Yard moves: what counts and how to log them

A yard move is moving a commercial motor vehicle within a yard, such as a terminal, port or a shipper’s private lot, and it is logged as on-duty not driving rather than driving. It therefore counts against the 14-hour window and the 60/70-hour total, but not against the 11 hours of driving. The ELD category is authorized in 49 CFR 395.28, and what counts as a yard comes from FMCSA guidance: movement on private property, and on a public road only while public access is restricted.

Where the rule comes from

The regulations do not define "yard move." 49 CFR 395.28(a)(1) lets a carrier configure an ELD so a driver can indicate two special driving categories: authorized personal use and yard moves. 395.28(a)(2) requires the driver to select the category before the status starts, deselect it when it ends, and annotate the record when the ELD prompts.

The ELD specification fixes how it is recorded. Section 4.4.1.1 of Appendix A to subpart B of Part 395 requires the ELD to set the status to driving automatically whenever the vehicle is in motion, unless, before the vehicle moves, the driver "sets the duty status to on-duty not driving and indicates yard moves, in which case duty status must remain on-duty not driving until driver’s indication of the driving condition ends."

When FMCSA wrote the ELD rule it declined to define the term. The guidance that fills the gap is summarized in FMCSA’s January 4, 2021 notice of proposed guidance (86 FR 179):

• On February 28, 2020, FMCSA updated its guidance Question 9 to 49 CFR 395.2: a driver who jockeys CMVs in the yard (private property) records that time as on-duty (not driving). This replaced 1997 guidance that had called the same time on-duty driving.
• The same notice explains the reasoning: "Because 'yard moves' occur on private property within the confines of a yard and not on a public road, this time does not constitute 'driving time' within the meaning of 49 CFR 395.2," which defines driving time as time at the controls of a CMV "in operation."

Why older training says yard time is driving

It used to be. The Federal Highway Administration’s 1997 compilation of guidance (62 FR 16370, 16422) answered the same question, a driver who jockeys trucks in the yard on weekends, with on-duty driving. FMCSA’s 2021 notice states plainly that "the 1997 guidance is no longer in effect" and that under the 2020 revision the time "is not driving time." Handbooks and courses written before 2020 may still carry the old answer.

What counts as a yard: the 2021 proposed guidance

The 2021 notice proposed to replace Question 9 with examples of what is and is not a yard. It proposed that a driver may record a yard move as on-duty not driving "only if the movement of the CMV occurs in a confined area on private property (or intermodal facility or briefly on public roads, as described below)." Examples of properties that may qualify:

1. an intermodal yard or port facility;
2. a motor carrier’s place of business;
3. a shipper’s privately owned parking lot;
4. a public road, but only if and while public access to the road is restricted through traffic control measures such as lights, gates, flaggers or other means; for example, crossing a public road briefly between parts of a private property while access is restricted.

Examples that would not qualify:

1. a public road without those traffic control measures;
2. public rest areas.

Status: this was published as proposed guidance with a comment period ending February 3, 2021. We found no later Federal Register notice finalizing it. FMCSA posts final guidance on its guidance portal, which could not be read from our system; check there before treating the proposed examples as settled. The principle that yard jockeying on private property is on-duty not driving comes from the 2020 guidance described in the same notice.

Yard move or personal conveyance?

The two categories answer different questions. A yard move is work: you are on duty and moving the truck for the carrier, the shipper or the receiver. Personal conveyance is off duty and for your own purposes. FMCSA’s ELD FAQ, quoted in the 2021 notice, draws the line: a move may be personal conveyance "if the driver is off-duty and the movement is not for the motor carrier, shipper or receiver’s commercial benefit," for example moving from one parking space to another at a shipper or port during the rest period, but "an on-duty yard move, such as moving the vehicle a short distance while waiting to load, would not qualify as personal conveyance."

The full personal conveyance rules are on the personal conveyance page.

How the clocks treat yard time

Because a yard move is on-duty not driving, it sits in a specific place in the hours-of-service arithmetic. 395.2 counts it as on-duty time, since it is time "in or on a commercial motor vehicle" and work for the carrier. So:

• it counts toward the 14-hour window in 395.3(a)(2), which runs on the clock whatever the driver is doing;
• it counts toward the 60-hour/7-day or 70-hour/8-day total in 395.3(b), which adds up all on-duty time;
• it does not count toward the 11 hours of driving in 395.3(a)(3)(i), which counts only driving time.

