Bus Driver Hours of Service Rules for Passenger Carriers

A passenger-carrying bus driver operating in interstate commerce can drive up to 10 hours after 8 consecutive hours off duty, cannot get behind the wheel after 15 hours on duty, and is capped at either 60 on-duty hours in 7 days or 70 in 8 days depending on how often the carrier runs. Those are the core bus driver hours of service rules the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration enforces under 49 CFR Part 395, and they differ in several important ways from the rules that govern truck drivers hauling freight.

Who These Rules Cover

The federal HOS rules apply to any driver operating a commercial motor vehicle in interstate commerce to transport passengers. A vehicle qualifies as a passenger-carrying CMV if it is designed or used to carry 16 or more people including the driver (regardless of whether passengers pay), or if it carries 9 or more passengers for compensation.¹ The “designed to transport” language refers to designated seating capacity, not standing room.²

Both for-hire carriers (charter buses, intercity coaches, airport shuttles) and private carriers (church vans, employee shuttles) are covered when they cross state lines. Many states adopt the federal standards for intrastate work, but some allow slightly different daily limits, so a carrier that never crosses a state line should check its own state’s rules.

One important carve-out: school bus operations carrying students and school staff between home and school are exempt from all HOS regulations under 49 CFR 390.3(f)(1).³ The exemption is specific to the home-to-school run. A school bus taken on a cross-state field trip is not performing that protected function and may fall back under federal jurisdiction.

The 10-Hour Driving Limit

A passenger-carrier driver cannot drive for more than 10 hours after taking at least 8 consecutive hours off duty.⁴ Only time behind the wheel with the vehicle in motion counts against that clock. Waiting at a terminal, running a pre-trip inspection, and loading luggage are all on-duty activities, but they don’t chip away at the 10 hours of driving.

The 8-hour reset is non-negotiable. During those 8 hours the driver must be completely free of any work responsibility: no calls from dispatch, no monitoring passengers, no vehicle maintenance. Once a driver completes a full 8 consecutive hours off duty, both the 10-hour driving clock and the 15-hour on-duty window reset to zero.

Sleeper Berth Split

Buses equipped with a sleeper berth give the driver some flexibility. The 8 hours off can be split into two periods in the sleeper berth, provided neither period is shorter than 2 hours and the two together add up to at least 8.⁵ When a split is used, the driving time in the windows immediately before and after each rest period cannot exceed 10 hours combined, and the on-duty time in those windows cannot include any driving past the 15th hour.⁶ This matters most on long overnight routes with a relief driver on board.

The 15-Hour On-Duty Window

Separate from the driving clock, a driver cannot start driving after being on duty for 15 hours following an 8-consecutive-hour off-duty period.⁴ This is a window, not a bank of hours you spend down. The clock starts the moment you report for duty after your rest, and it keeps running whether you are driving, loading luggage, fueling, doing paperwork, or sitting in a parking lot waiting for passengers to board.⁷

This is where drivers get tripped up. A driver who spent six hours driving and nine hours loading, inspecting, and waiting has hit the 15-hour mark even though plenty of driving time remains on the 10-hour clock. Driving must stop. The only way to reset the window is another full 8 consecutive hours off duty. Passenger-carrier rules do not include a 30-minute mandatory break that pauses or extends the on-duty window.

Time genuinely spent resting in a parked vehicle or in a sleeper berth does not count as on-duty time and can pause the 15-hour window if logged correctly. But the driver has to be actually relieved of duties. Sitting in the driver’s seat waiting is on duty.

Weekly Limits: 60 Hours in 7 Days or 70 in 8

On top of daily limits, federal rules cap total on-duty time over a rolling multi-day period. Which cap applies depends on how often the carrier runs vehicles:

If the carrier does not operate every day of the week, a driver cannot exceed 60 on-duty hours in any 7 consecutive days.
If the carrier operates every day, the limit is 70 on-duty hours in any 8 consecutive days.⁴

These are rolling calculations. Each day, the oldest day drops off and the newest day’s hours are added in. A driver who worked heavy hours early in the week may find the cumulative cap blocking further driving before the daily limits do.

No 34-Hour Restart

Truck drivers hauling freight can reset their 60/70-hour clock by taking 34 consecutive hours off duty. Passenger-carrier drivers do not get that shortcut. The text of 49 CFR 395.5 contains no restart provision, and FMCSA’s own summary lists the 34-hour restart only under property-carrying drivers.⁵ The only way a passenger-carrier driver resets the weekly clock is by letting enough days roll off the back end of the 7- or 8-day period. Drivers switching from freight to passenger work often assume the same rules apply, and this is the assumption that hurts them.

