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Hours of Service for Local Hauling: The Short-Haul Exception, and What Your Time Records Must Show

Updated September 2026

Hours-of-service rules were written with long-haul trucking in mind, and most of what gets said about them — logbooks, ELDs, the 30-minute break — doesn't apply to a crew that leaves the yard in the morning and is back by dinner. But "doesn't apply" has conditions, and the day a driver steps outside them, the full rules do apply.

This covers the federal rules for property-carrying commercial motor vehicles (10,001 lbs and up) in interstate commerce. States set their own rules for in-state work; many adopt these, some change the numbers.

The basic limits

For a property-carrying driver (49 CFR 395.3):

  • 10 hours off — no driving without first taking 10 consecutive hours off duty.
  • 14-hour window — no driving after the 14th consecutive hour after coming on duty. Breaks do not stop this clock.
  • 11 hours driving — within that window.
  • 30-minute break — no driving once 8 hours of driving time have passed without a 30-minute interruption. Short-haul drivers are exempt from this one.
  • 60/70 hours — no driving after 60 hours on duty in 7 consecutive days, or 70 in 8 if the carrier operates every day of the week. A period of 34 or more consecutive hours off duty restarts the count.

"On duty" is not just driving. Loading, waiting at the transfer station, fuelling and paperwork all count toward the 14 and the 60/70.

The short-haul exception: no logbook, no ELD

A driver is exempt from keeping a record of duty status — a log, and therefore an ELD — on any day when all of these are true (49 CFR 395.1(e)(1)):

  1. The driver operates within a 150 air-mile radius (172.6 statute miles) of the normal work reporting location.
  2. The driver returns to that location and is released from work within 14 consecutive hours.
  3. The driver has at least 10 consecutive hours off duty between each 14-hour on-duty period.

The 11-hour driving limit and the 60/70-hour limit still apply — the exception removes the log, not the limits. It is judged day by day: on a day a driver goes past 14 hours or outside the radius, that day needs a proper record of duty status. A driver who needs one on no more than 8 days in any 30-day period may keep it on paper rather than use an ELD (395.8(a)(1)(ii)).

If the truck doesn't need a CDL

There is a second version for drivers of property-carrying vehicles that do not require a commercial driver's licence (395.1(e)(2)) — which describes a lot of junk removal and light demolition trucks. Within the same 150 air-mile radius, returning to the reporting location each day, the driver may not drive:

  • after the 14th hour after coming on duty on 5 days of any 7 consecutive days, or
  • after the 16th hour after coming on duty on 2 days of any 7 consecutive days.

In other words, two longer days a week are built in. These drivers are also exempt from the log and ELD requirement, and from the 30-minute break.

What you keep instead: the time record

The exception swaps the log for a simpler record, and the record is not optional. For each short-haul driver the carrier keeps, for six months, a record showing (395.1(e)):

  1. The time the driver reports for duty each day
  2. The total number of hours the driver is on duty each day
  3. The time the driver is released from duty each day
  4. The total time for the preceding 7 days, for a driver used for the first time or intermittently

That's a time clock. If yours records clock-in, clock-out and total hours per driver per day, and you can produce six months of it, you have the record the exception asks for. If hours are reconstructed from text messages at the end of the week, you don't — and failing to require duty records is one of the violations that fails a new-entrant audit when it shows up in most of the records examined (49 CFR 385.321).

Where small fleets get caught

  • The long day. A demolition job runs late, the driver gets back at hour 15. That day is outside the (e)(1) exception and needs a log.
  • The far job. 150 air miles is generous — but it is measured from the normal reporting location, not from the driver's house.
  • No start time. "About ten hours" is not a record. The rule asks for a reporting time and a release time.
  • Counting only driving. The 14-hour and 60/70-hour limits count all on-duty time.
  • Assuming it's federal. If you never leave your state, your state's rule is the one that applies, and it may differ.

RelayPoint, in your trade’s words: Movers · Junk removal & hauling · Roll-off & dumpsters · Landscaping & tree service · Portable sanitation & septic

This is general information, not legal advice, and RelayPoint is not a law firm or a compliance consultant. Sources: 49 CFR 395.1(e) (short-haul operations), 395.3 (maximum driving time, property-carrying vehicles) and 395.8 (records of duty status), as published in September 2026. It covers property-carrying vehicles only; passenger carriers, hazardous materials, adverse driving conditions, the sleeper-berth provision and other exceptions are not covered. State rules for in-state operations differ. Confirm your obligations with the FMCSA or your state's motor carrier authority.