• Time spent by the driver of a passenger-carrying CMV resting in a parked vehicle can be logged as “off-duty” time, which can be excluded from the 15- and 60/70-hour time limits.
• Time spent riding in the passenger seat of a moving CMV must be logged as “on duty” unless the travel-time exception applies.

Parked vehicle

Drivers of passenger-carrying commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) can log time spent resting in or on a parked vehicle as “off duty” and can exclude that time from the 15- and 60/70-hour calculations. Spending 8 consecutive hours resting in a passenger seat of a parked vehicle allows a driver a fresh 10 hours of driving time.

Moving vehicle

Time spent riding in a passenger seat of a moving vehicle must be logged as “on duty” unless the travel-time exception applies. The travel-time exception provides that when a passenger-carrying CMV driver at the direction of the motor carrier is traveling, but not driving or assuming any other responsibility to the carrier, such time must be counted as on-duty time unless the driver is afforded at least eight consecutive hours off duty when arriving at destination, in which case the driver must be considered off duty for the entire period. (395.1(j)(2)).

Logging in-vehicle time

To summarize, drivers must be knowledgeable about how to log in-vehicle time:

• Time at the driving controls is “driving” (Line 3) except in the case of a driver who is allowed to use the “personal conveyance” exception.
• Time resting in a passenger seat on a parked vehicle is “off duty” (Line 1).
• Time spent working on the vehicle or while sitting in a passenger seat (e.g., doing paperwork, etc.) is “on duty” (Line 4).
• Time riding or resting in a passenger seat on a moving vehicle is “on duty” (Line 4), except in the case of the “travel time” exception in 395.1(j)(2).
• Time spent in a sleeper berth that complies with 393.76 is “sleeper berth” time (Line 2).