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. FMCSA's system has no "points" in the DMV sense. It has a severity weight from 1 to 10. The four limits everyone argues about (11 hours, the 14-hour window, the 30-minute break, 60/70 hours) all sit in one violation group called Hours, all weighted 7. If the driver was put out of service, SMS adds 2 more. If the inspection was in the last six months, the whole thing is multiplied by 3. So one bad afternoon enters your HOS Compliance BASIC as (7 + 2) × 3 = 27 weighted units, divided by however many inspections you have. That divisor is why the same violation is a rounding error for a 40-truck fleet and a disaster for two trucks.
This article covers only the price of an HOS violation. For the whole picture of the seven BASICs and how percentiles are built, start with the hub: CSA Scores Explained.
Straight from 49 CFR 395.3 for property-carrying drivers, with FMCSA's own plain-language summary alongside it.
| Rule | What the regulation actually says | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| 10 hours off | May not drive without first taking 10 consecutive hours off duty. | 395.3(a)(1) |
| 14-hour window | May not drive after 14 consecutive hours have passed since coming on duty. It is a window, not a clock you can pause. | 395.3(a)(2) |
| 11 hours driving | A total of 11 hours of driving inside that 14-hour window. | 395.3(a)(3)(i) |
| 30-minute break | No driving once more than 8 hours of driving time have passed without at least a consecutive 30-minute interruption in driving status. It may be off duty, sleeper berth or on duty not driving, or any combination of the three. | 395.3(a)(3)(ii) |
| 60/70 hours | 60 hours in 7 consecutive days if the carrier does not run every day; 70 in 8 days if it does. | 395.3(b) |
| 34-hour restart | The 7-day or 8-day period may end with an off-duty period of 34 or more consecutive hours. | 395.3(c) |
Three exceptions, and the exact wording matters more than the nickname. Sleeper berth split, 395.1(g)(1)(ii): two rest periods, neither shorter than 2 consecutive hours, one of them at least 7 consecutive hours in the berth, totalling at least 10. Paragraph (g)(1)(iii)(B) is the part owners miss: the 14-hour window does not include those qualifying rest periods. Adverse driving conditions, 395.1(b)(1): not more than two additional hours beyond the maximum allowed under 395.3(a), which covers both the 11-hour limit and the 14-hour window. The definition in 395.2 is the catch: conditions you knew or could reasonably have known about before the duty day began do not qualify, so a forecast storm is not an exception. Short-haul, 395.1(e)(1): inside a 150 air-mile radius (172.6 statute miles) of the normal work reporting location, released within 14 consecutive hours, with 10 consecutive hours off between duty periods, the driver is exempt from 395.8 and 395.11 and, under 395.3(a)(3)(ii), from the 30-minute break. The carrier must keep true time records for 6 months.
On the road. Once 14 consecutive hours have passed since you came on duty, you may not drive. Off-duty time inside the window does not extend it: a three-hour nap at a shipper buys you nothing. You may still work on duty not driving, because the rule prohibits driving. If an officer opens your ELD at hour 15 while you are rolling, 49 CFR 395.13(b)(1) applies and you are ordered out of service on the spot. You drive again only when it is lawful under Part 395: for an 11-hour or 14-hour breach that means 10 consecutive hours off duty; for a 60/70 breach it means waiting for hours to roll off the 7 or 8 day period, or taking the 34-hour restart.
In the paperwork. Under 395.13(d)(3) the driver must deliver or mail the out-of-service form copy to the person or place the carrier designated within 24 hours. Under 395.13(c)(2) the carrier must complete the "Motor Carrier Certification of Action Taken" portion of the Driver/Vehicle Examination Report and deliver it to the FMCSA Division Administrator or State Director at the address on the form within 15 days of the examination date; if it is mailed, the postmark date counts. Small carriers miss that 15-day return constantly, because the driver never handed the paper over, and it becomes its own audit finding.
