Maximum Driving Hours for Truckers Explained

Driver fatigue is a common and preventable cause of serious commercial truck crashes. To combat it, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) enforces strict limits on how long a commercial truck driver may drive and work before resting. These rules, known as the Hours-of-Service (HOS) regulations, are codified at 49 C.F.R. Part 395. For anyone injured in a crash with a semi-truck, tractor-trailer, or other commercial motor vehicle in Nevada, it’s worth understanding these limits, because when a case moves into full litigation, a documented violation can become a significant piece of evidence against the trucking company or driver.

The Core Federal Driving-Time Limits

Under 49 C.F.R. § 395.3, property-carrying commercial drivers must follow four interlocking rules:

• 11-Hour Driving Limit: A driver may drive a maximum of 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty.
• 14-Hour On-Duty Window: Driving is not permitted beyond the 14th consecutive hour after a driver first comes on duty, even if the driver takes breaks during that window. Once the 14-hour clock runs out, no more driving is allowed until another 10-hour off-duty period is taken.
• 30-Minute Break Rule: Drivers must take a 30-minute break after 8 cumulative hours of driving before continuing.
• 60/70-Hour Limit: A driver cannot drive after accumulating 60 hours on duty in 7 consecutive days, or 70 hours in 8 consecutive days (depending on the carrier’s operating schedule). This cycle can be reset with 34 consecutive hours off duty.

Drivers using a sleeper berth may split their required off-duty time under specific provisions, and short-haul drivers who stay within a 150 air-mile radius of their home terminal and return within 14 hours may qualify for limited exceptions. Narrow exceptions also exist for adverse driving conditions, such as unexpected weather or traffic, which can extend the driving and duty windows by up to two hours. Outside of these defined exceptions, however, the limits are firm and enforced through Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs), which have been federally mandated since 2017 to create a tamper-resistant record of a driver’s hours.

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Why Hours-of-Service Violations Matter in a Nevada Injury Claim

Fatigued driving slows reaction time, impairs judgment, and increases stopping distances, all of which are magnified when the vehicle involved weighs tens of thousands of pounds. Violation of time limits may be evidence of negligence by the driver.

Nevada also incorporates the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations directly into state law. Nevada Revised Statutes 706.173 and Nevada Administrative Code 706.297 adopt significant portions of the FMCSRs for carriers operating in the state, giving state regulators and, by extension, injured plaintiffs a clear statutory basis for holding drivers and carriers to the federal standard.

Building the Evidence

This evidence sits almost entirely on the defense side of the case. ELD data, dispatch records, and internal scheduling communications generally aren’t available to a plaintiff on request. They come out, if at all, through a subpoena or formal discovery request after a lawsuit is filed. For that reason, HOS evidence is rarely what a truck accident case is built around from the start; it tends to surface later, once a claim is already in litigation and the case has independent grounds to get there. When it is obtained, these evidence shows the following:

• ELD data: showing the driver’s actual drive time, on-duty time, and rest periods.
• Paper or electronic Records of Duty Status (RODS): for drivers exempt from ELDs.
• Dispatch and load records: which can reveal whether a carrier scheduled a route that was impossible to complete within legal hours.
• Onboard “black box” (Event Data Recorder) data: which can corroborate speed and braking in the moments before a crash.

Because electronic records can be overwritten or purged in the normal course of business, prompt legal action matters. Attorneys routinely send spoliation/evidence-preservation letters to the trucking company immediately after a crash to prevent the loss of ELD logs, dispatch communications, and maintenance records that might otherwise disappear before a lawsuit is filed.

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Who Can Be Held Liable

An HOS violation rarely implicates only the driver. Under the doctrine of respondeat superior, a trucking company is generally liable for a driver’s negligence committed within the scope of employment. Beyond vicarious liability, a carrier can also face direct liability for negligent hiring, training, supervision, or dispatching if it pressured a driver to exceed legal hours, ignored a pattern of HOS violations, or failed to maintain functioning ELDs.

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The Bottom Line

Hours-of-Service violations are not the foundation most truck accident claims are built on. In the majority of cases, this evidence is never obtained at all, since it sits with the trucking company and typically only comes out through discovery once a case is already in litigation. But when it is obtained, it can make a real difference: a documented violation of the 11-hour, 14-hour, 30-minute break, or 60/70-hour rules can support a negligence claim, and strengthen the case against the motor carrier directly. Because there’s no way to know at the outset whether a given case will reach that point, attorneys handling commercial truck crashes routinely send preservation letters as a standard first step, before ELD logs, dispatch records, or maintenance history can be lost or overwritten.