Be Part of the Ultimate Safety & Compliance Community
Trending news, knowledge-building content, and more – all personalized to you!
For drivers of property-carrying commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) who drive locally, there is an exception to the 14-hour rule, which normally requires drivers to stop driving after the 14th consecutive hour of their workday.
This exception applies to drivers of property-carrying CMVs who need to drive beyond the normal 14-hour limit before returning to their work-reporting location.
The so-called “16-hour short-haul” or “big day” exception allows eligible drivers to extend the 14-hour period by up to two hours once per week. Under the exception, drivers must:
Note that a 34-hour restart will allow a driver to use this exception more than once every six days, but a restart will not affect the requirement that the driver must have returned to the normal work-reporting location for the previous five duty tours.
A driver who works but does not drive a CMV after the 14-hour limit has not used this exception. Drivers may do non-driving work after the 14-hour limit without need for an exception.