Personal conveyance is driving a commercial motor vehicle for a personal reason while off duty, and it is logged as off-duty time, so it does not use up the 11, 14 or 60/70-hour clocks. There is no federal mileage or time limit. The test is purpose: the driver must be relieved of all work, and the move must not give the carrier a commercial benefit. The rules come from FMCSA’s 2018 regulatory guidance (83 FR 26377), read together with 49 CFR 395.8 and the ELD rule in 395.28.
Where the rule actually lives
There is no section of the regulations titled "personal conveyance." The duty statuses are set by 49 CFR 395.8(b): off duty, sleeper berth, driving, and on-duty not driving. Section 395.2 defines on-duty time as all time from when a driver begins work, or is required to be ready to work, until the driver is relieved from work and all responsibility for performing work. Everything about personal conveyance follows from that definition: if the driver has been relieved of all responsibility, movement of the truck for the driver’s own reasons can be off duty.
The detail is in guidance. FMCSA published "Regulatory Guidance Concerning the Use of a Commercial Motor Vehicle for Personal Conveyance" in the Federal Register on June 7, 2018, at 83 FR 26377. It replaced Question 26 to section 395.8, which dated from a 1996 Federal Highway Administration memo. The ELD side is in 395.28(a), which lets a carrier configure the ELD for "authorized personal use."
One date matters. The 2018 notice itself says the guidance "is applicable on June 7, 2018 and expires June 7, 2023," after which FMCSA would consider whether to withdraw it, reissue it for up to five more years, or write it into the regulations. We searched the Federal Register for a later notice reissuing or withdrawing it and found none. FMCSA keeps its current guidance on its own guidance portal; check there for the current status before relying on any single example below. The regulation text in 395.2, 395.8 and 395.28 is in force either way.
The core test in the 2018 guidance
The guidance opens with the rule: a driver may record time operating a CMV for personal conveyance as off duty "only when the driver is relieved from work and all responsibility for performing work by the motor carrier." Three more sentences in the same paragraph settle the questions drivers ask most:
- Loaded is allowed. "The CMV may be used for personal conveyance even if it is laden, since the load is not being transported for the commercial benefit of the carrier at that time." The 1997 guidance had excluded laden vehicles; the 2018 version dropped that exclusion.
- Safety rules still apply. Personal conveyance "does not reduce a driver’s or motor carrier’s responsibility to operate a CMV safely."
- The carrier can be stricter. Carriers may set limits "within the scope of, or more restrictive than" the guidance, "such as banning use of a CMV for personal conveyance purposes, imposing a distance limitation on personal conveyance, or prohibiting personal conveyance while the CMV is laden."
And one from the preamble that answers the clock question: "Personal conveyance is an off-duty status. Therefore, there are no impacts to the 11- or 14-hour limitations for truck drivers, the 10- or 15-hour limitations for bus drivers, the 60/70-hour limitations, the 34-hour restart provisions, or any other on-duty status."
Is there a mileage or time limit?
Not in federal guidance. Commenters on the 2017 draft asked FMCSA to set mileage or time limits, and the agency listed that request among the suggestions that were "outside of the scope of guidance." So the questions "how many miles" and "how many hours" have no federal number. The limits that do exist come from two places:
- Your carrier’s policy. Many carriers set a distance cap or ban personal conveyance while loaded, and the guidance expressly allows that. A carrier’s cap is binding on you as a condition of the carrier’s authorization.
- The purpose test. A move that is long enough to place the truck closer to the next load starts to look like a move for the carrier’s benefit, and that is what disqualifies it (see the list below).
For commuting, the guidance adds a rest condition instead of a distance: the commuting distance, combined with the release and start times, "must allow the driver enough time to obtain the required restorative rest as to ensure the driver is not fatigued."
