 minute break after 8 hours of consecutive driving that being said a driver may take the break before eight hours but not after if he was driving for seven hours straight and takes the 30 minute break he is in compliance he cannot however drive 8 hours and 5 minutes and then take a 30 minute break he will be violating his hours of service unfortunately the 30 minute break still counts against the 14 hour clock remember the 14-hour clock cannot be stopped once it starts here is our log example again again the driver starts his on-duty time at four in the morning and has 14 hours to complete his work day his time runs out at 6 pm within this time he has 11 hours of drive time available so how is the 30 minute break recorded well it can be recorded as off-duty time it can also be recorded as sleeper birth time or on duty time now something to note the 30 minute break does not count against drive time remember drive time is only recorded when a driver is actually driving now let's take a look at an example here is our blank log we will fill it out together today is may 4th 2020. from 12 am to 10 am jack is sleeping and turned on sleeper birth at 10 am jack switches on to on duty to perform a pre-trip inspection at 10 15 am jack starts driving after eight hours of consecutive driving jack takes a 30 minute break off duty at 6 15 pm at 6 45 pm jack resumes driving until 9 45 pm when his drive time runs out at 9 45 pm jack goes into sleeper berth to take his rest now let's break it down the 14 hour clock started at 10 am when jack went on duty this means that the 14 hour clock will run out at 12 am jack started driving at 10 15 a.m he has eight consecutive hours of driving time allowed before he has to take a 30-minute break this means the 30-minute break must be taken at or before 6 15 pm after the break he has another three hours remaining of drive time for a total of 11 hours now let's calculate the hours the total off-duty time on this log is 30 minutes which occurred when jack took the 30-minute break the total sleeper birth time was 12 hours and 15 minutes he was in sleeper berth from 12 a.m to 10 a.m which is 10 hours and then again from 9 45 p.m to 12 a.m for two hours and 15 minutes the total drive time was 11 hours first from 10 15 a.m to 6 15 p.m and then again from 6 45 p.m to 9 45 p.m the total on duty time was 15 minutes from 10 a.m to 10 15 a.m when jack was doing his pre-trip inspection so what are the total hours worked on this day it's the drive time plus the on duty time so the total time was 11 hours and 15 minutes simply remember the drive time plus on duty time should always be 14 hours or less because of the 14 hour work limit now that you're familiar with the general hours of service rules let's dive into a short video explaining the 60-hour 7-day rule and the 70-hour 8-day rule a carrier has the choice the carrier can choose to either operate 60 hours in a 7-day period or they can operate 70 hours in an 8 day period so what does that mean that means that if the client if your client is using the 67 rule which is 60 hours 7 days that means they cannot be on duty plus driving for more than 60 hours in a period of 7 days if your client is using the 70 hour 8 day rule that means that they cannot be on duty plus driving for more than 70 hours in a period of eight days so let's see how this works so let's say your client is using the 60 hour seven day rule and they have been on vacation for two weeks and today they're ready to hit the road again so because your client has not been driving for two weeks that means their cycle is fully replenished they have a total of 60 hours to work in seven days so the cycle at the start of the day is 60 hours perfect so that day he's on duty for three hours total and he's driving for a total of 10 hours and 30 minutes that day so the total time he spent working is the on duty time plus the drive time so that means he was working for 13 hours and 30 minutes total so the cycle at the end of the day would be 46 hours and 30 minutes why 46 hours and 30 minutes because he had 60 hours to start but then he used up 13 hours and 30 minutes from that day from the cycle so now 60 hours minus 13 hours and 30 minutes equals 46 hours and 30 minutes so far hopefully it makes sense on day two your client is starting with 46 hours and 30 minutes why because that's what he ended with on day one he hasn't worked since the end of day one so he's starting with the same amount that was left after the end of the day on day one now on this day his total on duty time is two hours and then he drives 10 hours which means that his total time was 12 hours working why because 2 plus 10 equals 12 um so pretty simple so the cycle at the end of the day will be 34 hours and 30 minutes why because he started with 46 hours and 30 minutes but then he used up 12 hours from this amount which leaves him with 34 hours and 30 minutes so now day three he starts with 34 hours and 30 minutes now his on duty time on day three was four hours and his total drive time was 10 hours so he used up his whole time allocated which is 14 hours again on duty time plus drive time equals the total so how much is he left with at the end of the day well he's left with 20 hours and 30 minutes so on day 4 he starts his time with 20 hours and 30 minutes available to him then he works 3 hours and 15 minutes on duty