Loading…
Hours-of-service (HOS) is the federal regulation that caps how long a commercial driver can be on duty and behind the wheel within defined windows. It is also the single highest-frequency driver violation category on roadside inspections. Reading HOS violations well is the difference between flagging every carrier with an HOS notation (most of which are paperwork) and identifying carriers whose HOS pattern actually predicts crash risk and operational instability.
Hours-of-service violations on an inspection report fall into two functional buckets. The first is out-of-service (OOS) HOS — the driver was over a hard regulatory limit (11-hour driving, 14-hour duty, 70-hour weekly), the inspector confirmed it via the ELD or log, and the driver was pulled off the road. The second is non-OOS HOS — typically log-form errors, missing entries, or ELD malfunctions that did not amount to an actual hours violation. The two read very differently: OOS HOS is a real safety event; non-OOS HOS is closer to a paperwork issue.
Hours-of-service is the federal regulation that limits commercial-driver duty time. For property-carrying drivers, the core limits are: 11 hours of driving within a 14-hour on-duty window, no driving after 70 hours on duty in any 8-day period (for carriers operating every day; 60 hours in 7 days for carriers operating fewer days), a required 30-minute break after 8 hours of cumulative driving, and a 10-hour off-duty reset before starting a new 14-hour window. There are exemptions and adjustments (short-haul, adverse driving conditions, sleeper-berth split, agricultural-operation), but the four core limits drive most enforcement.
Since the December 2019 ELD mandate became fully enforced, almost all HOS compliance is captured electronically — the truck's electronic logging device records duty status automatically and the inspector compares it against the limits on the spot. That changed the violation mix significantly: pre-ELD, paper-log falsification was the dominant violation; post-ELD, it's the harder-to-fake categories like form-and-manner errors, ELD malfunctions, and actual over-hours.
The distinction is operational. An OOS HOS violation means the inspector confirmed the driver was over a hard regulatory limit at the time of the stop, and the driver was placed out-of-service for the required reset (typically 10 consecutive hours off-duty). The truck could not legally continue under that driver. A non-OOS HOS violation means a notation was made on the inspection report — usually for a logging error, form-and-manner issue, or ELD malfunction — but the driver was not over a hard limit, so the trip continued.
For brokers reading a carrier's inspection record, OOS HOS is a near-real-time signal of operational pressure. A driver who was over their 14-hour window when stopped was being dispatched in a way that allowed (or required) them to drive over the limit. Recurring OOS HOS across multiple drivers in a small fleet is a dispatcher-side signal, not a driver-side one.
One OOS HOS event from a 100-driver fleet is unremarkable. Two or three OOS HOS events from a 5-truck fleet within 90 days is a dispatcher who is pushing drivers past the limit. That pattern correlates with crash risk and indicates a fleet under operational pressure.
Federal HOS regulations are in 49 CFR 395. Violations on inspection reports cite the specific subsection. Brokers don't need to memorize every code, but the most common ones come up enough to recognize:
The numeric code tells you the violation category instantly. 395.3 violations are hard-limit violations (and almost always OOS); 395.8 and 395.22 violations are form-and-manner or ELD-mechanical issues (and almost always non-OOS). Reading the codes on the inspection report sorts the wheat from the chaff faster than reading the violation descriptions.
Not all HOS violations should weight the same in a tendering decision. A useful framework for brokers reading the inspection list:
The federal regulator rolls HOS violations into the 'HOS Compliance' BASIC, which is one of seven BASIC categories tracked in the Safety Measurement System (SMS). The HOS BASIC produces a percentile against peer carriers — carriers ranked above the federal intervention threshold (typically the 65th percentile for general-freight carriers; 60th for passenger carriers; 50th for hazmat) are flagged for federal scrutiny.
A high HOS BASIC percentile does not automatically mean the carrier is unsafe — it means the carrier's HOS-compliance history is worse than most of their peers. The percentile is calculated against carriers in the same fleet-size cohort, so a small fleet with three OOS HOS events can show a much higher percentile than a 200-truck fleet with the same absolute number of events. Read the BASIC percentile alongside the raw event count.
Some shippers explicitly require their brokers to avoid carriers with HOS BASIC percentiles above a threshold (often the federal intervention threshold). Knowing your shipper's threshold matters — a carrier acceptable to one shipper may be a non-starter for another.
HOS violations are bounded data — they tell you about specific events on specific inspections, not about the carrier's overall fatigue-risk culture. A carrier with zero HOS violations could be one of two things: a genuinely well-run fleet, or a fleet whose drivers have not been inspected enough to surface their HOS practices. Inspection level matters here too — a carrier with twenty Level 2 inspections (vehicle-focused, lighter on driver paperwork) and zero HOS violations has a less-tested HOS record than a carrier with five Level 1 or Level 3 inspections and zero HOS violations.
And HOS violations don't show driver-side history across employers. The federal Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP) covers driver-specific records, but it requires the driver's consent to access. A carrier with clean HOS data might be hiring drivers with bad personal HOS histories from other carriers; brokers can't see that without the PSP read.
No. Only violations that confirm the driver was over a hard regulatory limit at the time of inspection (11-hour driving, 14-hour duty window, or 60/70-hour weekly limit) result in an OOS placement. Log form-and-manner violations and ELD malfunction citations are typically non-OOS — the driver corrects the issue and continues.
The OOS placement requires the driver to take the appropriate reset period before resuming driving — typically a minimum of 10 consecutive hours off-duty (the standard 10-hour reset). For weekly-limit violations, the reset is the 34-hour restart provision. The driver is not permanently disqualified; the OOS is event-specific.
It changed the violation mix more than the volume. Pre-ELD, paper-log falsification was the dominant violation category. Post-ELD (December 2019), falsification became much harder, so the violation mix shifted toward form-and-manner errors, ELD malfunctions, and actual over-hours that the ELD captured. Total HOS-violation volume on inspections did not change dramatically.
HOS Compliance covers driver hours-of-service rules and ELD/log compliance. Unsafe Driving covers moving violations cited during inspection or by enforcement — speeding, reckless driving, improper lane change, failure to use seatbelt. They are separate BASIC categories with different inputs and different weights in the Safety Measurement System.
Yes, via the DataQs Request for Data Review (RDR) process, the same as any other inspection-record contest. ELD-supported HOS violations (where the ELD record confirms the over-hours condition) are harder to overturn than form-and-manner citations. Brokers reading the inspection list don't see RDR status directly, but a carrier proactively contesting incorrect data is a positive operational signal.
Paste an MC or DOT — the inspection list shows OOS HOS events flagged by date, joined with the HOS BASIC percentile and the rest of the safety profile.
Free, no signup. Paste a DOT, MC, or VIN — verify right away.
Roadside inspection records decoded for brokers — inspection levels, violation severity, OOS conditions, and how to read the inspection list as a near-real-time signal of carrier health.
The SAFER system explained — what the federal Safety and Fitness Electronic Records system actually returns, what 'safety rating' means versus BASIC scores, and how to read the numbers without misinterpreting them.
Step-by-step checklist for vetting any motor carrier before tendering a load — operating authority, insurance, safety scores, inspection history, and identity flags.
Open one of these profiles in a new tab to see how the checklist applies to a live carrier record.
Knowhaul surfaces OOS HOS events sorted by date alongside the BASIC percentile and the full driver-side inspection record.