Every clock that starts the moment the officer signs the report, in one place:
| Clock | Who | What happens when it runs out | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 consecutive hours | Driver | Earliest the truck may legally move again after an 11-hour or 14-hour out-of-service order. | 49 CFR 395.3(a)(1), 395.13(d)(1) |
| 24 hours | Driver | Copy of the out-of-service form delivered or mailed to the person or place the carrier designated. | 49 CFR 395.13(d)(3) |
| 15 days | Carrier | Motor Carrier Certification of Action Taken returned to the FMCSA Division Administrator or State Director; postmark date counts. | 49 CFR 395.13(c)(2) |
| Next monthly snapshot | SMS | Violation enters HOS Compliance at time weight 3, plus 2 if out of service. Portal on September 2, 2026: data current as of July 31, updated August 10, next update week of September 7. | ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/SMS |
| 6 and 12 months | SMS | Time weight drops from 3 to 2 at six months and to 1 at twelve. | SMS Methodology 3.21 |
| 12 months + one clean inspection | SMS | Percentile removed from the ranking if both hold: no HOS violation in 12 months and none on the latest relevant inspection. | SMS Methodology 3.21, HOS step B |
| 24 months | SMS | Violation leaves the measurement entirely. | SMS Methodology 3.21 |
| 3 years | Driver | Inspection stays on the PSP record a future employer pulls for $10 with the driver's written consent. | psp.fmcsa.dot.gov |
FMCSA publishes every weight in the SMS Appendix A violations list, on a scale of 1 (lowest crash risk) to 10. Violations are sorted into groups, and every violation inside a group carries the same weight. The current file is version 3.21, revised May 2026, and it holds 177 codes in the HOS Compliance BASIC alone. Below is every group in that BASIC.
| Violation | Citation | SMS group | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating a CMV while ill or fatigued | 392.3 | Jumping OOS / Driving Fatigued | 10 |
| Driving beyond the 11-hour limit | 395.3(a)(3)(i) | Hours | 7 |
| Driving beyond the 14-hour duty period | 395.3(a)(2) | Hours | 7 |
| Driving 8 hours without a 30-minute break | 395.3(a)(3)(ii) | Hours | 7 |
| Driving after 60/70 hours on duty | 395.3(b) | Hours | 7 |
| False report of record of duty status | 395.8(e)(1) | False Log | 7 |
| Tampering with an ELD so it does not record accurately (new, May 2026) | 395.8(e)(2)-(3) | False Log | 7 |
| Failing to provide supporting documents in the driver's possession on request | 395.11(g) | False Log | 7 |
| No record of duty status (ELD or paper) | 395.8(a) | Incomplete / Wrong Log | 5 |
| Record of duty status not current | 395.8(f)(1) | Incomplete / Wrong Log | 5 |
| Not retaining the previous 7 days of RODS | 395.8(k)(2) | Incomplete / Wrong Log | 5 |
| Same breaches coded as "Nominal Violation" | e.g. 395.3A3-PROPN | Hours, Nominal | 1 |
| ELD cannot transfer records electronically to the officer | 395.24(d) | Fail to transfer ELD records | 3 |
| No ELD instruction sheets or blank RODS grids in the truck | 395.22(h)(1)-(3) | EOBR Related | 1 |
| Failing to certify or annotate the record | 395.24(c), 395.30(b) | Other Log / Form & Manner | 1 |
| Out-of-service add-on | not a code, an attribute of the violation | any Hours or Log violation | +2 |
1. ELD tampering is now its own False Log violation, weight 7. Appendix A version 3.21, implemented with the May 15, 2026 SMS snapshot, added two codes for tampering with an ELD so that the device does not accurately record and retain required data: 395.8E-HOSPDELDT for property carriers and 395.8E-HOSPVELDT for passenger carriers. Both sit in the False Log group at severity weight 7, the same as a hand-falsified logbook. The underlying prohibition is 49 CFR 395.8(e)(2) and (e)(3), and it reaches the carrier too: you may not permit or require another person to disable, jam, reprogram or otherwise tamper with the device.
2. The ELD user's manual is no longer required in the truck. A final rule published at 91 FR 37053 on June 22, 2026 (docket FMCSA-2025-0114) and effective July 22, 2026 rewrote 49 CFR 395.22(h). The in-vehicle information packet is now three items: the instruction sheet describing the ELD's data transfer mechanisms, the instruction sheet on malfunction reporting, and a supply of blank RODS graph-grids sufficient for a minimum of 8 days. The user's manual line is gone. Appendix A 3.21 was published in May 2026 and still carries code 395.22H1, "Driver failing to maintain ELD user's manual", EOBR Related, weight 1. If that code appears on an inspection dated after July 22, 2026, it is worth a DataQ: the requirement behind it no longer exists.
Neither change moves the big numbers. Both change what belongs in your pre-trip binder and what you should challenge instead of paying.
These are two separate consequences of the same piece of paper, and owners blend them constantly. Out-of-service is an order issued roadside by the officer under 49 CFR 395.13: the truck does not move until the driver may lawfully drive again. It is immediate, it costs you the load, and it adds a severity weight of +2 to that violation. The CSA record is arithmetic done by a computer on a monthly snapshot: nothing happens the day of the inspection, and the violation then sits in your measurement window for 24 months.
