Review Questions - Click On The Picture To Begin...
- None of these answers are correct
- You must spend all 8 hours consecutively in the sleeper berth
- The 8 hours can be split between sleeper berth time and off duty time as long as those hours are consecutive
- You can section the 8 hour break into two 4 hour segments
Quote From The CDL Manual:
Eight hours of sleeper berth time:
You may also use the sleeper berth to extend the 14 hour limit. Any period in the sleeper berth of at least 8 consecutive hours will not count as part of the 14 hours, and, therefore, would allow you to extend the time during which you could use your maximum 11 hours of driving.
- Yes, anytime hazardous weather is forecast along your route, you may drive an additional 2 hours
- No, in order to qualify, the adverse weather event must not have been forecast
- No, weather can never be a reason for using the Adverse Driving Conditions Exception
- None of these answers are correct
Quote From The CDL Manual:
If unexpected adverse driving conditions slow you down, you may drive up to 2 extra hours to complete what could have been driven in normal conditions. This means you could drive for up to 13 hours, which is 2 hours more than allowed under normal conditions. Adverse driving conditions mean things that you did not know about when you started your run, like snow, fog, or a shut-down of traffic due to a crash. Adverse driving conditions do not include situations that you should have known about, such as congested traffic during typical “rush hour” periods.
Even though you may drive 2 extra hours under this exception, you must not drive after the 14th consecutive hour after coming on duty.
TruckingTruth's Advice:
In order to qualify for the Adverse Driving Conditions Exception, you must be slowed down due to an event which was not forecast.
- Spending 8 hours in the sleeper berth will completely reset your 14 hour on duty time and your 11 hour driving time
- You will regain 8 hours on your 14 hour on duty time
- Spending 8 hours in the sleeper berth will completely reset your 60/70 hour on duty clock
- Those hours will not count as part of your 14 hour on duty time, and therefore, would allow you to extend the time during which you could use your maximum 11 hours of driving
Quote From The CDL Manual:
Eight hours of sleeper berth time:
You may also use the sleeper berth to extend the 14 hour limit. Any period in the sleeper berth of at least 8 consecutive hours will not count as part of the 14 hours, and, therefore, would allow you to extend the time during which you could use your maximum 11 hours of driving.
TruckingTruth's Advice:
Basically, when you take an 8 hour break in the sleeper berth, your time simply extends. You can't reset your hours completely, but those 8 hours will not count against your 14 hour on duty time.
In other words, let's say you have the following hours remaining:
- 14 hour duty clock: 7 hours
- 11 hour driving clock: 6 hours
If you go into the sleeper berth, in 8 hours you will still have the same time remaining.
If you had taken 10 consecutive hours off instead, your 14 and 11 hour limits would have completely reset. That's why the 8 hour sleeper berth rule should only be used when necessary. Normally this rule is used when it is necessary in order to make a delivery legally and on-time.
- You will still have no hours remaining
- Your 14 hour limit would reset
- None of these answers are correct
- You would regain half of your hours (7 hours total)
Quote From The CDL Manual:
Eight hours of sleeper berth time:
You may also use the sleeper berth to extend the 14 hour limit. Any period in the sleeper berth of at least 8 consecutive hours will not count as part of the 14 hours, and, therefore, would allow you to extend the time during which you could use your maximum 11 hours of driving.
TruckingTruth's Advice:
An 8 hour break will never add more hours to any of your limits. Rather, an 8 hour break simply extends your time by not counting the break against your 14 hour duty clock. The concept is confusing, but it's actually very simple. Here are some examples.
- If you have 5 hours remaining on your 14 hour duty clock then go into the sleeper berth for 8 hours, at the end of your break you will still have 5 hours remaining.
- If you have 1 hour remaining on your 14 hour duty clock then go into the sleeper berth for 8 hours, at the end of your break you will still have 1 hour remaining.
- If you have 0 hours remaining on your 14 hour duty clock then go into the sleeper berth for 8 hours, at the end of your break you will still have 0 hours remaining.
