Hours of service calculator: how much driving you have left
Enter when you came on duty, what you have driven and your cycle hours. The hours of service calculator shows driving left, when to stop and which clock runs out first.
Defaults are an example shift: on duty at 06:00, 4.5 hours driven, 42 hours on the cycle.
DRIVING LEFT
6h 30m
Stop driving by 19:00
- 11-hour driving left
- 6h 30m
- 14-hour window ends
- 20:00
- 70-hour cycle left
- 28h 00m
- 30-min break due
- 15:30
You can drive 6h 30m more and must stop by 19:00. The 11-hour driving limit comes first. Take your 30-minute break by 15:30.
Assumes you drive nonstop from now and take the break off duty when due. Federal property-carrying limits only; exceptions and state intrastate rules can differ. A planning aid, not legal advice. Your ELD is the record.
POSTED: eCFR, 49 CFR 395.3(a)(3)(i) · checked Oct 2026
With 6h 30m of driving left, the next load has to fit the clock. Our dispatchers plan loads around your hours and home time. Dispatch runs 5% of gross for one truck, and you confirm every load.
By Nathan Beck · Updated October 2026
Every driver keeps four clocks in their head: the 11 hours of driving, the 14-hour window, the weekly cycle and the 30-minute break. Hours of service, or HOS, is the federal name for that set of rules. Your ELD shows where you stand now. This calculator answers the next question: if you roll from here, how long can you drive, and when do you need to be parked?
How many hours can a truck driver drive in a day?
Under federal rules, a property-carrying driver can drive up to 11 hours after 10 hours off duty in a row. Those hours must fit inside a 14-hour window that starts the moment you come on duty and keeps running, breaks and dock waits included. Once the window closes, you can still do on-duty work, but you cannot drive.
There is one more check inside the day. After 8 hours of driving without a break, you need a 30-minute break before you drive again. So the real answer to "how many hours can truckers drive a day" is: up to 11, if the window and your cycle allow it.
POSTED: eCFR, 49 CFR 395.3 (driving limits for property-carrying vehicles) · checked Oct 2026
How it is calculated
The tool works out each clock on its own, then plays your shift forward as if you drive nonstop from the time you enter:
- 11-hour clock: 11 hours minus the driving you have done this shift.
- 14-hour clock: your on-duty start plus 14 hours. Time left is that end time minus now.
- Cycle clock: 70 hours (or 60) minus the on-duty hours on your recap, today included.
- Break clock: 8 hours minus driving since your last 30-minute break. If you will reach 8 before another clock stops you, the tool slots a 30-minute off-duty break in at that point.
Driving left is the smaller of the 11-hour and cycle clocks, then trimmed so it ends inside the 14-hour window with the break counted. The clock that does the trimming is the one that stops you, outlined red in the stall graphic.
How many hours can a truck driver drive in a week?
There is no fixed weekly number. The cap is on-duty time over a rolling period: 60 hours in 7 days if your carrier does not run every day, or 70 hours in 8 days if it does. Driving, loading, fueling and inspections all count. Each new day, the oldest day drops off and its hours come back.
A 34-hour restart, meaning 34 or more hours off duty in a row, sets the cycle back to zero. If your recap is near the limit, the 34-hour reset and recap planner shows when hours come back.
What a good result and a bad result look like
A good result has the 11-hour clock as the limit and a stop time that lands near a place you know. The window did not eat your driving.
A bad result is the 14-hour window stopping you with driving hours left over. That usually means a long dock wait or a late start burned the window. Watch for the cycle stall turning red too: it means a restart is coming, and the next load should end somewhere you can sit for 34 hours.
What this calculator does not cover
It uses the standard federal limits for property-carrying drivers. It does not apply these exceptions, so check your own case:
- Adverse driving conditions: up to 2 hours more driving when conditions you could not know about at dispatch slow the run.
- Short-haul: drivers within 150 air miles who return within 14 hours can skip logs; non-CDL short-haul drivers get two 16-hour days a week.
- 16-hour exception: once per 7 days for drivers released from their work location for the previous 5 tours.
- Sleeper berth split: at least 7 hours in the sleeper plus a second period, together 10 hours or more and neither under 2, can be left out of the 14-hour window.
POSTED: eCFR, 49 CFR 395.1 (scope of rules and exceptions) · checked Oct 2026
State rules for drivers who stay inside one state can differ too. This tool is a planning aid, not legal advice, and your ELD is the record.
When the clock runs out, park legally
Knowing your stop time only helps if there is a legal place to stop near it. Rest areas set their own time limits, which we list in rest area parking time limits by state, and some states have far fewer spaces per driver than others, which you can compare in truck parking capacity by state. If you will sit with the engine running, the idle cost calculator shows what a night of idling costs in fuel. Running a dump truck on short local days? The dump truck hourly rate calculator sets a rate that covers your on-duty hours.
Planning loads around these clocks every night is real work. Our dispatchers do it with you: they look at your hours before offering a load, aim each day to end near a legal place to park, and you still say yes or no to every load. See how it works for owner operators, or send your application and a dispatcher will call you back.
Questions about this calculator
How many hours can truckers drive a day?
Up to 11 hours of driving, and only inside a 14-hour window that starts when they come on duty. After that they need 10 hours off duty in a row before driving again. A 30-minute break is also due after 8 hours of driving. These are the federal limits for property-carrying drivers in interstate commerce; some exceptions can change them.
How many hours can a truck driver work?
Work and driving are counted differently. A driver can keep working on duty after the 14-hour window ends, for example fueling or paperwork, but cannot drive. All on-duty time, driving or not, counts toward the 60-hour limit in 7 days or the 70-hour limit in 8 days. Once that cycle is used up, driving stops until hours drop off or a 34-hour restart.
Does the 30-minute break have to be off duty?
No. The 30 minutes can be off duty, in the sleeper berth, on duty not driving, or a mix, as long as it is 30 minutes in a row without driving. This calculator assumes the break is taken off duty, so it uses window time but not cycle hours. Fueling during the break works too.
Does loading and unloading count toward the 14 hours?
Yes. The 14-hour window is clock time, so it keeps running through loading, waiting at a dock, fueling and breaks. Only 10 hours off duty in a row, or a qualifying sleeper split, stops it. Loading and unloading also count as on-duty time, so they use your 60 or 70-hour cycle even though they do not use your 11 hours of driving.
What resets the 70-hour clock?
Two things. A 34-hour restart, meaning 34 or more hours off duty in a row, sets the cycle back to zero. Without a restart, the cycle rolls: each new day, the hours from the day that falls outside the 8-day window drop off. Enter the total from your ELD's recap and the calculator uses what is left.
PARK BY: PLANNED WITH YOU
Let someone else fit the loads to your clock
You still confirm every load. No setup fee, month to month.