By the TruckerNavi compliance team, led by Dmitry Borovoy, a New Jersey-licensed insurance producer and author of "Safety Manager: From Zero to Expert".
The short answer: you follow the rules of the country you are physically driving in, and the border resets nothing. In Canada, south of latitude 60N, you get 13 hours of driving and 14 hours of on-duty time in a day, you need 8 consecutive hours off, and you stop driving once 16 hours have elapsed since the end of your last 8-plus-hour break. In the United States you get 11 hours of driving inside a 14-hour window that opens when you come on duty after 10 consecutive hours off, plus a mandatory 30-minute break after 8 hours of driving. Weekly, Canada lets you pick 70 hours in 7 days or 120 hours in 14 days; the US gives you 60 in 7 or 70 in 8.
The second half of that sentence is what puts American carriers out of service. FMCSA regulatory guidance to §395.3, Question 5, issued April 4, 1997, says a US driver may run the Canadian limits while in Canada, then says the quiet part out loud: on re-entering the US, a driver who takes full advantage of Canadian law may have to stop driving for a time immediately after returning to the U.S. in order to restore compliance with Part 395. You can burn 13 hours legally in Ontario and be illegal the second your tires touch Michigan.
Everything below comes from 49 CFR Part 395, the Canadian Commercial Vehicle Drivers Hours of Service Regulations (SOR/2005-313), published FMCSA guidance and Transport Canada.
The territory where the wheels are turning decides. Two pieces of FMCSA guidance settle it between them.
The Canadian side matches: the regulations bind any extra-provincial truck undertaking, which is exactly what a US carrier hauling into Canada is. There is no reciprocity clause letting you run an American logbook up the 401. If the American baseline is not fresh in your head, start with our walkthrough of the US hours of service rules.
Canadian figures are for driving south of latitude 60N, which covers every crossing between the lower 48 states and Canada. Only the Alaska to Yukon crossings sit north of that line. The rulebook is drawn by latitude, not by provincial borders: sections 12 to 29 apply "in respect of driving south of latitude 60°N" (s.11), and northern Quebec and northern Labrador also sit above 60N. The northern rulebook is different and gets its own section below.
| Parameter | United States (49 CFR 395) | Canada, south of 60N (SOR/2005-313) |
|---|---|---|
| Driving before a reset break | 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off, 395.3(a)(3)(i) | 13 hours, then 8 consecutive hours off, s.13(1) |
| Driving per day | No separate daily cap; the 14-hour window is the constraint | 13 hours in a day, s.12(1) |
| On-duty per day | No separate daily cap | 14 hours in a day, s.12(2) |
| The daily window | 14 consecutive hours from coming on duty after 10 hours off, 395.3(a)(2) | 16 hours elapsed between the end of one 8-plus-hour off-duty period and the start of the next, s.13(3) |
| Does the window pause for breaks? | No, except qualifying sleeper berth periods under 395.1(g)(1)(ii), which are excluded from the window, 395.1(g)(1)(iii)(B) | No, unless the break itself is 8 or more consecutive hours |
| Minimum qualifying break | 10 consecutive hours, 395.3(a)(1) | 8 consecutive hours, s.13 |
| Total off-duty required per day | Not framed as a daily total | 10 hours per day: 8 consecutive plus at least 2 more, in blocks of no less than 30 minutes, s.14 |
| Mandatory mid-shift break | 30 minutes after 8 hours of driving time, 395.3(a)(3)(ii) | None as such; covered by the 2 hours above |
| Multi-day limit | 60 hours in 7 days or 70 in 8 days, set by whether the carrier runs every day, 395.3(b) | Driver's choice: cycle 1, 70 hours in 7 days or cycle 2, 120 hours in 14 days, s.26 and s.27 |
| Reset of that limit | 34 consecutive hours off, 395.3(c) | 36 hours for cycle 1, 72 hours for cycle 2, s.28 |
| Extra long-cycle safeguard | None | 24 consecutive hours off in the preceding 14 days, s.25; cycle 2 also needs 24 off before 70 on-duty hours, s.27(b) |