Uses the guidance says qualify
The 2018 guidance lists seven examples, "not limited to" these:
| # | Qualifying use (paraphrased from 83 FR 26380) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Travel from en route lodging, such as a motel or truck stop, to restaurants and entertainment. |
| 2 | Commuting between the terminal and home, between a trailer-drop lot and home, or between a work site and home, if the timing still allows the required rest. |
| 3 | Travel to a nearby, reasonable, safe location to take the required rest after loading or unloading. The rest location "must be the first such location reasonably available." |
| 4 | Moving the CMV at the request of a safety official during the driver’s off-duty time. |
| 5 | A motorcoach without passengers going to en route lodging, restaurants or entertainment and back. Other off-duty drivers on board are not passengers. |
| 6 | Transporting personal property while off duty. |
| 7 | Authorized use of a CMV to travel home after working at an offsite location. |
Uses the guidance says do not qualify
| # | Not personal conveyance (paraphrased from 83 FR 26380) |
|---|---|
| 1 | A move that enhances the carrier’s operational readiness, for example bypassing available rest locations to get closer to the next pickup or delivery. |
| 2 | After delivering a towed unit, when the towing unit no longer meets the CMV definition, returning to the point of origin under the carrier’s direction to pick up another towed unit. |
| 3 | Continuing a trip for a business purpose, including bobtailing or pulling an empty trailer to get another load, or repositioning a tractor or trailer at the carrier’s direction. |
| 4 | Driving a passenger-carrying CMV with passengers on board. |
| 5 | Taking the CMV to a facility for maintenance. |
| 6 | After being placed out of service for exceeding the Part 395 limits, driving to a rest location, unless an officer at the scene directs it. |
| 7 | Traveling to the carrier’s terminal after loading or unloading. |
| 8 | Operating a motorcoach when luggage is stowed, passengers have left, and the driver has been directed to deliver the luggage. |
The preamble gives one more example of operational readiness that catches drivers going home: if a driver under dispatch stops at home "because the driver’s home is closer to the next destination or pick up location, then this would not be personal conveyance."
Bobtail or loaded: the question that confuses people
Drivers often assume bobtailing is always personal conveyance and loaded never is. The guidance says the opposite of both. Loaded can qualify, because the test is whether the load is moving for the carrier’s benefit at that time. Bobtailing can fail, because item 3 of the exclusions names bobtailing to retrieve another load as a business purpose. The trailer is not the test; the reason for the trip is.
Leaving a shipper or receiver after running out of hours
This is the use that matters most in practice, and the 2018 notice addressed it directly. A driver is out of hours at a dock and the facility will not let the truck stay. The guidance answer: "The movement from a shipper or receiver to the nearest safe resting area may be identified as personal conveyance, regardless of whether the driver exhausted his or her HOS, as long as the CMV is being moved solely to enable the driver to obtain the required rest at a safe location."
Two refinements follow. First, the nearest safe place may happen to be in the direction of the next dispatch, and that is still acceptable if the driver goes to the nearest reasonable and safe location and takes the required rest. Second, if that location is full: "FMCSA recommends that the driver annotate on the log if he/she cannot park at the nearest location and must proceed to another location." That annotation is the difference between a move an officer can follow and one that looks like a driver stretching the day. The truck parking and truck stop directories list rest areas and truck stops by state for finding the nearest one.
The guidance also addressed a related point: a shipper that makes a driver leave the property is not, by itself, a coercion case under 49 CFR 390.6. Coercion requires a threat to withhold work, take employment action, or punish the driver for refusing to break the rules.
Moved by an officer during the 10-hour break
If a federal, state or local law enforcement official requires the driver to relocate the CMV during the 10-hour break (8 hours for bus drivers), personal conveyance may be used to record the move, and because it is off-duty time, the rest period does not restart. The vehicle must be moved "no farther than the nearest reasonable and safe area to complete the rest period."
You do not have to return to the last on-duty location
A draft example implied that a driver had to come back to where personal conveyance started. The final notice says otherwise: "The driver is not required to return to the previous on-duty location. A driver may resume on-duty status immediately after an off-duty status regardless of the location of the CMV." Where the truck ends up is not the test; why it moved is.
"Safe haven" is a different rule
Drivers search for "personal conveyance safe haven," but "safe haven" is a hazmat term. 49 CFR 397.5 defines a safe haven as an area specifically approved in writing by local, state or federal authorities for parking unattended vehicles containing Division 1.1, 1.2 or 1.3 explosives. The personal conveyance guidance uses different words: the "nearest reasonable and safe location" or "safe resting area." A truck stop or rest area can be that; it does not need to be an approved safe haven.
How the ELD records personal conveyance
395.28(a)(1) lets the carrier configure the ELD to allow "authorized personal use." If the carrier has not turned it on for you, you cannot select it, and section 4.3.2.2.2(b) of the ELD specification in Appendix A to subpart B of Part 395 requires the device to offer only the categories the carrier enabled. The driver’s duties under 395.28(a)(2) are to select the category before the movement starts, deselect it when it ends, and annotate the record when the device prompts.