and on top of it he drives 10 hours that day so he worked a total of 13 hours and 15 minutes perfect so what is he left with now now he's only left with seven hours and 15 minutes in his cycle so the next day on day 5 he starts with 7 hours and 15 minutes he works on duty for only 1 hour and he drives for 4 hours and 15 minutes that day perfect so he worked a total of five hours and 15 minutes so what is he left with at the end of the day well he had seven hours 15 minutes he used up five hours and 15 minutes which means he's left with two hours total in his cycle on day six he starts with two hours in his cycle he works on duty for two hours and he doesn't drive at all that day so he worked a total of two hours so now he's left with zero hours in his cycle he used up all the 60 hours that were allocated to him during the period of seven days and he used them up in a span of six days so what does he do now on day seven well he has two options option one is he can go ahead and once he finishes up with day six he can take a 34 hour restart which means he has to spend 34 hours off duty or in the sleeper birth consecutively so that means without any interruption he has to rest for 34 hours and after that time has passed he will get his full 60 hours back then other thing he could do is he can just choose to not work on day seven because he can't he has no cycle remaining so we'll put in zeros here and then on day eight he can go ahead and choose to work so how does he do that well it's pretty simple so because the 60 hour seven day rule applies to the seven days that means on day eight it's already not within the first seven days where the time is allocated the sixty hours so what happens on day eight well day one falls off it falls off and the time that was worked on day one is returned to your client so on day one the time worked was 13 hours and 30 minutes which means that now he has 13 hours and 30 minutes available to him perfect so that day he works one hour on duty and then he drives for 7 hours and 30 minutes so the total time he spent working is 8 hours and 30 minutes perfect and he is now left with five hours because he got back his total work time from day one because day one doesn't count anymore and then he worked eight hours and 30 minutes which means 13 and a half minus eight and a half equals five hours so what happens on day nine well it works the same way on day nine he gets back the hours from day two because it drops off so why does it drop off well think about it let's go back to day eight so it's 60 hours in seven days day one two three four five six seven on day eight seven days starts at day two day two so this is one two three four five six seven so day one is kind of reimbursed back to your client so going back to day nine so the hours from day two that were worked are returned back to your client plus the hours that were left over from the previous day so he had five hours of the cycle remaining at the end of the day yesterday plus he's getting back 12 hours and zero minutes from day two which now falls off so that means he has a total of 17 hours on day nine to work and he works for four hours on duty drives for five hours and then that makes up a total of nine hours working that day so at the end of the day he has eight hours remaining so how does the 70 hour eight day rule work well it works in the same exact way as the 60 hour 7 day rule except for two differences now your client starts with 70 hours and he can drive 70 hours in a period of 8 days instead of 60 hours in a period of 7 days now let's talk about the most confusing topic related to hours of service the split sleeper birth do you remember how i said that a driver is required to take 10 hours of rest after working in order to get his full clock back well that is not always the case some drivers use the split sleeper birth provision drivers may choose to split or break up their 10 hours off duty one off-duty period whether it's in the sleeper birth or out of the sleeper birth must be at least two hours long the other period of at least seven consecutive hours must be spent in the sleeper birth the two split rest periods must add up to at least 10 hours when used together and this is a key term together neither time period counts against the 14 hour clock split sleeper birth time calculations can be very confusing so i will try to take it as slow as possible as you already know your client starts with 14 hours of shift time and 11 hours of drive time allocated to him if he had 10 hours of rest before this new shift let's say that he's on duty from 6 a.m to 7 a.m for a total of one hour this means that he used one hour of his shift time and therefore now has 13 hours available to him he didn't use up any drive time because he was on duty not driving he then drives from 7 am to 3 pm for a total of 8 hours this means that he used up another 8 hours of his shift time and eight hours of his drive time he now has five hours of shift time available because 13 hours minus eight is five and three hours of drive time available because 11 hours minus 8 is 3. instead of taking a 30-minute break your client decides to go into the sleeper berth to rest from 3 pm to 10 pm for a total of 7 hours these 7 hours will not count against the shift or drive time so they do not change the shift time is still 5 hours and the drive time