30-minute driving interruption.

What the rule says

The break requirement is paragraph (a)(3)(ii) of 49 CFR 395.3, headed Interruption of driving time. As the eCFR showed it on November 2, 2026:

Except for drivers who qualify for either of the short-haul exceptions in § 395.1(e)(1) or (2), driving is not permitted if more than 8 hours of driving time have passed without at least a consecutive 30-minute interruption in driving status. A consecutive 30-minute interruption of driving status may be satisfied either by off-duty, sleeper berth or on-duty not driving time or by a combination of off-duty, sleeper berth and on-duty not driving time.

The rule is written as a prohibition on driving, not as a duty to take a break at a set clock time. Driving may continue up to 8 hours of driving time; once more than 8 hours have passed without a qualifying interruption, driving is not permitted.

What counts as an interruption

An interruption of driving status can be off-duty time, sleeper berth time, on-duty not-driving time, or a combination of these. The block must be consecutive and at least 30 minutes. That means a driver who spends 30 minutes fueling, inspecting or loading, all on-duty not-driving activity, has satisfied the text of the rule just as a driver who eats lunch off duty has. The rule does not require the driver to be off duty for the 30 minutes.

Driving time is defined in 395.2 as all time spent at the driving controls of a commercial motor vehicle in operation. Two short stops that add up to 30 minutes do not satisfy the rule, because the interruption must be consecutive.

The 8 hours is driving time passed

The trigger is that more than 8 hours of driving time have passed without a qualifying interruption. The text measures from the last qualifying interruption. A full 10-hour off-duty period, a long sleeper berth period or any other 30 or more consecutive minutes in a non-driving status all restart the count. The calculator above takes driving hours since the last such interruption and subtracts them from 8.

Who is excluded

The first words of the paragraph exclude drivers who qualify for either short-haul exception in 395.1(e)(1) or (e)(2). Those drivers work within the radius and release time conditions set out in 395.1(e). A driver who does not meet those conditions on a given day is not covered by the exclusion, so the 30-minute rule applies.

Worked example

A driver starts at 5:00 and drives until 8:30 (3.5 hours), stops 40 minutes for fuel and paperwork logged as on-duty not driving, then drives 4 more hours. The 40-minute stop is a consecutive interruption of at least 30 minutes, so the 8-hour count restarted at 9:10 and the driver has 4 hours of driving since. Entering 4 above shows 4 hours left. Had the stop been two 15-minute pauses, neither would satisfy the rule, and the driver would have 7.5 hours behind them and only 0.5 left.

Limits of this page

This page repeats what the rule says and does no more. Whether a particular trip, load or day complies is a question for the motor carrier, its compliance staff or counsel. The calculator is simple subtraction. It cannot tell whether a stop was logged correctly, whether your carrier applies the short-haul exclusion to your day, or how an enforcement officer will read a given log.

Sources

Sources opened and read November 2, 2026. Rule text quoted from the eCFR, which was current through October 29, 2026.

• eCFR: 49 CFR 395.3, maximum driving time for property-carrying vehicles (current through October 29, 2026) (read November 2, 2026)
• eCFR: 49 CFR 395.1, scope of rules in this part (current through October 29, 2026) (read November 2, 2026)
• eCFR: 49 CFR 395.2, definitions (current through October 29, 2026) (read November 2, 2026)