Short Haul Exemption Checker

Part of Hours of Service & Logs

A local driver who stays inside 150 air miles and gets home on time keeps no log, carries no ELD and takes no 30-minute break. Miss one condition and all three come back for that day. Answer the questions for one shift and this tells you which kind of day it was, test by test.

Is today a short-haul day?

Pre-filled with a local CDL dump-truck shift. The questions change when you say the truck needs no CDL, because the non-CDL exemption has its own tests.

Tested against §395.1(e)(1)

Exempt today

Within 150 air miles §395.1(e)(1)(i)Farthest point 92.0 air miles from the reporting location.
Met
Back and released within 14 h §395.1(e)(1)(ii)Released 12.5 h after coming on duty.
Met
10 h off duty before the shift §395.1(e)(1)(iii)(A)11.0 consecutive hours off.
Met
Time records kept 6 months §395.1(e)(1)(iv)Report time, hours on duty, release time.
Met

No record of duty status today, so no ELD for today. The carrier's time record is the record.

No 30-minute break is required. The 11-hour driving limit and the 60/70-hour weekly limit still apply.

Low-poly render of a truck running an open highway
Inside the radius, the day still has to end where it started.

What it checks

There are two short-haul exemptions. §395.1(e)(1) is open to any driver, and it is the one CDL drivers and passenger drivers use. §395.1(e)(2) is only for property-carrying trucks that need no CDL: it swaps the release deadline for a driving cut-off and also lifts the 14-hour window. The checker tests a non-CDL property driver under (e)(2), the wider of the two for them, and switches question sets as soon as you answer the CDL question.

Test§395.1(e)(1), CDL or passenger§395.1(e)(2), non-CDL
Who may use itAny driverProperty truck, no CDL needed
Radius150 air miles150 air miles
End of the dayBack and released within 14 hBack at the reporting location
Driving cut-offNone beyond the releaseHour 14; hour 16 on 2 days in 7
Off duty between shifts10 h (passenger 8 h)Not an (e)(2) test
Time records6 months6 months
Excused from§395.8, §395.11, the breakSame, plus the 14-hour window

The radius is measured outward from the normal work reporting location, not along the route, so a 180-mile loop of deliveries can stay well inside it. The time record is the condition carriers forget: no record of report time, hours on duty and release time, kept for 6 months, means no exemption on a day that otherwise passed every test.

Worked example

Five days from two local operations, run through the checker.

DayVerdict
CDL dump truck, 92 air mi, released at 12.5 hExempt, no log
Same truck, breakdown, released at 14.5 h, 3rd log day in 30Paper log today
CDL tractor, customer 160 air mi outLog today, radius
Non-CDL box truck, last drive at hour 15, 2nd late day this weekExempt, no log
Same box truck, 3rd late day in 7Log today, cut-off

Paper is allowed while a driver needs a log on no more than 8 days in any 30.

Day two is the common one. A breakdown pushed the release past 14 hours, so the driver owes a log for the whole day, the 30-minute break rule applied to it, and the ordinary 14-hour window governs it. On an ordinary day the hours of service calculator shows those clocks.

Short haul and the ELD

The exemption removes §395.8 itself, so an exempt day has no record of duty status and nothing for an ELD to record. On a day the exemption fails, a log is owed. Whether that log can be paper depends on a count: §395.8(a)(1)(ii)(A)(1) lets a carrier use paper for a driver who needs a log on no more than 8 days in any 30-day period. The checker adds today to the days you enter and tells you which side of that line you are on.

The count rolls. A driver who blows the release time twice a week will cross 8 days inside a month, and from that day the carrier needs an ELD in the truck. The 2020 rule that widened the radius said as much. The full list of ELD exceptions is in the ELD mandate guide, and the paper format is in truck driver log books.

The rule it comes from

49 CFR §395.1(e)(1) — a driver is exempt from §§395.8 and 395.11 if they stay within 150 air miles (172.6 statute miles) of the normal work reporting location, return there and are released within 14 consecutive hours, have 10 hours off (8 for passenger carriers) between each 14 hours on duty, and the carrier keeps time records for 6 months.

§395.1(e)(2) — a non-CDL property driver is also exempt from the 14-hour window in §395.3(a)(2), may not drive after the 14th hour on 5 days of any 7, or after the 16th on 2, and while using it cannot use (e)(1), the split sleeper berth or the §395.1(o) 16-hour day.

Neither exemption adds driving time. The 2020 rule moved the radius from 100 to 150 air miles and the CDL release from 12 to 14 hours, and §395.3(a)(3)(ii) excuses short-haul drivers from the break. For a property carrier the 11-hour limit and the 60 or 70 hour weekly limit still apply every day, exempt or not.

Sources

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