As you can see, you will not gain any hours back after taking an 8 hour break. Instead, your available hours have simply been extended.
So why would you ever want to take an 8 hour break instead of a 10 hour break? Here's an example:
Let's say you have a delivery in the morning, but you are not allowed to park at your delivery location overnight. Instead, you have to stop at a truck stop 20 miles away to park for the night. In order to make your appointment on time, you must leave after only resting for 8 hours. If that's the case, you can still make the delivery on time by taking an 8 hour break instead of a full 10 hour break.
Little situations like this will come up frequently as a truck driver. That's why it's so important to understand these little loopholes and tricks. We'll go through more examples later on in this section, but try to have a full understanding of the 10, 8 and split sleeper rules.
- When using the split sleeper berth rule, you can take your 10 hour break by splitting 8 hours off in the sleeper berth and taking an additional 2 hours off duty
- If you spend 10 consecutive hours off duty or in a sleeper berth of your truck, your 11 and 14 hour limits completely restart
- All of these statements are true
- If you spend 8 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth, you can extend your 14 hour limit
Quote From The CDL Manual:
1. Ten consecutive hours off duty:
You may spend time in your sleeper berth to get some of, or all of, the 10 consecutive hours of off duty time. When getting your 10 consecutive hours of off duty time, what is most important is that you do not go on duty or drive during those 10 hours. At the end of the 10 consecutive hours of combined sleeper and/or off duty time, your 11-hour driving and 14 hour duty-period limits would completely restart.
2. Eight hours of sleeper berth time:
You may also use the sleeper berth to extend the 14 hour limit. Any period in the sleeper berth of at least 8 consecutive hours will not count as part of the 14 hours, and, therefore, would allow you to extend the time during which you could use your maximum 11 hours of driving.
3. Split sleeper / off duty time:
You may also use the sleeper berth in a different way to get the “equivalent of at least 10 consecutive hours off duty.” To do this, two rest periods are required. You must spend at least one of the two required rest periods in your sleeper berth. The required rest period in the sleeper berth must be at least 8 consecutive hours (but less than 10 consecutive hours). This rest period will not count as part of the 14 hours. The other, separate, rest period must be at least 2 consecutive hours (but less than 10 consecutive hours). This rest period may be spent in the sleeper berth, off duty, or sleeper berth and off duty combined. It will count as part of the 14 hours (unless you spend at least 8 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth). It does not matter which rest period you take first. After you complete your second required rest period, you will have a new point on the clock from which to calculate your hours available. This new “calculation point” will be at the time you completed your first required rest period.
TruckingTruth's Advice:
The Sleeper Berth Provision is extremely important for you to be familiar with. It is one of the most confusing parts about the HOS regulations, yet, if you know the rules it will make your life much easier and help your paycheck at the same time. With more and more companies switching to electronic logbooks, understanding all the ways you can legally drive is critically important.
How many on duty hours are remaining after the following has been logged (use a scratch sheet of paper if you need to):
- On duty/not driving: 3 hours
- Driving: 4 hours
- Sleeper berth: 8 hours
- Driving: 7 hours
- Off duty: 2 hours
- There is no time remaining on the drivers 11 or 14 hour clocks
- 14 hour clock: 7 hours
11 hour clock: 6 hours - 14 hour clock: 5 hours
11 hour clock: 4 hours - Both the 11 and 14 hour limits have reset so all hours are now available
Quote From The CDL Manual:
Example of the split sleeper berth rule:
After taking 10 consecutive hours off duty, You start to work at 7:00 a.m. At 10:00 a.m., you begin driving and at 2:00 p.m. you spend 8 hours in your sleeper berth before resuming driving again at 10:00 p.m. At 10:00 p.m. Those 8 hours in the sleeper berth do not count as part of the 14 hour limit.
This means that you only used 7 of your 14 hours so far, and your 14 hour limit gets extended from 9:00 p.m. that evening to 5:00 a.m. the next morning. Your driving limit is still 11 hours and so far you have only driven 4 hours. That means you have 7 hours of driving time still available, allowing you to drive from 10:00 p.m. until 5:00 a.m.
