The short-haul exemption for work trucks

Most work trucks sleep in the same yard they left that morning. The dump truck runs quarry to job site all day. The mixer goes plant to pour and back. The refuse truck runs its route and dumps at the transfer station. That’s exactly the kind of driving the federal short-haul exemption was written for.

The exemption, often called the 150 air-mile rule, lets local drivers skip the logbook and the ELD on days that stay close to home and end on time. It saves paperwork every day. But vocational days don’t always end on time, and the people waiting on the trucks have their own deadlines. Here’s how the rule works, where each trade runs into trouble, and how to keep the records it requires.

What the short-haul exemption covers

For drivers who need a CDL, the rule is in 49 CFR 395.1(e)(1). A driver is exempt from logs and ELDs on any day that meets all of these conditions: (49 CFR 395.1(e))

• The driver stays within a 150 air-mile radius of the normal work reporting location.
• The driver returns to that location and is released from work within 14 consecutive hours.
• The driver had at least 10 consecutive hours off duty before the shift.
• The motor carrier keeps an accurate time record for the day and holds it for six months.

An air mile is a nautical mile, so 150 air miles is 172.6 regular miles. It’s measured in a straight line from the yard, not by road. A job site 190 road miles away by highway can still be inside the radius if the straight-line distance is under 172.6 miles.

Short-haul drivers also don’t need the 30-minute break. The break rule, 49 CFR 395.3(a)(3)(ii), says it doesn’t apply to drivers who qualify for the short-haul exemption. (49 CFR 395.3)

What the exemption doesn’t change matters just as much. The 11-hour driving limit, the 60-hour/7-day or 70-hour/8-day weekly limit, drug and alcohol testing and the CDL rules all still apply. The exemption swaps the log for a time record. It doesn’t give anyone a longer day.

Drivers who don’t need a CDL

Drivers of smaller trucks that don’t require a CDL have their own version in 395.1(e)(2). They also stay within 150 air miles and return to the same location each day. Instead of a hard 14-hour release, they can’t drive after the 14th hour on duty on 5 days of any 7, or after the 16th hour on 2 days of any 7. Their company keeps the same kind of time records. (49 CFR 395.1(e))

One more limit: these are federal rules for interstate carriers. A driver who never leaves one state may fall under state rules, which often follow the federal ones with some differences. Check with your state if your trucks stay home.

Does my day qualify?

Run these four questions at the end of each shift. A CDL driver who can say yes to all four had a short-haul day.

Free toolThe free 150 Air-Mile Time Card asks these questions for you. Clock in and out on your phone, watch the 14-hour window and your weekly hours, and send your company the time records.Open the time card →

Where each trade runs into the limits

Every vocational trade uses the exemption a little differently, and each has its own way of stretching the day.

Dump trucks

Dump truck days are usually shaped by the supplier. Quarries, sand pits and asphalt plants run set operating hours, so a driver hauling aggregate mostly finishes when the scale house closes. The day that breaks the 14-hour window tends to be the exception: the plant stays open for a night paving job, the line at the scale backs up, or the last load goes to a site an hour farther out than planned.

Dump truck drivers also get a weekly break most other drivers don’t. Under 395.1(m), drivers hauling construction materials or equipment to or from an active construction site within 75 air miles of their normal work reporting location can restart the 60- or 70-hour week with 24 hours off instead of 34. An active site runs from mobilization to final completion. States can set the distance between 50 and 75 air miles for drivers who stay in the state. (49 CFR 395.1(m), 395.2)

Concrete mixers

Ready-mix runs on the pour schedule. Summer pours often start before daylight to beat the heat, and a slab can’t stop halfway because the clock says so. A pump that breaks down, a slow finishing crew or one more truck called at 3 PM can push a mixer driver toward hour 14.

Mixer drivers rarely leave the plant’s area, so most days qualify. On a day that doesn’t, the 30-minute break comes back. There’s help for that too: under 395.1(t), a ready-mix driver can count 30 minutes or more of waiting with the truck at a job site or the plant as the break, as long as no other work is done during it. (49 CFR 395.1(t))

Refuse trucks

Refuse routes start early and run long when a truck breaks down or the landfill line is slow. Who owns the truck matters here. Trucks run by a city, county or state government are exempt from most federal motor carrier safety rules, including hours of service, under 49 CFR 390.3(f)(2). Their drivers still need a CDL and still fall under drug and alcohol testing. (49 CFR 390.3)

That exemption doesn’t follow the work. A private hauler collecting trash under a city contract isn’t a government vehicle. Its drivers follow the hours rules, and the short-haul exemption is how most of them avoid logs.

Heavy equipment haulers

Lowboy and equipment haulers are the most likely to fall outside the rule, because moves go where the job goes. A move past 150 air miles means a log for that day. Many state oversize permits also limit when a load can travel, which can leave a driver waiting on the side of the road with the clock running.