| Deferring off-duty to the next day | Not permitted. No such provision exists. | Up to 2 hours, under five conditions, s.16 |
| Sleeper berth split, single driver | Two periods, neither under 2 hours, one at least 7 consecutive hours in the berth, total 10; qualifying periods do not count in the 14-hour window, 395.1(g)(1) | Two periods, neither under 2 hours, total at least 10, both in the sleeper berth, driving before and after not over 13 hours, s.18 |
| Adverse driving conditions | Up to 2 additional hours beyond the limits in 395.3(a), per 395.1(b)(1) | Extend the 13 driving hours and cut the 2 hours of daily off-duty, with driving, on-duty and elapsed time extended no more than 2 hours, s.76(2) |
| Personal conveyance cap | No numeric cap in the rule text | 75 km in a day, unloaded, trailers unhitched, odometer recorded, s.1 |
| Yard moves | Separate duty status, not driving time | On-duty time by definition, s.1; the ELD must let the driver flag them, s.77(4) |
| Local exemption from logs | 150 air-mile radius (172.6 statute miles), released within 14 consecutive hours, 395.1(e)(1) | 160 km radius of the home terminal, returning daily to start 8 consecutive hours off, s.77(3) |
| ELD approval model | Provider self-certifies and registers with FMCSA, Appendix A to Subpart B of Part 395, §5.1 and §5.2 | Tested and certified by a body accredited by Transport Canada, s.79.1 and s.79.2 |
Thirteen, but two separate ceilings apply and they are easy to confuse.
The American design has no "day" at all for driving purposes: the 11 hours and the 14-hour window both run from the end of your last 10-hour break, rolling. That is why drivers who assume the Canadian 13 hours behaves like the American 11 get caught. In Canada two ceilings can bind you at once.
Section 13(3) is the most misread line in Canadian trucking. A driver may not drive after 16 hours of time have elapsed between the conclusion of the most recent period of 8 or more consecutive hours of off-duty time and the beginning of the next period of 8 or more consecutive hours of off-duty time. The anchor point is not the American one:
So Canada's window is two hours longer on paper and can be shorter in practice if you are slow off the mark. The American side of the same problem, a genuinely different animal despite the shared number, is in our breakdown of the short-haul and 16-hour exception.
Section 14 has no American counterpart at all. A driver must take at least 10 hours of off-duty time in a day, and the composition is prescribed:
Part 395 tells you how long your reset must be and forces a 30-minute interruption after 8 hours of driving, but it never says "you owe 10 hours of off-duty time today." A driver used to American logs routinely finishes a legal-looking Canadian day two hours short on section 14 and never notices until an inspector adds it up.
Canada gives the driver a real choice, which the US does not. In the US, 60/7 or 70/8 is decided by the carrier: 70 in 8 if the company operates commercial motor vehicles every day of the week, 60 in 7 if it does not. In Canada the driver follows either cycle 1 or cycle 2 (s.24) and enters the chosen cycle in the ELD (s.77(5)(b)).
| Feature | Cycle 1 | Cycle 2 |
|---|---|---|
| On-duty ceiling | 70 hours in any period of 7 days | 120 hours in any period of 14 days |
| Mid-cycle requirement | None beyond the 24-hours-in-14-days rule | 24 consecutive hours off before reaching 70 on-duty hours |
| Reset | 36 consecutive hours off duty | 72 consecutive hours off duty |
| Cost of switching into it | 72 consecutive hours off, coming from cycle 2 | 36 consecutive hours off, coming from cycle 1 |
| Suits | Regional and shuttle work with weekly home time | Long trips needing a bigger pool of hours across two weeks |
Two traps. Every driver on either cycle must have taken at least 24 consecutive hours off-duty in the preceding 14 days (s.25). And switching cycles is not free: cycle 1 to cycle 2 costs 36 consecutive hours off, cycle 2 back to cycle 1 costs 72 (s.29). You cannot flip cycles mid-week to manufacture hours.