Two corollaries. First, not being placed out of service does not mean you got away with it. A 30-minute break violation may or may not trigger an out-of-service order, but it lands in the BASIC either way. Second, the myth that costs owners the most: paying the ticket does not put the violation into CSA, and beating the ticket does not automatically pull it out. A violation written on the inspection report reaches SMS even when the driver was handed no ticket: the methodology says so in plain words for inspections that follow a traffic enforcement stop, where violations on the form do not always result in the issuance of a citation to the driver, but are used in the SMS whether or not a citation is issued. The only exit is the adjudicated citation policy below.
Scale of the problem: across the 56,178 inspections in CVSA's 2025 International Roadcheck (May 13 to 15), hours of service was the number one driver out-of-service violation, 32.4% (1,076) of all driver OOS violations. Mexico recorded no driver OOS violations that year, so that combined figure is Canada plus the United States. In the U.S. table alone the same category is 992 violations, 31.6%, with false logs adding another 9.1% (286). Roughly one in three drivers pulled off the road that week was pulled for hours. The comfort in the same report: 94.1% of drivers inspected had no out-of-service violation at all, and the driver OOS rate was 5.9%.
HOS Compliance measure = (time- and severity-weighted violations) ÷ (total time weight of relevant inspections)
What is not in that formula: your truck count. HOS Compliance does not use Average Power Units or the utilization factor, which are reserved for Unsafe Driving and the Crash Indicator. Your HOS percentile is a function of inspections and nothing else.
Before ranking, SMS removes carriers with fewer than three relevant driver inspections and carriers with no inspection containing an HOS violation. That second rule matters: if you have never had an HOS violation, you have no HOS percentile at all, and your first violation is what puts you on the board. Survivors are sorted into five safety event groups by inspection count (3 to 10, 11 to 20, 21 to 100, 101 to 500, 501 and up) and ranked only inside their own group. At or above 65% flags a general freight carrier for intervention; the threshold is 60% for hazardous materials and 50% for passenger carriers. Those sit below the 80% general threshold (75% HM, 65% passenger) used for Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances/Alcohol and Driver Fitness, and the flat 80% for HM Compliance, and the methodology says why in one sentence: FMCSA's analysis found that Unsafe Driving, the Crash Indicator and HOS Compliance "have the strongest associations to crash risk", so those three carry lower thresholds. Full threshold table: what counts as a good CSA score. All of it is published in the SMS Methodology, version 3.21.
Same driver mistake, two carriers: driving past hour 14, caught in the last six months, driver placed out of service. Weighted violation for both: (7 + 2) × 3 = 27.
| Denominator | Carrier A: 2 trucks | Carrier B: 40 trucks |
|---|---|---|
| Inspections in the last 6 months (weight 3) | 2 × 3 = 6 | 40 × 3 = 120 |
| Inspections 6 to 12 months old (weight 2) | 2 × 2 = 4 | 40 × 2 = 80 |
| Inspections 12 to 24 months old (weight 1) | 3 × 1 = 3 | 40 × 1 = 40 |
| Total time weight of inspections | 13 | 240 |
| HOS Compliance measure | 27 ÷ 13 = 2.08 | 27 ÷ 240 = 0.11 |
The same 30 seconds of driving produces a measure roughly 18 times higher for the two-truck carrier. They are ranked in different event groups, so they are not compared directly, but the mechanic is universal: with a tiny denominator, one event is your entire safety profile.
Now the same arithmetic six months later. Carrier A stayed clean and took four more inspections. The violation is now 6 to 12 months old, so its time weight drops from 3 to 2 and the numerator becomes 9 × 2 = 18. The denominator re-buckets: the four new inspections sit at weight 3, the two that were 0 to 6 months old move to the 6 to 12 bucket at weight 2, the two that were 6 to 12 months old move to 12 to 24 at weight 1, and the three oldest, taken here as already close to the 24-month edge, pass it and drop out. That is (4 × 3) + (2 × 2) + (2 × 1) = 18. New measure: 18 ÷ 18 = 1.00, a 52% drop achieved by doing nothing except running legal and getting inspected. Clean inspections are not neutral events; they are the only lever you own.
Here we have to be more honest than most trucking blogs. FMCSA does not endorse using SMS data to judge a carrier's overall safety. Its own disclaimer says readers should not draw conclusions about a carrier's overall safety condition simply from the data displayed in the system, and that unless a carrier has an UNSATISFACTORY safety rating under Part 385 or has been ordered to stop, it is authorized to operate. A CSA percentile is not a legal disqualification, and no rule requires a broker to look at it.
