Personal Conveyance: Ultimate Guide

Personal conveyance is when a truck driver uses their truck for personal purposes when they are not “on-duty”.

According to FMCSA, personal conveyance is “the movement of a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) for personal use while off-duty that does not benefit the company financially.”

While the statement may sound simple, navigating the requirements may be a bit confusing with each situation. We’ll break it down below.

This post was originally published on 3/18/2022 and updated on 1/20/2023.

Feel free to check out our video on the topic too!

What is considered a commercial motor vehicle?

A vehicle used by your company is considered a CMV if it involves interstate (between two States) commerce plus at least one of the following:

• Weighs over 10,001 pounds.
• Gross vehicle weight of 10,001 or more
• Gross combination weight of 10,001 or more
• Designed for 16 passenger transport – without compensation
• Designed to transport 9 or more with compensation
• Transport of hazardous materials in enough quantity that placards are required.

When is a driver considered to be “off-duty” when operating a CMV?

The FMCSA provides a clear definition of when a driver is considered to be On-Duty, but no exact definition of “off-duty”.

When a CMV driver is relieved from work and all responsibility for performing work, they can be considered “off-duty”.

Here are some examples of potential off-duty driving. These examples are not comprehensive, but you should gain a general understanding of the term of “off-duty.”

• Going to a restaurant from a lodging spot, such as a truck stop or motel.
• Commuting from home to the driver’s terminal.
• Commuting from home to a work site.
• Traveling to a rest location after loading or unloading.
• Moving the vehicle when requested by a safety official on the driver’s off-duty time.
• Transporting personal property.
• Using a CMV to drive home after working offsite.

Who can use personal conveyance?

Any truck driver who operates a commercial motor vehicle and must comply with the FMCSA Hours of Service (HOS) regulations may be able to use the personal conveyance driving status.

I say “may” instead of “can” because some companies don’t allow their drivers to use personal conveyance status.

To use personal conveyance, the driver must first be in “Off-Duty” driving status in their ELD or HOS logbook.

For example, if an off-duty driver takes their truck to their home from a terminal location, then they can use personal conveyance as soon as the driver goes to Off-Duty and then leaves the terminal location.

The key is properly documenting when you’re driving in personal conveyance vs while driving on-duty. 

Pro Tip: Even drivers using the short haul exemption can use personal conveyance, if needed.

Why use personal conveyance?

Sometimes truck drivers need to move their truck when they’re not “on-duty”.

By recording this off-duty driving time as “personal conveyance”, the movement doesn’t count against the driver’s available hours of service. It also doesn’t (or shouldn’t) interrupt a driver’s off-duty time.

This is important because truck drivers are required to spend 10 consecutive hours “off-duty” in every 24-hour period.

Moving the truck outside of personal conveyance would cause the driver to have to re-start that 10 hour off-duty clock.

Monitoring your ELD reports for personal conveyance abuse is one of the DOT compliance services included in our My Safety Manager program!

When can a driver use personal conveyance?

To see if a situation might classify as a chance to use personal conveyance, you can simply ask these two questions:

1. Is the driver moving a commercial motor vehicle for purely personal reasons?
2. Can the driver engage in activities of their own choosing?

If the answer to either or both questions is “Yes”, then the movement should likely be classified as a personal conveyance move.

Be sure to not classify the use of the adverse driving conditions exception as a personal conveyance move.

FMCSA adverse driving condtions regulations state that use of that exception is a Driving duty status and should be logged accordingly.

What is an acceptable use of personal conveyance?

Only law enforcement officers will determine if a driver is using personal conveyance correctly. So, truck drivers should use PC very carefully!

 Most officers rely on 4 “tests” to determine if a driver is properly using personal conveyance.

1. Is the driver ill or fatigued? Does the driver’s condition allow them to safely drive the vehicle?”

• Is the driver off-duty? See the definition of on-duty in §395.2 which includes any work in support of the business or time involved in business activities. Unless the driver is completely released from duty and free to pursue activities of their choosing, the driver must log a move as on-duty driving.

• Is the move purely personal with no benefit to the business? A move benefitting the business would include moving closer to the driver’s next pick up or delivery, or a maintenance move performed to support the business.

• Is the move to strictly seek the closest, safe place to park, even if a driver has moved along the route line to the next business-related location?

If a driver is not ill or fatigued and can answer these other 3 questions with a “Yes”, then using Personal Conveyance may be correct.

What can personal conveyance be used for?

Most drivers ask, “What can personal conveyance be used for?’ Well, the FMCSA provides some additional guidance on what they consider to be “appropriate” uses of personal conveyance.

Although they offer 7 different scenarios, 4 are very common and can be more easily remembered with the acronym STOP.

S      Safe Location

T     Terminal Location

O     Off-Duty Meals or Entertainment

P     Police Request

Safe Location:

Per the FMCSA, “Time spent traveling to a nearby, reasonable, safe location to obtain required rest after loading or unloading.

The time driving under personal conveyance must allow the driver adequate time to obtain the required rest in accordance with minimum off-duty periods under 49 CFR 395.3(a)(1) (property-carrying vehicles) or 395.5(a) (passenger-carrying vehicles) before returning to on-duty driving, and the resting location must be the first such location reasonably available.

A key consideration here is “nearby”. During a Level 1 DOT inspection, an officer may have a hard time believing that the first reasonably safe resting location is 100 miles away from where a driver just picked up a load.

Terminal Location

Commuting between the driver’s terminal and his or her residence, between trailer-drop lots and the driver’s residence, and between work sites and his or her residence.

In these scenarios, the commuting distance combined with the release from work and start to work times must allow the driver enough time to obtain the required restorative rest as to ensure the driver is not fatigued.