At 5:00 a.m. you take your second rest period, going off duty for 2 hours. That brings you to 7:00 a.m.
Since you met the regulation of getting the equivalent of 10 hours off duty in two periods, you now have a new calculation point for figuring your 11 and 14 hours. Your new calculation point is at the end of the first rest period, which was at 10:00 p.m. Your new 14 hour period begins at 10:00 p.m. and ends 14 hours later, at noon the following day. During that new 14 hour period you are allowed 11 hours of driving.
From 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. you used-up 9 of the 14 duty-period hours and 7 of the 11 hours of driving time. Therefore you now have 5 hours of duty time available during which you are allowed to drive 4 hours.
Because your 14 hour duty period ends at 12:00 noon that day, before you can drive a CMV again after 12:00 noon, you must have another rest period in the sleeper berth of at least 8 consecutive hours (if you are using the sleeper-berth exception). After that you must again recalculate how many hours you will have available. Your new calculation point will be the end of the 2-hour off duty period you took earlier (7:00 a.m.).
TruckingTruth's Advice:
This example can be pretty confusing. Go back to page 95 for the full write up and explanation if you're still confused. It's very important to have a good understanding of the split sleeper berth provision.
- 5 extra hours
- 4 extra hours
- 3 extra hours
- 2 extra hours
Quote From The CDL Manual:
What Is the Adverse Driving Conditions Exception?
If unexpected adverse driving conditions slow you down, you may drive up to 2 extra hours to complete what could have been driven in normal conditions. This means you could drive for up to 13 hours, which is 2 hours more than allowed under normal conditions. Adverse driving conditions mean things that you did not know about when you started your run, like snow, fog, or a shut-down of traffic due to a crash. Adverse driving conditions do not include situations that you should have known about, such as congested traffic during typical “rush hour” periods.
Even though you may drive 2 extra hours under this exception, you must not drive after the 14th consecutive hour after coming on duty.
Example: You begin to work at 7:00 a.m., start driving at 8:00 a.m., and drive 9 hours when you hit heavy fog at 5:00 p.m. The fog was not forecasted. At this point, the adverse driving conditions exception would allow you to drive for 4 more hours (2 hours to get to 11 and 2 extra hours due to the fog), taking you to 9:00 p.m. for a total of 13 hours of driving.
If, however, you come to work at 7:00 a.m., start driving at 12:00 p.m. and drive into fog at 5:00 p.m., you could still only drive until 9:00 p.m. for a total of 9 hours of driving. You would have to stop driving at 9:00 p.m. because you would have reached the 14 hour limit.
TruckingTruth's Advice:
The adverse driving conditions exception may come in handy from time to time. If you run into unexpected weather conditions or have an unexpected delay such as a road closure, you can extend your 11 hour driving limit. Don't take advantage of this exception, but by all means use it when necessary. Just be sure to mark the time, location and type of the unexpected weather hazard on your logbook.
- Spending 8 consecutive hours off duty
- None of these answers are correct
- Spending 8 consecutive hours in a sleeper berth
- Spending 8 consecutive hours either in a sleeper berth or off duty
Quote From The CDL Manual:
2. Eight hours of sleeper berth time:
You may also use the sleeper berth to extend the 14 hour limit. Any period in the sleeper berth of at least 8 consecutive hours will not count as part of the 14 hours, and therefore, would allow you to extend the time during which you could use your maximum 11 hours of driving.
TruckingTruth's Advice:
Remember, in order to extend the 14 hour limit, all 8 hours must be logged as sleeper berth time. You can't spend the 8 hours off duty or switch back and forth between sleeper berth and off duty time.
In most cases, it makes more sense to simply stay in the sleeper berth for 2 more hours (total of 10 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth). That way, instead of extending the 14 hour limit, you create an entirely new starting point for the 14 hour limit and will have all 14 hours available again.