This is the one Canadian provision with no American analogue, and the one that most often shows up as a violation on a US carrier's Canadian trip. Section 16 lets a driver defer up to 2 hours of daily off-duty time to the following day, but only if all five conditions hold:
Two more limits worth memorising: you cannot defer and split your sleeper berth on the same day (both s.18(1)(f) and s.19(1)(f) require that none of the daily off-duty time be deferred), and the deferral must be entered in the ELD as its own data element (s.77(5)(g)). Since deferral lives or dies on the annotation, it is worth knowing where a legitimate log entry ends and a problem begins: see log edits vs falsification.
The US 30-minute break does not exist in Canada. Section 395.3(a)(3)(ii) bars a US driver from driving if more than 8 hours of driving time have passed without at least a consecutive 30-minute interruption of driving status, satisfied by off-duty, sleeper berth or on-duty not driving time. Canada has no such trigger. What it has instead is the section 14 requirement for 2 hours of daily off-duty in blocks of at least 30 minutes, which is a daily accounting rule, not a driving-time trigger.
Sleeper berth splits look similar and are not:
The practical difference: in the US you can pair 7 hours in the bunk with 3 hours off duty in a diner. In Canada both halves go in the berth, and neither half carries a 7-hour minimum. The American arithmetic, including how the 14-hour window is recalculated, is worked through in our split sleeper berth guide.
Both countries hand you two hours, but the categories are written differently. The US definition at §395.2 covers snow, ice, sleet, fog, other adverse weather or unusual road or traffic conditions not known and not reasonably knowable before the duty day or before resuming driving after a qualifying rest break or sleeper berth period. Canada's section 1 covers adverse weather or road conditions only: traffic is not named at all. So a backup behind a crash can qualify in the US if it could not reasonably have been known in advance, and it has no named home in the Canadian definition; ordinary rush-hour congestion qualifies in neither.
The Canadian version is broader in letting you cut into the section 14 off-duty requirement, and stricter in making the 8 consecutive hours untouchable. Both demand documentation and both are audited hard. The US mechanics are unpacked in our piece on the adverse driving conditions exception. Canada also carries a separate emergency provision, section 76(1), which lifts the driving, on-duty and off-duty requirements entirely for a driver who needs more time to reach a place of safety.
Almost certainly yes, or at minimum a device that appears on both lists. Here the two countries diverge philosophically, not just numerically.
| Question | United States | Canada |
|---|---|---|
| Who says the device is compliant? | The provider itself. FMCSA publishes a list of registered, self-certified ELDs | A third-party certification body accredited by Transport Canada, which tests the model |
| What the carrier must verify | The device is on FMCSA's registered ELDs list, 395.22(a) | The model is on Transport Canada's list of certified ELDs |
| Identifier | Registration entry on the FMCSA list | Certification number assigned to the model by the accredited body, s.79.2 |
| Oversight of the certifier | FMCSA may remove a device from the list | The Minister accredits certification bodies for 5 years, s.79.1, and must suspend accreditation if the body stops meeting the requirements, s.79.3 |
| Technical spec | The ELD rule's technical specifications | CCMTA Technical Standard for Electronic Logging Devices, April 11, 2019 |
| Mandatory since | Compliance date December 18, 2017; ELDs mandatory for everyone from December 16, 2019, when grandfathered AOBRDs stopped counting | June 12, 2021, with progressive enforcement without penalties until January 1, 2023 |
| Paperwork that must ride in the cab | Data-transfer instruction sheet, malfunction instruction sheet and blank RODS grids for at least 8 days, 395.22(h). The operator's manual requirement was removed on July 22, 2026 (91 FR 37053) | An ELD information packet with a user's manual, both instruction sheets and blank records of duty status for at least 15 days, s.77(7) |
Transport Canada's wording is unambiguous: only ELDs that are compliant with the Regulations, and tested and certified by a certification body accredited by Transport Canada, are permissible, and US drivers operating in Canada must also use one of the certified devices on its list. Registration with FMCSA proves nothing about Canadian status. Plenty of major providers hold both, but you verify your specific model and software version, not the brand.