Market practice is a different subject and is not governed by FMCSA. Many brokers and shippers subscribe to monitoring services that display CSA data, many underwriters raise it at renewal, and carriers flagged in HOS Compliance frequently report that fewer people call back. That is behavior, not regulation. How it plays out: how brokers and shippers actually check your CSA. Separately, your Safety Rating (Satisfactory, Conditional, Unsatisfactory) comes from a Part 385 compliance review and has nothing to do with BASIC percentiles: see Safety Rating versus CSA score.
Two exits. The 24-month window: the violation leaves the measurement entirely 24 months after the inspection date, having faded from weight 3 to 2 to 1 along the way. And the 12-month drop-off, which is faster, which most owners have never heard of, and which nearly every trucking blog states in a form that does not apply here. In the HOS Compliance BASIC the ranking step removes a carrier only when both conditions hold. The methodology, section 3, HOS Compliance, step B: "Eliminate carriers that meet both of the following criteria: (1) no violation was recorded in the BASIC during the previous 12 months, and (2) no violation in the BASIC was recorded during the latest relevant inspection." Twelve clean months on their own are therefore not enough. The second condition bites exactly where owners least expect it: if the inspection that carried the HOS violation is still your latest relevant driver inspection, waiting out the year changes nothing, because you have not been inspected since. You need the year clean and a newer relevant driver inspection with no HOS violation on it. Meet both and your percentile comes off the public board, even though the violation is still sitting in the 24-month measurement window and still visible on your inspection history. The shorter one-condition wording that circulates online ("all violations older than 12 months") is real, but it belongs to other BASICs, Unsafe Driving and Controlled Substances/Alcohol among them. Details across all seven BASICs: when CSA violations fall off.
One channel: a Request for Data Review through DataQs. Under FMCSA's adjudicated citation policy, a citation result of dismissed or not guilty removes the violation; convicted of a different charge sets the severity weight to 1 and cancels the out-of-service add-on. Anything else, including paying the fine and including a plea to a reduced charge with a fine, leaves the violation where it is. You must submit certified documentation of the judicial proceeding, and the policy covers only inspections conducted on or after August 23, 2014. Plain factual errors are also fair game: wrong CDL number, wrong truck, a documented ELD malfunction, a break read off the wrong day. Attach the ELD export, not a narrative.
These are the phrasings people actually type, and the phrasings assistants actually get asked. Short answer first, detail second.
Any breach of 49 CFR Part 395 written on a roadside inspection report. For a property carrier that is driving past 11 hours, driving past the 14-hour window, driving more than 8 hours without a 30-minute break, driving past 60 hours in 7 days or 70 in 8, and the log-side offenses: no record of duty status, a log that is not current, a false log, an ELD that will not transfer its file. All of them land in the HOS Compliance BASIC; only the Hours and False Log groups carry weight 7, log form-and-manner items carry 1.
It is a rank, not a score. FMCSA divides your time- and severity-weighted HOS violations by the total time weight of your relevant driver inspections (Levels 1, 2, 3 and 6, clean inspections included), then ranks that measure against carriers in the same safety event group: 3 to 10 inspections, 11 to 20, 21 to 100, 101 to 500, or 501 and up. The percentile runs 0 to 100 and higher is worse. Carriers with fewer than three relevant inspections get no percentile at all.
Two. An out-of-service condition adds a severity weight of 2 to the violation it attaches to, so a 14-hour violation moves from 7 to 9 before time weighting. It is not a separate line item, and it disappears if the citation is later adjudicated as conviction of a different charge. The sum of all severity weights for one inspection in one BASIC is capped at 30, and that cap is applied before the time weight multiplies it.
There is no fixed number worth quoting. FMCSA civil penalty amounts are adjusted for inflation every year, so any dollar figure circulating in trucking chats goes stale within months; the current schedule lives in Appendix B to 49 CFR Part 386. What is fixed is everything else: the truck stops for 10 consecutive hours, the violation sits in HOS Compliance for 24 months, and it sits in the driver's PSP record for three years.
Four things, on four different clocks. Roadside: the officer may place the driver out of service under 395.13, and the driver has 24 hours to deliver the form copy where the carrier designated it. Office: the carrier must return the Motor Carrier Certification of Action Taken within 15 days of the examination date. Data: the violation enters HOS Compliance at the next monthly SMS snapshot. Career: it enters the driver's PSP record for three years.