What the device does while it is selected:
- It keeps you off duty while moving. Section 4.4.1.1 of the specification requires the ELD to switch to driving automatically when the truck moves, unless, before it moves, the driver has set off duty and indicated personal use. Selecting it after the wheels roll is too late.
- It records less. Under 395.26(d)(2) and (i) and section 4.7.3 of the specification, location is recorded only to one decimal place, about a 10-mile radius, and vehicle miles and engine hours are left blank in intermediate records.
- It asks again after an engine restart. Section 4.3.2.2.2(e): a special driving category resets when the engine or ELD goes through a power cycle, except personal use, where the device must ask the driver to confirm it continues. If the driver does not confirm and the truck moves, the device defaults to none, which means driving.
- It shows on the graph. Section 4.8.1.3(c)(2) requires the printout and display to overlay personal-use periods with a different line style or shading and the abbreviation, so an officer sees every personal conveyance segment on the grid.
Brand names (Samsara, Motive and others) change the screens, not the rules; every registered device has to meet the same specification. On paper logs, personal conveyance is recorded as off duty with a remark; the 2018 guidance says drivers must document such use as off duty "irrespective of the method used to record the driver’s HOS." The broader ELD rules are on the ELD rule page.
Worked examples
Example 1, applying the guidance. A driver finishes unloading at 21:40 with 20 minutes left on the 14-hour window. The receiver closes its lot at 22:00. The nearest truck stop is 9 miles east, which is also toward tomorrow’s pickup. The driver selects personal conveyance before moving, drives to the truck stop, and starts a 10-hour break. This fits item 3 of the qualifying list: the nearest reasonable and safe location after unloading. The direction toward the next pickup does not matter because the driver stopped at the first place available.
Example 2, same facts, one change. The 9-mile truck stop is full, so the driver continues to a second one 27 miles away. Still personal conveyance on the guidance’s reasoning, and FMCSA’s own recommendation is to annotate the log: "first truck stop full, continued to next." Without the note, an officer sees a 36-mile off-duty move in the direction of the next load and has to guess why.
Example 3, not personal conveyance. The driver is empty at 19:00 after a delivery, with hours left, and dispatch says the next load is 200 miles away tomorrow morning. The driver bobtails 150 miles toward it on personal conveyance "to get a head start." That is exclusion 1 and exclusion 3: bypassing available rest locations to get closer to the next pickup, and bobtailing to retrieve another load. It must be logged as driving.
Example 4, commuting. A regional driver is released at the drop yard at 18:00 and drives the tractor 40 minutes home, with an 06:00 start the next day. Item 2 covers it, provided the carrier authorizes it and the timing still leaves enough rest. A 3-hour commute each way with the same start and finish times would be much harder to square with the rest condition.
What gets drivers cited, and what an officer can see
A personal conveyance segment that fails the purpose test is not off-duty time. It is driving time, and the log that shows it as off duty is a false report under 395.8(e)(1), which says no driver or motor carrier may make a false report in connection with a duty status. The driving time then counts against the 11-hour and 14-hour limits and the 60/70-hour total, and if that puts the driver over, 395.13(b)(1) is an out-of-service criterion: no driver shall drive after being on duty in excess of the maximum periods.
The patterns that make a segment hard to defend are the ones the guidance names:
- personal conveyance that ends near the next shipper or receiver, especially after passing open truck stops;
- personal conveyance straight after being put out of service for hours, without an officer’s direction;
- personal conveyance to a repair shop or back to the carrier’s terminal after a delivery;
- personal conveyance with no annotation where the device prompted for one, which is a breach of 395.28(a)(2)(ii) on its own;
- personal conveyance in a carrier account where it was never authorized, which the device should not allow in the first place.
Liability is a separate question. The 2018 notice says who is liable in a crash during personal conveyance is outside FMCSA’s authority and turns on the contract with the insurer and state tort law. Ask your carrier what its insurance covers before using the truck for errands.
Planning with it
Personal conveyance does not add driving hours, and it is not a fix for a trip that was planned to the last minute. Its real use is the last few miles between a dock and a parking space. Plan the day on the HOS calculator so the window closes near a known parking option, and keep personal conveyance for the cases the guidance describes. The clocks themselves are on the hours of service rules page, and on-property moves at a shipper are covered separately under yard moves.