What is HOS Recap and how is it different than 34-hour restart
Commercial drivers often refer to DOT hours of service regulations as their three clocks. The eleven, fourteen and seventeen-hour “clocks” have to do with the amount of driving and on-duty hours allowed daily and over the course of a week. As we have already explained it is possible to extend the number of daily hours, beyond the DOT mandated 14-hour rule. In this article, we will show you the DOT regulation for how to extend your 70-hour workweek by recapturing your hours.
34-hour reset
Drivers of commercial motor vehicles are required to stop driving, once they have accumulated 60 on-duty hours over seven consecutive days, or 70 on-duty hours over eight consecutive days. Drivers need to take an extended 34-hour break to “restart” their clocks. That break effectively resets their on-duty hours back to zero.
Running on recap
A 34-hour reset is an option for drivers to zero out there on-duty clock. However, it is not a requirement and DOT regulation has an alternative. Truck drivers can keep a running total of their hours over the past 7 or 8 days and do the math each day to see where they stand about the DOT hours of service limit.
Here’s how it works
Let’s say you start your week on Monday with “fresh hours,” following a 34-hour reset. For convenience’s sake, we’ll assume you log 8,5 on-duty hours each day—from your first day on the job until the following Monday. Hence, you’ll have accumulated 68 hours on-duty. When you roll into Tuesday, your Day 8 shifts from the Monday of last week to Tuesday. And the 8-1/2 hours that just fell off your rolling total are now available to you again. DOT hours of service are not that complicated after all.
It's as simple as that. With each passing day, you re-capture (or recap) the same amount of on-duty hours you logged 8 days ago. Just like the DOT regulation for sleeper berth provision, this duty hour extension is not practical for every situation, but it indeed allows for great flexibility with some careful planning.
For information about Personal, Conveyance provision read here.
For Information about ELD malfunction read here.