Example of the arithmetic. A driver starts at 05:00 and spends 1 hour 30 minutes on yard moves at a busy terminal before leaving. Recorded correctly, the driver still has all 11 hours of driving available, but the window still closes at 19:00. If the same 90 minutes were recorded as driving, the driver would have only 9 hours 30 minutes of driving left. That difference is why the category exists, and also why misusing it on public roads matters: every mile of highway logged as a yard move is driving time missing from the 11-hour count.

Yard moves on a paper log

Drivers on paper, under the 8-days-in-30 or pre-2000 exceptions or during an ELD malfunction, have no category button. The 2020 guidance makes the answer simple: the time is on-duty not driving, so it is drawn on the "on-duty not driving" line of the grid under 395.8(h)(4), with the location of the change of status in the remarks under 395.8(c). A remark such as "yard moves" beside the entry makes the record easy to follow. See paper logbook rules for the grid itself.

Questions to settle with your carrier

• Is the category enabled for you? Only the carrier can turn it on.
• Which properties does the carrier treat as yards? A written list of the carrier’s own terminals, drop lots and regular customers’ lots, measured against the guidance, avoids guessing at the gate.
• What about split properties? If a terminal straddles a public road, ask how access is controlled during crossings.
• How are mistaken entries fixed? Under 395.30 the carrier proposes an edit and the driver accepts or rejects it and recertifies; the original data is kept.

How it shows up on the log

• Graph grid. Section 4.8.1.3(c)(2) of the ELD specification requires the printout and display to show yard-move periods with a different line style or shading and the abbreviation, so an officer sees them on the grid.
• Annotation. The ELD must prompt for one when the category is selected (spec 4.3.2.2.2(d)), and 395.28(a)(2)(ii) requires the driver to annotate when prompted. "Moved trailer from door 12 to drop lot, XYZ Foods yard" is the kind of note that answers the question in advance.
• Engine off ends it. Under 4.3.2.2.2(e), a special driving category resets to none if the ELD or engine goes through a power-off cycle, with an exception only for personal use. After restarting the engine, the yard move must be selected again.

On a paper log, a yard move is drawn on the on-duty not driving line with a remark naming the location, using the location rules in 395.8(c).

Worked examples

Example 1, applying the 2020 guidance. A driver arrives at a distribution center, is assigned door 34, then told to move to door 7, then to the drop lot. Twenty minutes of moves inside the fenced lot. Selected as yard moves, the time is on-duty not driving: it counts toward the 14-hour window but not the 11 hours of driving.

Example 2, public road. A carrier’s yard is split by a two-lane public road. Moving a trailer from one side to the other means crossing it. Under the 2021 proposed guidance, this can be a yard move only if public access is restricted during the move, for example by a gate or a flagger. Crossing an open public road with normal traffic would be driving.

Example 3, not a yard move. At the end of the shift, a driver selects yard move and drives two miles on public streets to the company’s second lot. That is a public road without traffic control. Recording it as on-duty not driving misstates the duty status. It is driving time.

Example 4, forgetting to deselect. A driver finishes a yard move, pulls out of the gate onto the highway and forgets to clear the category. The ELD keeps recording on-duty not driving until the driver ends the indication or the engine is cycled. The record now shows highway miles as yard time. The driver must correct it, with the carrier’s edit and the driver’s recertification under 395.30, before it becomes a false report under 395.8(e)(1).

What gets flagged

Yard moves are easy to check because they show on the grid. The patterns that invite questions are long yard-move segments, yard moves that start inside a facility and end miles away, yard moves with speeds or distances that do not fit a lot, and yard moves with no annotation. None of those is a violation by itself; each is a reason for an officer to compare the log with the location history and the supporting documents a carrier must keep under 395.11.

Common mistakes

• Using yard move on public roads. Only with access restricted, under the proposed guidance.
• Using it off duty. A yard move is on duty. Moving the truck at a shipper during a rest period for your own convenience is a personal conveyance question.
• Forgetting to deselect. Select before moving, clear when done.
• Expecting it to save the 14. On-duty not driving still runs the 14-hour window and the weekly total.
• Carrier never enabled it. Under 395.28(a)(1) and spec 4.3.2.2.2(b), the driver can only select categories the carrier has turned on.

For the device rules generally, see the ELD rule; for the clocks yard time counts against, see hours of service rules and the HOS calculator.