Two details that bite cross-border fleets. The mounting rule looks familiar, and is not identical: 395.22(g) applies the fixed-position, visible-to-the-driver requirement only when the driver uses a portable ELD, while s.77(1) applies it to every ELD in the vehicle. And when it malfunctions, the carrier has 14 days to repair or replace it, or until the driver returns from a planned trip if that is longer (s.78(5)), while the driver records the malfunction code in every subsequent record of duty status. The American clock is shorter and the paperwork different: see the ELD malfunction 8-day rule. A mis-set ruleset in a cross-border truck tends to dump miles into the wrong bucket, so it is worth reading how unassigned driving time accumulates and who ends up owning it.
The exemptions are narrower than most people hope and are not the same as the American ones. Under section 77 and Transport Canada's guidance, no ELD is required if:
Compare the US short-haul exception at 395.1(e)(1): a 150 air-mile radius (172.6 statute miles) from the normal work reporting location, back and released within 14 consecutive hours, 10 consecutive hours off separating each 14 on duty for property carriers, and time records kept 6 months. Similar idea, different radius, and the Canadian version additionally demands that the daily return start the 8-hour break. One jurisdictional oddity: Transport Canada notes that the Regulations do not currently apply in Nunavut, nor does the ELD requirement. Enforcement everywhere else is provincial, so the officer stopping you answers to Ontario or Alberta, not to Ottawa. The American set of ELD duties, from registration to record retention, is collected in our ELD compliance requirements.
Personal conveyance. Canada writes a hard number into the definition of on-duty time. Driving for personal use is excluded from on-duty time only if the vehicle is not used in the course of the carrier's business, is unloaded, has any trailers unhitched, the distance travelled does not exceed 75 km in a day, the driver has recorded the odometer reading at the beginning and end of the personal use, and the driver is not under an out-of-service declaration. The US rule text carries no equivalent numeric cap, which is why American drivers are relaxed about a status Canada has fenced with six conditions. Note the unloaded and unhitched requirements in particular: bobtailing to a hotel is fine, deadheading with the trailer is not. How the same status is abused and defended on the American side is in our guide to personal conveyance rules.
Yard moves. In Canada, moving a commercial vehicle within a terminal, depot or port off the public road appears in the definition of on-duty time, and a carrier that authorises yard moves must ensure the driver's ELD is configured so the driver can indicate them (s.77(4)). The status exists so the time is not misrecorded as driving, but it is still working time. The American treatment and the ways it goes wrong are in yard moves and the ELD.
No. Nothing at all. This is the practical heart of the topic, so here it is concretely.
| Point in the trip | Under the Canadian rulebook | Under Part 395 the moment he re-enters |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1: 12 hours of driving, Detroit to a consignee near Toronto | Legal. The 13-hour daily cap in s.12(1) is not reached and the 16-hour window in s.13(3) is intact | Over the 11-hour driving limit in 395.3(a)(3)(i) by a full hour |
| Day 1 night: 8 consecutive hours off | A qualifying break under s.13(1). The Canadian day starts clean | Not a qualifying break. 395.3(a)(1) needs 10 consecutive hours, so no new driving period has begun |
| Day 2 morning: he wants to run for the bridge | Up to 13 hours of driving available again | Zero driving hours available until he takes 10 consecutive hours off |
| On-duty hours accumulated in Ontario | Count against cycle 1 (70 hours in 7 days) or cycle 2 (120 hours in 14 days) | Count against 60 hours in 7 days or 70 in 8, per guidance to §395.3, Question 5 |
| What actually fixes it | Take the 10 consecutive hours in Canada before the crossing | The same 10 consecutive hours, taken anywhere, including in the customs queue if it is logged off duty |
FMCSA does not leave this to inference. Its guidance says that on re-entering the United States the driver is subject to all of the requirements of Part 395, including the 11- and 14-hour rules and the 60- or 70-hour rules applicable to the previous 7 or 8 consecutive days, and that a driver who takes full advantage of Canadian law may have to stop driving for a time immediately after returning to the US in order to restore compliance.