Equipment moves count as construction equipment under 395.1(m), so the 24-hour restart can apply to haulers moving machines to or from active sites within 75 air miles. Haulers who log more than 8 days in any 30 need an ELD, which is why many equipment fleets run ELDs in every truck. (49 CFR 395.8)

When the job pushes the clock

Everyone on a job site has a reason to keep the trucks rolling. A grading contractor wants the pad cut and compacted before the rain. A paving crew needs mix while the weather holds. A concrete contractor can’t walk away from a half-placed slab. And many construction contracts charge the contractor a set amount for every day the project runs late. All of that pressure rolls downhill to the trucks.

It helps to know what the rules do and don’t allow when the call comes for one more load.

A rain forecast doesn’t add hours

The adverse driving conditions exception gives a driver up to 2 extra hours. It only covers snow, ice, sleet, fog or other bad weather, or unusual road or traffic conditions, that the driver didn’t know about and couldn’t reasonably have known about before the day started, or that the carrier didn’t know about at dispatch. A storm that’s in the morning forecast doesn’t qualify. Neither does hurrying to finish a pad before the rain. That’s a job-site reason, not a road condition. (49 CFR 395.1(b), 395.2)

The 16-hour exception, once a week

Under 395.1(o), a driver who has reported to and been released from the same yard for the previous 5 duty tours can stretch the 14-hour window to 16 hours. It can be used once in any 6 consecutive days, or again after a 34-hour restart. It doesn’t add driving time: the 11-hour limit still applies. And because the day runs past 14 hours, it’s not a short-haul day for a CDL driver, so that day needs a log. (49 CFR 395.1(o))

Pressure to break the rules is against the law

Under 49 CFR 390.6, motor carriers, shippers, receivers and transportation intermediaries can’t coerce a driver into breaking the hours rules. Coercion means the driver says the trip would break the rules, and someone threatens to take away loads, cut pay, fire the driver or take some other action against them. A driver can file a written complaint with FMCSA within 90 days. Separate federal law, 49 U.S.C. 31105, protects employees who refuse to drive in violation of safety rules. (49 CFR 390.6; FMCSA)

How good crews handle it

• Set a head-back time. If the drive back to the yard takes an hour, the last load leaves the job by hour 12, not hour 13 and a half.
• Talk about the clock before the job, not at 4 PM. Contractors plan around truck counts. Tell them how many hours your drivers have left.
• Split a long pour or a big haul day between two drivers instead of stretching one.
• Keep a paper log book in every truck for the day that runs over, and know how to fill it out.
• Back up the driver who says no. A driver who refuses an illegal load is doing the job right.

If a day runs over

Going past 14 hours or 150 air miles doesn’t end the exemption for the week. The rule works day by day. That one day needs a log, also called a record of duty status, and the 30-minute break after 8 hours of driving applies that day. The next day that meets the conditions is a short-haul day again.

Watch the count, though. A driver who needs a log on no more than 8 days in any 30-day period can use paper logs. More than that, and the driver needs an ELD. (49 CFR 395.8)

What a short-haul time record shows

The carrier keeps a time record for every short-haul driver and every day, for six months. (49 CFR 395.1(e)) It has to show:

• The time the driver reported for duty.
• The total hours on duty that day.
• The time the driver was released.
• For drivers used for the first time or only now and then, the total time on duty for the past 7 days.

Here’s what that looks like for a dump truck driver in a busy week. Thursday ran long when the asphalt plant stayed open for a night paving job.

Two things stand out. Thursday needs a log because it ran past 14 hours, even though the driver qualified for the 16-hour exception that day. And the week is at 59.5 hours, so a Saturday shift would break the 60-hour limit unless the company runs every day of the week and uses the 70-hour/8-day schedule, or the driver gets a restart first.

Free toolKeep this record without a clipboard. The free 150 Air-Mile Time Card works on any phone, keeps your times on your device, flags a day that runs past 14 hours, and exports the records your company keeps.Open the time card →

Short-haul exemption FAQ

The short-haul exemption is one of the best tools a local fleet has. It keeps paperwork light on the days that go right. Knowing where it stops, and saying so before the day runs long, keeps it working for you.

Sources (8)

1. 49 CFR 395.1, Scope of rules: short-haul (e), adverse driving conditions (b), construction restart (m), 16-hour exception (o), ready-mixed concrete (t)
2. 49 CFR 395.2, Definitions: adverse driving conditions; transportation of construction materials and equipment
3. 49 CFR 395.3, Maximum driving time for property-carrying vehicles
4. 49 CFR 395.8, Driver’s record of duty status
5. 49 CFR 390.6, Coercion prohibited
6. 49 CFR 390.3, General applicability
7. FMCSA, FAQs: prohibited coercion of CMV drivers
8. Federal Register, Hours of Service of Drivers final rule (June 1, 2020)

Rules were checked against the Code of Federal Regulations on Oct 29, 2026. This is general information, not legal advice. Drivers who stay inside one state may follow state rules that differ. See something out of date? Send a correction