Most solo long-haul truck drivers cover about 2,500 to 3,000 miles per week. Federal law doesn’t actually cap how many miles a truck driver can drive per week; it caps hours. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Hours of Service rules in 49 CFR Part 395 set daily and weekly limits on driving and on-duty time, and your weekly mileage is whatever those hours produce at legal highway speeds once you subtract loading, fueling, inspections, and everything else that isn’t rolling wheels.
The Daily Ceiling
If you drive a property-carrying truck, you can drive up to 11 hours per shift, but only within a 14-hour window that starts the moment you go on duty.1eCFR. 49 CFR 395.3 That 14-hour clock runs continuously once it starts. Lunch, a stuck loading dock, a nap in the cab — none of it stops the clock. Come on duty at 6:00 AM and your window closes at 8:00 PM regardless of what happened in between. Any driving hours you didn’t use are gone.
Before starting a new shift, you need at least 10 consecutive hours off duty.2Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Summary of Hours of Service Regulations Ten hours with no work, in one unbroken block. After 8 cumulative hours of driving without an interruption, you also need at least a 30-minute break before driving again.3Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. When Must a Driver Take a 30-Minute Break The break doesn’t have to be off duty; any 30 consecutive minutes not spent driving counts, including time at a loading dock or in the sleeper berth.
You don’t have to take your 10 hours of rest all at once. The split sleeper berth rule lets you break it into two periods, as long as one block is at least 7 hours in the sleeper berth and the other is at least 2 hours off duty (in or out of the berth), and the two periods total at least 10 hours.2Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Summary of Hours of Service Regulations Neither split rest period counts against your 14-hour window, which effectively stretches your available driving time across a longer span of the day.
The Weekly Ceiling
Daily caps are only half the picture. Federal rules also limit total on-duty time across a rolling multi-day period, and this is what ultimately governs weekly mileage. Two schedules exist:
- 60 hours in 7 days, for carriers that don’t operate commercial vehicles every day of the week.
- 70 hours in 8 days, for carriers that operate every day. A daily carrier can still choose the 60/7 schedule.
The carrier decides which schedule its drivers follow and can assign different drivers to different schedules.4Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. May a Motor Carrier Switch From a 60-Hour 7-Day Limit to a 70-Hour 8-Day Limit or Vice Versa Once you hit the limit, you can’t drive again until old on-duty time drops off the rolling window or you take a full restart.
“On duty” for this cap includes everything work-related, not just driving. Time at weigh stations, pre-trip inspections, loading freight, and fueling all count.1eCFR. 49 CFR 395.3 That distinction matters when you’re estimating weekly miles, because a driver who spends 15 hours a week at loading docks has far fewer driving hours available than one doing drop-and-hook loads.
Instead of waiting for hours to roll off day by day, you can reset your weekly clock entirely by taking at least 34 consecutive hours off duty.2Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Summary of Hours of Service Regulations After a 34-hour restart, your 7- or 8-day period begins fresh at zero. Many drivers time the restart over a weekend and start Monday with a full bank of hours. The restart is optional.
Turning Hours Into Miles
Truck speed limits vary by state, from 55 mph in places like California and Oregon to 70 mph in states like Montana and Alabama. Many states cap trucks between 60 and 65 mph even where cars can go faster. A single day of 11 hours behind the wheel could produce roughly 605 miles at 55 mph or 715 miles at 65 mph under perfect conditions. Nobody maintains highway speed for 11 straight hours in practice. Traffic, construction, fuel stops, and time on surface streets near pickup and delivery points all slow the average.
A realistic daily average for an over-the-road driver is closer to 450 to 550 miles. Across five or six driving days per week, that produces the 2,500 to 3,000 mile range most long-haul drivers actually see. Team drivers who split shifts and keep the truck moving nearly around the clock can push past 4,000 miles a week. A solo driver consistently hitting 3,500 is doing exceptionally well.
What Eats Into Your Mileage
The biggest mileage killer is detention time at shippers and receivers. Those hours count as on-duty time, burning through the 60- or 70-hour weekly bank without producing miles. Surveys from the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association have found that roughly 70% of drivers wait 3 or more hours per week just to load, and a similar share waits 3-plus hours to unload. That’s potentially 6 or more hours a week of on-duty time spent sitting still.
Other drains include pre-trip and post-trip inspections (required daily), fueling, navigating to and from truck stops, weather delays, and paperwork. Flatbed drivers who tarp and secure loads typically lose more non-driving on-duty time than van or reefer drivers. All of it counts against the weekly cap and adds zero miles.
Personal Conveyance
Moving your truck for personal reasons while off duty doesn’t eat into your driving hours. The FMCSA calls this personal conveyance, and it covers things like driving from your overnight stop to a restaurant, commuting between terminal and home, or traveling a short distance to find a safe rest location after finishing a delivery.5Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Personal Conveyance You can use personal conveyance with a loaded trailer, since the freight isn’t being transported for the carrier’s benefit at that point. Your carrier can impose stricter rules, including banning personal conveyance outright or capping the distance.
Exceptions That Can Add Miles
When you encounter unexpected conditions like snow, fog, or a major traffic backup that you couldn’t have reasonably anticipated before dispatching, you can extend both your 11-hour driving limit and your 14-hour window by up to 2 hours.2Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Summary of Hours of Service Regulations The key word is unexpected. If your carrier dispatched you knowing a blizzard was coming, the extension doesn’t apply.6Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. How May a Driver Utilize the Adverse Driving Conditions Exception Two extra hours on a bad-weather day can mean 100 or more additional miles.
Drivers hauling agricultural commodities are exempt from all HOS rules while operating within 150 air miles of the commodity’s source, meaning the location where the commodity was first loaded, whether a farm, grain elevator, or intermediate storage facility. Once you pass beyond that 150 air-mile radius, full HOS rules apply for the rest of the trip.7Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The Agricultural Commodity Exemption in 49 CFR 395.1(k)(1) During harvest season, this exception can significantly extend daily and weekly miles in agricultural corridors.
A short-haul exception also exists for drivers who stay within a 150 air-mile radius (about 173 road miles) of their starting location and return there every day. It exempts them from detailed logging and the 30-minute break, but the 11-hour driving and 14-hour on-duty limits still apply.1eCFR. 49 CFR 395.3 Short-haul drivers typically log fewer weekly miles simply because their routes are shorter.
What Pushing Past the Limits Costs
Running an extra hour or two might gain you 60 to 120 miles in the short term, but the penalties can wipe that gain out several times over. A driver who exceeds the 11-hour, 14-hour, or 60/70-hour limits faces civil penalties of up to $4,812 per violation.8eCFR. Appendix B to Part 386 – Penalty Schedule Carriers that require or allow drivers to exceed the limits face substantially higher fines, and falsifying records carries its own penalty category.
The FMCSA treats “egregious” violations more harshly. Exceeding the 11-hour driving limit or short-changing the 10-hour off-duty requirement by more than 3 hours is grounds for the maximum penalty the law allows.8eCFR. Appendix B to Part 386 – Penalty Schedule Beyond fines, an officer who finds you in violation during a roadside inspection can place you out of service, meaning you sit until you’ve accumulated enough off-duty time to drive legally again. For carriers, HOS violations also raise safety scores in the FMCSA’s compliance tracking system, which can trigger warning letters, investigations, and eventually loss of operating authority. Those violations stay on the carrier’s record for 24 months. A single out-of-service order costs more miles than the shortcut ever produced.