The planning rule that follows is simple and unglamorous: if the return leg is in the US, plan the Canadian leg to American limits. Use the Canadian 13 hours only when you will take a full 10-hour break in Canada before the border, or when the load terminates there. The traffic runs the other way too: the Canadian definition of on-duty time counts time spent performing any work for any motor carrier, with no geographic carve-out, so hours you burned in Ohio are still hours when you count a Canadian cycle. Whatever the country, logbook violations feed the same enforcement machine on the American side, and what they cost is broken down in HOS violations and CSA points.
If the load goes to Yukon or the Northwest Territories, the numbers change again. Sections 39 to 54 apply north of latitude 60N:
These are the widest limits anywhere in North America, and the ones that will strand a driver hardest on the way home, for exactly the reason set out above.
Thirteen. Section 12(1) of SOR/2005-313 caps driving at 13 hours in a day and section 12(2) caps on-duty time at 14 hours in the same day, where "day" is a 24-hour period starting at the hour the carrier designates for the driver's cycle. Section 13(1) then requires at least 8 consecutive hours off before driving again, and section 13(3) stops driving once 16 hours have elapsed since the previous 8-plus-hour break ended.
No. Canada has no equivalent of 49 CFR 395.3(a)(3)(ii), which bars driving after 8 hours of driving time without a consecutive 30-minute interruption. What Canada has instead is section 14: at least 10 hours of off-duty time in a day, of which 8 must be consecutive and at least 2 must sit outside that block, taken in pieces of no less than 30 minutes each. It is a daily total, not a driving trigger.
It removes the log, not the hours. Under s.77(3) a driver who stays within a 160 km radius of the home terminal and returns to it every day to begin at least 8 consecutive hours off duty needs neither an ELD nor a record of duty status, provided the carrier keeps daily records of the cycle followed and of on-duty times for 6 months. Drive outside the radius once and the exemption is gone for that day.
Yes, 75 km in a day. The definition of on-duty time in section 1 excludes personal driving only if the vehicle is not used in the carrier's business, is unloaded, has any trailers unhitched, the distance does not exceed 75 km in a day, the odometer was recorded at the beginning and end of the personal use, and the driver is not under an out-of-service declaration. US Part 395 sets no numeric cap at all.
Yes, but the definition is narrower. Canada covers snow, sleet, fog or other adverse weather or road conditions; traffic is not named. The US definition in 49 CFR 395.2 also reaches unusual road or traffic conditions. Both give up to 2 extra hours. Section 76(2) lets you extend the 13 driving hours and cut the 2 hours of daily off-duty time, but the 8 consecutive hours stay untouchable and the reason goes in the record of duty status.
You are out of hours. 49 CFR 395.3(a)(1) requires 10 consecutive hours off before driving, so an 8-hour Canadian break does not open a new US driving period, and the driving already done counts against the 11 hours. FMCSA guidance to §395.3, Question 5, says a driver who takes full advantage of Canadian law may have to stop driving immediately after returning. Take the full 10 hours before the crossing.
Both halves go in the berth in Canada. Section 18 allows two periods, neither under 2 hours, totalling at least 10, both spent resting in a sleeper berth that meets Schedule 1, with no deferral on that day. The US rule in 395.1(g)(1)(ii) requires one period of at least 7 consecutive hours in the berth, lets the second be off duty, and keeps qualifying periods out of the 14-hour window.