Short-Haul Exception

Drivers who stay close to their home base can use a simpler set of requirements. Under the short-haul exception, a passenger-carrier driver is exempt from maintaining a full Record of Duty Status and from ELD requirements if the driver operates within a 150 air-mile radius of the normal work reporting location and returns there within 14 consecutive hours.⁵

Instead of an ELD, the carrier keeps simple time records showing when the driver reported for duty, total on-duty hours each day, and the release time. Those records must be retained for at least 6 months.⁸ The driving and weekly limits still apply in full. City transit operators running fixed urban routes are the typical beneficiaries.

Adverse Conditions and Emergencies

When a driver runs into unexpected weather, road closures, or traffic that could not have been anticipated before the trip began, the regulations allow up to 2 additional hours of driving beyond the normal 10-hour maximum.⁹ The key word is “unexpected.” If the carrier knew about the conditions before dispatching the driver, the exception does not apply.¹⁰ Wanting to get home sooner, pressure from a customer, a driver shortage, or a mechanical breakdown do not qualify.

During officially declared emergencies, HOS requirements can be temporarily suspended. The scope depends on who declared the emergency: a Presidential declaration provides relief from the full range of safety regulations in 49 CFR Parts 390 through 399 for the period of assistance or 30 days, whichever is shorter; a Governor or FMCSA declaration provides relief from HOS driving-time rules for the period of assistance or 14 days, whichever is shorter; and a local government declaration provides relief from HOS driving-time rules for the period of assistance or 5 days.¹¹ Once the emergency period ends, normal limits snap back immediately.

ELDs and Recordkeeping

Most passenger-carrier drivers required to keep a Record of Duty Status must use an Electronic Logging Device. The ELD connects to the engine and automatically captures driving time, engine hours, movement, and location.¹² Three categories of drivers are not required to use an ELD: short-haul drivers using timecards instead of a full RODS, drivers who use paper logs for no more than 8 days in any 30-day period,¹³ and drivers of vehicles manufactured before the year 2000.

Carriers must retain Records of Duty Status and supporting documents for at least 6 months from receipt.¹⁴ The driver personally must carry copies of their duty status records for the previous 7 consecutive days.

What Happens If You Violate the Limits

HOS enforcement happens primarily at roadside inspections. When an inspector finds a driver has exceeded driving time or on-duty limits, the driver is placed out of service under 49 CFR 395.13 and cannot operate the vehicle again until enough off-duty time has been taken to come back into compliance. Neither the driver nor the carrier can override that order. For a bus full of passengers mid-trip, this creates an immediate operational problem no amount of scheduling can fix after the fact.

Beyond the roadside shutdown, violations carry civil penalties. The carrier is liable if it had or should have had the means to detect the violation. Recorded violations also feed the FMCSA’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability system and can trigger warning letters, targeted inspections, or full compliance investigations.

How These Rules Differ From Truck Driver Rules

Drivers moving between freight and passenger work often assume the rules are interchangeable. They are not. The differences that matter most:

Passenger carriers get 10 hours of driving; property carriers get 11.
Passenger carriers have a 15-hour on-duty window; property carriers have 14 hours, which works differently because truck drivers can extend it with a 30-minute break under certain conditions.
The 34-hour restart is available to property carriers only.⁵
Property carriers can use a 7/3 sleeper berth split; passenger carriers must use splits of at least 2 hours each totaling 8.⁶

The missing restart is the one that bites hardest in practice. A charter bus company running heavy weekend schedules cannot give a driver a day and a half off and start fresh on Monday the way a trucking company can.

1
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Passenger Carrier Guidance Fact Sheet
2
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Definition of Passenger CMV
3
eCFR. 49 CFR 390.3 – General Applicability
4
eCFR. 49 CFR 395.5 – Maximum Driving Time for Passenger-Carrying Vehicles
5
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Summary of Hours of Service Regulations
6
eCFR. 49 CFR Part 395 – Hours of Service of Drivers
7
eCFR. 49 CFR Part 395 – Hours of Service of Drivers – Section 395.2
8
eCFR. 49 CFR Part 395 – Hours of Service of Drivers – Section 395.1(e)
9
eCFR. 49 CFR 395.1 – Scope of Rules in This Part
10
U.S. Department of Transportation – Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). How May a Driver Utilize the Adverse Driving Conditions Exception or the Emergency Conditions Exception
11
Federal Register. Clarification to the Applicability of Emergency Exemptions
12
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Who Must Comply with the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) Rule
13
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Electronic Logging Device (ELD) Exemptions, Waivers and Vendor Malfunction Extensions
14
eCFR. 49 CFR 395.8 – Drivers Record of Duty Status