Truck Transit Time (Hours-of-Service) Calculator

How it works

Driving hours = distance ÷ average speed; solo, each shift: max 11 h driving inside a 14 h window after coming on duty, a 30-minute non-driving break once 8 h of driving accumulate, then 10 consecutive hours off; on-duty time also counts toward 60 h in 7 days or 70 h in 8 days, reset by a 34-hour restart; team ≈ 20 driving hours per 24; transit = loading + driving + breaks + rests (+ restarts) + unloading

A truck cannot cover 1,400 miles in the 27 hours a map suggests. Under the FMCSA hours-of-service rules for property-carrying drivers, a driver may drive at most 11 hours within a 14-hour window after coming on duty, must take a 30-minute break from driving once 8 hours of driving accumulate (any non-driving time counts, including fueling), and then needs 10 consecutive hours off. On-duty time also counts toward a weekly limit of 60 hours in 7 days or 70 hours in 8 days, which a 34-hour restart resets. The calculator plays these rules out stop by stop: loading eats into the first window, breaks and rests are inserted when they fall due, and a restart is added if the cycle runs out. Enter a pickup date and time to get the earliest arrival, and the hours already used if the driver is not starting fresh. A wait of two hours or more in the sleeper berth while the trailer is loaded can serve as the short half of a split-sleeper pair, so it does not use up the 14-hour window. Team drivers swap seats and keep the truck moving about 20 hours a day, which is why they move time-critical coast-to-coast freight; the solo-versus-team line shows what a team would save. Appointment windows, weather and time zones can add more, so quoted transit is usually the calculated figure rounded up to the next business day.

Worked example

1,450 miles at 52 mph is 27.9 hours of driving. Solo, starting to load at 08:00 with 2 hours of loading: shift 1 drives 8 hours, breaks for 30 minutes and drives 3 more (572 miles) before a 10-hour rest; shift 2 does the same; shift 3 covers the last 5.9 hours. That is about 50.9 hours door to door — arrival around 10:53 on the third day. A team would do it in about 35.5 hours, 15.4 hours sooner.

Sources: FMCSA — Summary of Hours of Service Regulations · FMCSA — Interstate Truck Driver’s Guide to Hours of Service (2022) · FMCSA — Hours of Service pilot programs (August 2026)

Frequently asked questions