Wider on every axis. Sections 39 to 54 apply north of latitude 60N: 15 hours of driving or 18 hours of on-duty time before 8 consecutive hours off, and no driving once 20 hours have elapsed between one 8-plus-hour break and the next. Cycle 1 is 80 hours in 7 days instead of 70, cycle 2 stays at 120 hours in 14 days, resets stay at 36 and 72 hours, and adverse conditions still add no more than 2 hours.
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South of latitude 60N, Canada allows 13 hours of driving and 14 hours of on-duty time in a day, requires 8 consecutive hours off-duty, and stops driving once 16 hours have elapsed between one 8-plus-hour off-duty period and the next. The US allows 11 hours of driving inside a 14-hour window that starts when the driver comes on duty after 10 consecutive hours off, with a 30-minute break required after 8 hours of driving. Weekly, Canada offers a choice of 70 hours in 7 days or 120 hours in 14 days; the US applies 60 hours in 7 days or 70 hours in 8 days.
The rules of the territory you are physically driving in. FMCSA guidance states that a driver domiciled in the United States may comply with the Canadian hours of service regulations while driving in Canada. Once back in the US, all of Part 395 applies again, and FMCSA states that all hours-of-service provisions apply to all drivers of commercial motor vehicles regardless of nationality, point of origin, or where the driving time or on-duty time was accrued.
No. Nothing resets at the border. FMCSA guidance is explicit that on re-entering the United States the driver is subject to the 11- and 14-hour rules and the 60- or 70-hour rules applicable to the previous 7 or 8 consecutive days, and that a driver who takes full advantage of Canadian law may have to stop driving for a time immediately after returning to the US in order to restore compliance with Part 395. Only a qualifying off-duty period resets a clock, not a customs booth.
Yes. FMCSA guidance confirms a US-domiciled driver may run the Canadian limits while driving in Canada. The catch is the return leg: hours accrued under the more generous Canadian limits still count against the US 11-hour, 14-hour and 60/70-hour limits the moment the truck is back on American roads.
Section 16 of the Canadian regulations lets a driver defer up to 2 hours of daily off-duty time to the following day. The deferred time cannot come out of the mandatory 8 consecutive hours, total off-duty over the two days must be at least 20 hours, the deferred time is added to the 8 consecutive hours taken on day two, total driving over the two days cannot exceed 26 hours, and the driver must declare in the record of duty status that they are deferring and whether they are on day one or day two. US Part 395 has no equivalent: the 10 consecutive hours off is fixed and the sleeper berth split is the only flexibility.
Yes. Transport Canada states that only ELDs compliant with the Commercial Vehicle Drivers Hours of Service Regulations and tested and certified by a certification body accredited by Transport Canada are permissible, and that US drivers operating in Canada must also use one of the certified devices on Transport Canada's list. This differs from the US, where 49 CFR 395.22(a) requires only that the device appear on FMCSA's list of registered, self-certified ELDs. Being registered with FMCSA does not by itself make a device legal in Canada.
Under section 13(3) a driver may not drive after 16 hours have elapsed between the conclusion of the most recent period of 8 or more consecutive hours off-duty and the beginning of the next such period. The clock is anchored to the end of the qualifying break, not to the moment the driver goes on duty, and shorter breaks do not stop it. The US 14-hour window under 49 CFR 395.3(a)(2) starts when the driver comes on duty following 10 consecutive hours off. Same idea, different starting gun and two extra hours.
Cycle 1 caps on-duty time at 70 hours in any period of 7 days and resets with 36 consecutive hours off. Cycle 2 caps on-duty time at 120 hours in any period of 14 days, requires 24 consecutive hours off before reaching 70 hours, and resets with 72 consecutive hours off. Either way a driver must have taken at least 24 consecutive hours off-duty in the preceding 14 days. Switching from cycle 1 to cycle 2 needs 36 consecutive hours off; switching back needs 72. The chosen cycle has to be entered in the ELD.