Does the 3-hour break in a 7/3 split have to be in the sleeper berth?

No. Under 49 CFR 395.1(g)(1)(ii), the shorter period may be off duty, sleeper berth, or a combination. Only the long period, at least 7 consecutive hours, must be in the sleeper berth.

Does the short break stop the 14-hour clock?

Once it is paired with a qualifying long period, yes. 49 CFR 395.1(g)(1)(iii)(B) says the 14-hour window does not include qualifying rest periods under (g)(1)(ii), and both periods of a valid pair qualify.

Can the short period come first?

Yes. Paragraph (g)(1)(ii) sets conditions on the two periods but not their order. The recalculation in (g)(1)(iii)(A) always starts from the end of the first of the two periods, whichever it was.

Not under the split provision. 49 CFR 395.1(g)(1)(ii)(B) requires one period of at least 7 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth.

Split Sleeper Berth Rules: How the 7/3 and 8/2 Splits Work

By Vadym Starynets, editor and publisher · Checked against the eCFR text as of September 18, 2026 · How we work

The sleeper berth provision lets a driver take the 10 hours off required before driving in two pieces instead of one. Used well, it moves the 14-hour window around a long wait at a shipper, or around the hours when a truck stop is full. Used badly, it produces a violation that is easy to miss on the screen. The whole rule is one paragraph, 49 CFR 395.1(g)(1), and this page goes through it clause by clause.

The five ways to take the 10 hours

395.1(g)(1)(i) says a driver of a property-carrying vehicle with a sleeper berth who uses it to get the off-duty time required by 395.3(a)(1) must accumulate one of these:

at least 10 consecutive hours off duty;
at least 10 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth;
a combination of consecutive sleeper berth and off-duty time totalling at least 10 hours;
at least 7 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth plus up to 3 hours riding in the passenger seat while the vehicle moves on the highway, immediately before or after, totalling at least 10 consecutive hours (a team-driving provision);
the equivalent of 10 hours off calculated under the split rule in (g)(1)(ii) and (iii).

The first four are one continuous block. The fifth is the split.

The split: four conditions

395.1(g)(1)(ii) lets a driver reach the equivalent of 10 hours off with not more than two periods of sleeper berth time, or of off-duty and sleeper berth time combined, if all four of these hold:

(A) neither period is shorter than 2 consecutive hours;
(B) one period is at least 7 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth;
(C) the two periods together total at least 10 hours;
(D) the driving time immediately before and after each rest period, added together, does not exceed 11 hours and does not break the 14-hour limit.

So the common combinations are 7 and 3, 8 and 2, or 7.5 and 2.5. The long period must be in the berth. The short one may be off duty anywhere, including outside the truck. The order does not matter: the short one may come first.

What pauses the 14-hour clock

395.1(g)(1)(iii)(B): the 14-hour window "does not include qualifying rest periods" under (g)(1)(ii). Both periods of a valid pair are excluded from the 14 hours, not only the long one. This is the useful part: a 3-hour off-duty wait at a dock, if it later pairs with 7 hours in the berth, stops counting against the window.

The catch is the word qualifying. A 3-hour break only becomes qualifying when it is paired. Until the second period is taken, the driver's device may show the window running.

How the limits are recalculated

395.1(g)(1)(iii)(A): the 11-hour driving limit and the 14-hour window are re-calculated from the end of the first of the two periods. In practice: after completing the pair, look back to the end of the first rest period, and count the driving and on-duty time from there, leaving out the second rest period. That is the available time.

A worked example

Example, applying (g)(1)(ii) and (iii). A driver starts at 06:00 after 10 hours off and drives 6 hours, to 12:00. At a receiver, the driver goes off duty for 3 hours, 12:00 to 15:00. The driver then drives 5 hours, 15:00 to 20:00, and goes into the berth for 7 hours, 20:00 to 03:00.

The two rest periods, 3 and 7 hours, meet (A), (B) and (C).
Driving around the 3-hour period: 6 before plus 5 after is 11, which meets the driving part of (D). The 14-hour window, excluding the 3-hour period, ran from 06:00 to 20:00 minus 3 hours, which is 11 hours, so it was not broken.
At 03:00 the calculation restarts from the end of the first period, 15:00. Since then the driver has driven 5 hours and the berth time is excluded. Available: 6 more hours of driving, and a window that closes 14 hours from 15:00, excluding the 7 berth hours, which is 12:00 the next day.

The trap in this example: had the driver driven 6 hours after the dock instead of 5, the pair would have 12 hours of driving around the 3-hour period, and (D) would fail. The split does not create driving time, it moves it.

Passenger vehicles and Alaska

Passenger-carrying drivers have their own split in 395.1(g)(3), built on 8 hours rather than 10: two berth periods, neither shorter than 2 hours, with no more than 10 hours of driving around them and no driving after the 15th hour. Alaska has its own figures in 395.1(h), based on 15 hours of driving and a 20-hour duty period.

Why it matters for parking

Many drivers use the split to avoid arriving at a truck stop at 21:00, when lots on busy corridors are full, and to take the long rest later in the night. That only works if the first period was taken as a genuine off-duty or berth period of at least 2 hours. The truck stop directory and public truck parking list are organised by state and town for planning the second stop.

Split sleeper berth: how the 7/3 and 8/2 splits work