is still 3 hours after his rest your client drives from 10 pm to 1 am for a total of 3 hours this means he used up 3 hours of his shift time which now puts him at 2 hours available and 3 hours of his drive time which puts him at zero hours available for driving he then goes off duty from 1am to 4am for a total of 3 hours at the end of this rest period all of a sudden he has 8 hours of shift time and 8 hours of drive time available why because his new 14 hour shift and 11 hour drive period start here after his first rest period from 3 pm to 10 pm the 14 hours and 11 hours are fully returned to him why because if you combine the two split periods the sleeper birth and light green and the off duty in dark green it amounts to a total of 10 hours which is what is required to meet the required rest period so why is it 8 hours of shift and 8 hours of drive instead of 14 hours of shift time and 11 hours of drive time because after the clock restarted he used three hours of drive time which counts against both the shift and the drive clock 11 drive hours three equals eight but wait he was given 14 hours of shift time he should have 11 hours left right no because the off-duty period right here which was three hours long counts against the shift hours so his total shift hours were actually six three hours of drive time and three hours off duty fourteen minus six is eight now your client decides to drive from 4 am to 12 pm for a total of 8 hours he is left with 0 hours in shift time and 0 hours in drive time at this point he takes a 7 hour sleeper birth period from 12 pm to 7 pm at the end of this period he gets 6 hours of shift time and 3 hours of drive time why because the clock restarts right here to 14 hours and 11 hours of drive time after the restart of the clock he drove 8 hours which also counts against his shift time 14 hours minus 8 hours is 6 hours and 11 drive hours minus 8 hours is 3 hours now that i have thoroughly confused you with this topic let's finish up this lesson with other rules you need to be familiar with first there is the adverse driving conditions drivers are allowed to extend the 11 hour drive limit and the 14 hour shift limit by up to two hours when adverse driving conditions are encountered so what are adverse driving conditions well it's when there's ice snow fog or sleet or other weather conditions or road conditions that were not known or could not reasonably be known to a driver if your client is driving from point a to point b and there is a fresh accident on the way that causes traffic this is considered an adverse driving condition now if your client is driving through denver colorado in january and the weather map shows that there is snow and ice this is not an adverse driving condition that can be used to extend the work hours why because using the weather map you know about the weather conditions in denver colorado next is personal conveyance personal convenience is the use and movement of a truck for personal use while off-duty this time is recorded as off-duty we will now look at when personal convenience is and is not appropriate to use what is considered personal conveyance first time spent traveling from a driver's on route lodging to restaurants and entertainment facilities so if your client is resting at a truck stop but then decides to go to a restaurant two miles down the road he can use personal conveyance time spent traveling to a nearby reasonable safe location to obtain required rest after loading or unloading if your client is out of hours but cannot find a safe parking spot he may use personal conveyance to find a safe place to park moving the truck at the request of a safety official during the driver's off duty hours if your client is parked in an illegal or dangerous spot during his rest period and an officer asks him to move he may do so using personal conveyance time spent transporting personal property while off-duty now this one is pretty self-explanatory finally authorized use of a truck to travel home if your client is using his truck to travel back home as long as he has no cargo in the trailer he may use personal conveyance now what is not considered a proper use of personal conveyance the movement of a truck to enhance the operational readiness of a driver if your client is bypassing truck stops and other rest areas to get closer to the loading or unloading facility he may not use personal conveyance continuing the trip in interstate commerce to fulfill a business purpose this is almost the same as the previous point your client may not use personal conveyance to make it on time to the shipper or receiver time spent driving a truck to a maintenance facility driving to get a truck serviced is considered on duty time personal conveyance cannot be used in this situation finally if placed out of service for exceeding the maximum period permitted time traveling to a rest facility unless the officer directs to do so if your client is placed out of service for hours of service violations he may not use personal conveyance to get the required rest unless directed by the officer hours of service something hours of service oh we're done oh thank god yeah i know this video was long i know it was brutal at some points but i hope that you found it helpful i hope you learned something new or brushed up on your skills and i will see you guys in the next video