Violations and breaks

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The following information is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal advice.

LogBook supports several rule sets and exemptions. Depending on the rule set and exemptions you are using, the following violations can be reported:

Driving limit violations

Within a work shift, a limit exists on the time you may spend driving, before a daily-reset break is necessary. LogBook uses the following driving limits:

11 hours for federal US rules
12 hours for California rules
13 hours for Canada South rules

Federal rest break violation

According to federal US rules, you may not drive for more than 8 cumulative hours without taking a rest break of at least 30 minutes. You can spend this break either off duty, on duty, in the sleeper berth, or waiting in an oilfield (if you are using the oilfield exemption).

On-duty limit violations

Within a work shift, you can be on duty (driving or performing on-duty tasks) for a limited amount of time. After this time limit, you may not drive before you have completed a daily-reset break. LogBook uses the following on-duty limits:

14 hours (including rest breaks) for federal US rules
14 hours (not including rest breaks) for Canada South rules
16 hours (including rest breaks) for California rules
16 hours (including rest breaks) for Canada South rules

This violation rule is about driving. If you do not start driving after the time limit stated above, this violation is not recorded. For example (if using federal US rules), after 14 hours spent on duty or driving, you can perform non-driving tasks without violating this rule. If, however, after that, you start driving again before taking another 10-hour break, a violation is recorded against this rule.

Federal 16-hour on-duty limit violation

Once within an on-duty cycle, you can be on duty (driving or performing on-duty tasks) for up to 16 hours if you meet the following requirements:

Use federal US rules.
Start from and return to the same location as for the previous 5 work shifts. You may have cycle-reset breaks between these 5 work shifts.
Take a continuous daily-reset break, and not a split daily-reset break, before and after the shift.
Use the exemption only once within an on-duty cycle.

See Extend your hours of service for more information.

Cycle on-duty limit violations

The cycle on-duty period and the required cycle-reset breaks between the cycle periods depend on the rule set and cycle that you use:

Federal US rules

According to federal US rules, you may not drive if you have spent either 60 hours within 7 consecutive days or 70 hours within 8 consecutive days on duty. To be allowed to drive again you must take a cycle-reset break of 34 or more consecutive hours. Otherwise, a violation is noted in LogBook.

You can use either the 60-hour/7-day rule or the 70-hou/8-day rule, but not both. The rule to use depends on how many days per week your organization operates, and which rule set your organization uses.

California rules

According to California rules, you may not drive if you have spent 80 hours within 8 consecutive days on duty. To be allowed to drive again you must take a cycle-reset break of 34 or more consecutive hours. Otherwise, a violation is noted in LogBook.

Texas rules

According to Texas rules, you may not drive if you have spent 70 hours within 7 consecutive days on duty. To be allowed to drive again you must take a cycle-reset break of 34 or more consecutive hours. Otherwise, a violation is noted in LogBook.

You can use either the 70-hour/7-day rule or the 80-hour/8-day rule, but not both. The rule to use depends on how many days per week your organization operates.

Canada South rules

According to Canada South rules, which apply to the area south of 60 degrees latitude, you may not drive if you have spent either 70 hours within 7 consecutive days or 120 hours within 14 consecutive days on duty. If using the 7-day period, you may drive again after you have taken a cycle-reset break of 36 or more consecutive hours. If using the 14-day period, you may drive if you have a rest period of 24 or more consecutive hours after the first 70 hours of on-duty time and a cycle-reset break of 72 or more consecutive hours after the remaining 50 hours of on-duty time. Otherwise, a violation is noted.

You can use either the 70-hour/7-day rule or the 120-hour/14-day rule, but not both. The rule to use depends on how many days per week your organization operates.

Breaks

The following types of breaks are defined for the purposes of hours-of-service reporting:

30-minute rest breaks

Daily-reset breaks

Between work shifts, you must take rest breaks of 8 (for Texas rules) or 10 (for other rule sets) consecutive hours. These breaks are required to restart your driving allowance for the next work shift. Daily-reset breaks can be spent:

Entirely in the sleeper berth
Entirely off duty
Entirely in the ‘Waiting’ state (when using the oilfield exemption)
As a combination of off-duty time, waiting, and sleeper-berth time with no interruptions

Split daily-reset breaks

Between work shifts, you can also take split rest breaks rather than continuous rest breaks. Split rest breaks allow you to restart your driving allowance if the following requirements are met:

One rest break must consist of at least 7 consecutive hours spent in the sleeper berth.
The second rest break must consist of at least 2 consecutive hours spent off duty, waiting, in a sleeper berth or as a continuous combination of two of these states.
The two rest breaks must add up to a total of at least 10 hours. For example, if the first rest break is 7 hours, the second rest break must be 3 hours.
If using the oilfield exemption, the split rest break is a combination of 2 different rest periods of at least 2 hours that when summed together make at least 10 hours. Requirements for the periods:

At least 1 of the rest periods must be at the oilfield.
A rest period at the oilfield can be off-duty, waiting or sleeper-berth time or a continuous combination of them.
A rest period outside the oilfield can only be sleeper berth time.

You can separate the two split rest breaks by driving time. The driving time between the two split rest breaks counts towards the work shift after the rest break.

Cycle-reset breaks

Between on-duty cycles, you must take cycle-reset breaks to restart your driving allowance for the next on-duty cycle.

The required length of the cycle-reset break depends on the rule set you are using:

If you are using any US rule sets, a cycle-reset break of 34 consecutive hours is required.
If you are using the Canada South 70-hour/7-day rule, a break of 36 consecutive hours is required.
If you are using the Canada South 120-hour/14-day rule, a break of 24 consecutive hours is required after the first 70 hours of on-duty time and a break of 72 consecutive hours is required after the remaining 50 hours.

You must spend cycle-reset breaks off duty.