Twenty-four months in the measurement, usually less in the ranking. The violation carries time weight 3 for six months, 2 from six to twelve months, and 1 from twelve to twenty-four, then it drops out entirely. Separately, the HOS Compliance ranking step drops a carrier only when both are true: no violation recorded in the BASIC during the previous 12 months, and no violation in the BASIC on the latest relevant inspection. Twelve clean months plus a newer clean driver inspection take your percentile off the public board before the violation itself expires; twelve months with no inspection at all do not.
Seven, or nine if you were placed out of service. Driving beyond the 11-hour limit is code 395.3A3-PROP in Appendix A, group Hours, severity weight 7. There is also a nominal version, 395.3A3-PROPN, carried at weight 1, and the inspector's coding decides which one lands on your report. That is a sevenfold difference for the same behavior, so read the code on the inspection report, not the plain-English description.
Yes, at the full weight of 7. Appendix A codes it under 395.3(a)(3)(ii) as driving beyond 8 hours since the last off-duty, sleeper berth or on-duty-not-driving period of at least 30 minutes, and it sits in the same Hours group as the 11-hour and 14-hour violations. It does not always trigger an out-of-service order, but the CSA record is identical either way.
65% for a general freight carrier, 60% for hazardous materials, 50% for passenger carriers. Those sit below the 80% general threshold (75% HM, 65% passenger) used for Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances/Alcohol and Driver Fitness, because FMCSA's analysis found that Unsafe Driving, the Crash Indicator and HOS Compliance have the strongest associations to crash risk. At or above the threshold you are prioritized for intervention, from a warning letter up to an on-site investigation.
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There are no points, only severity weights from 1 to 10. In FMCSA's SMS Appendix A the 11-hour, 14-hour, 30-minute break and 60/70-hour violations all sit in the Hours group at weight 7. A false record of duty status or ELD tampering is 7, an incomplete or missing log is 5, ELD form-and-manner items are 1, and operating while ill or fatigued under 392.3 is 10. An out-of-service order adds 2 on top, and the total for one inspection in one BASIC is capped at 30.
Under 49 CFR 395.3(a)(2) you may not drive once 14 consecutive hours have passed since you came on duty, and off-duty time inside that window does not extend it. You may still work on duty not driving. Caught driving past hour 14, you get severity weight 7 in HOS Compliance plus an out-of-service order under 49 CFR 395.13(b)(1), which means 10 consecutive hours off duty before you may drive again.
No. Out-of-service is the officer's call under 49 CFR 395.13, and the CSA record happens either way. Being waved on does not mean nothing was recorded. Hours do lead the out-of-service tables, though: in CVSA's 2025 International Roadcheck, hours of service was the top driver out-of-service violation at 32.4% (1,076) of all driver OOS violations, and 31.6% (992) in the United States alone.
Up to 24 months, fading from time weight 3 in the first six months to 2 from six to twelve months and 1 after that. There is an earlier exit, and it has two conditions, not one. In HOS Compliance the SMS ranking step eliminates carriers that meet both criteria: no violation recorded in the BASIC during the previous 12 months, and no violation in the BASIC on the latest relevant inspection. A clean year plus a newer clean driver inspection takes your HOS Compliance percentile off the board even though the violation itself is still inside the 24-month window.
No. A violation written on the inspection report reaches SMS even when no ticket was issued to the driver: the methodology states this explicitly for inspections performed after a traffic enforcement stop. The record exists before any court date. Payment neither adds it nor removes it. Under the adjudicated citation policy only a result of dismissed or not guilty removes the violation, and conviction of a different charge sets the severity weight to 1 and cancels the out-of-service add-on.
Because the denominator is your time-weighted driver inspection count, not your truck count. Seven inspections spread over two years give a denominator near 13; 120 inspections give a denominator near 240. The identical violation, weighted (7 + 2) × 3 = 27, produces a measure of 2.08 for the small carrier and 0.11 for the large one, roughly 18 times higher.
Both, in two separate systems. The violation lands in the HOS Compliance BASIC of the USDOT number printed on the inspection report, regardless of who was at fault, and it lands in the driver's PSP record. PSP shows five years of crash data and three years of roadside inspections, costs $10 for a carrier to pull, and requires the driver's written consent.
Only through a Request for Data Review in DataQs. Under FMCSA's adjudicated citation policy, in force for inspections conducted on or after August 23, 2014, a citation dismissed or found not guilty removes the violation, and conviction of a different charge sets the weight to 1 with no out-of-service add-on. Certified documentation of the judicial proceeding is required. Plain factual errors are also fair game: wrong truck, wrong CDL number, a documented ELD malfunction.