If a driver’s “normal work reporting location” is their home and not a physical terminal location, don’t try to use PC to get some extra time back on your Hours-of-Service clock. This is a common mistake!

Off-Duty Meals & Entertainment

Time spent traveling from a driver’s enroute lodging (such as a motel or truck stop) to restaurants and entertainment facilities.

If a driver is on-duty and they want to stop for food, they can’t go into off-duty and then into personal conveyance. This isn’t allowed.

They would still need to move into On-Duty-Not Driving and grab a bite to eat.

Police Request

Moving a CMV at the request of a safety official during the driver’s off-duty time.

Finding truck parking can be difficult! Often the “safest” location that a driver can find to park may not be allowed by local law enforcement officials. In this case, a driver may get an unfortunate wake up call with a request to move their truck.

To learn more about the appropriate uses of PC status, check out this article.

FMCSA Personal Conveyance FAQ

The FMCSA personal conveyance regulations are often mis-understood which leads to them being mis-used. Check out the answers to these questions to help clear things up a bit further!

Can you fuel on personal conveyance?

No! That should be logged as On-Duty Not Driving time.

Can you have truck maintenance done on personal conveyance?

No! Moving the truck to or from any maintenance facility is considered driving time under the FMCSA hours of service regulations.

Since having maintenance done on a truck or trailer is considered to be in the business interests of a trucking company, this can’t be considered as personal conveyance.

Are there any other inappropriate uses of personal conveyance?

Absolutely! Any movement of the commercial motor vehicle that “enhances the operational readiness of the trucking company isn’t allowed.

For example, if a driver is seeking a “nearby reasonable safe location to park after dropping a load and they bypass a truck stop with available parking. That would be a no-go.

Additionally, operating with an empty trailer or bobtailing to retrieve another load or repositioning a truck at the direction of the trucking company would be inappropriate.

Another great example would be a driver traveling to a company’s terminal after loading or unloading from a shipper or a receiver. Again, be sure to check the situation against the two main questions above.

Can you use personal conveyance everyday?

Sure! There isn’t a true “limit” on the number of times that a driver can move while using personal conveyance.

Though, you can expect that law enforcement to be more critical of hours of service records when they see multiple personal conveyance entries on multiple days.

Can a driver receive a personal conveyance violation?

Absolutely! If a law enforcement officer decides that you have mis-used the PC HOS duty status, they can issue you a DOT violation.

The FMCSA has recently introduces a specific violation code to help get a better feel of how often personal conveyance is being used improperly.

CMV drivers can now be cited with the personal conveyance violation 395.8(e)(1)PC Improper Use of Personal Conveyance Exception.

In 2022, almost 11,000 drivers were cited with this false log book DOT violation.

How Far Can you drive in personal conveyance?

There is no personal conveyance limit in the FMCSA regulations. So, you can drive as far as needed as long as you’re operating within the FMCSA guidelines.

How does personal conveyance work?

Once a driver has changed their record of duty status from driving or on-duty to Off-Duty, they can then change their duty status on their electonic logging device ( ELD) to personal conveyance status.

After they complete their PC operations, they then change their duty status on their ELD from personal conveyance back to Off-Duty.

If you’re running paper HOS logs, you would draw a line to the Off-Duty line and enter a comment on your log about using the personal conveyance exception and what it was for.

How Long Can you drive in personal conveyance?

You can drive as long as you want or need to in PC duty status. But, you have to make sure that you’re following the guidelines set by the FMCSA.

Can I use personal conveyance to go home?

Generally No. But, in reality it depends. There are some proper uses of personal conveyance that will allow you to travel between your home and your company’s terminal.

If your “normal work reporting location” is not your home (i.e. a company terminal) but you are allowed to take your truck home, then you can use personal conveyance to travel between your home and the terminal location.

How it works is that you would complete your trip for the company, with the ending location being the terminal. Once you’re done emptying your trailer or dropping an empty trailer or chassis or whatever, you switch to Off-Duty status.

You then switch to personal conveyance status and make your trip from the terminal to your home or vice versa.

Now, if you have a loaded trailer and make a stop at a terminal location before proceeding to your house with said loaded trailer, you’re going to have a really hard time convincing a law enforcement officer that you’re not “furthering commerce”.

You would also have a tough time if you have a load in your trailer and your company is essentially letting you start your next trip from your house.

Also If you hit a snag and run out of hours 20 minutes from your house, you can’t legally switch over to personal conveyance status and cruise on home. Everyone knows that this happens and it’s just a fact of life.

But, just know that you’re rolling the dice here and it’s a great time to not speed and you had better hope that all of your lights are working.

This part of the exception was really designed for smaller commercial motor vehicles (think sand and gravel haulers, cement mixers, utility company drivers, etc who may take their truck home each night but return to a centralized “normal work reporting location” to begin/end their day.

This typically goes hand in hand with the FMCSA short haul exemption.

How many miles can you drive on personal conveyance?

As many as you would like to or that you need to. But you’ll risk getting a personal conveyance violation if you aren’t following the FMCSA personal conveyance guidelines.

Does personal conveyance start your 14 hour clock?

No, it’s not supposed to. But, you can screw things up on your ELD if you’re not careful.

Most ELDs will automatically switch you into driving mode if the device senses that you’re traveling above a pre-set speed (typically 3 to 5 mph).

If you don’t switch your status on your ELD from Off-Duty to Personal Conveyance before moving the truck, there’s a good chance that it will auto-trigger back into Driving status..and then you would have to go back and edit your log and put comments and fix the issue.

This is very hard to do on some ELDs, so be sure to switch your duty status before you move the truck.

Is there a personal conveyance limit?

Nope, not at all. There is no limit to the number of hours or miles that you can run in the personal conveyance record of duty status. Just be sure to follow the FMCSA guidelines!

If you used PC status more than a couple of times per day, I think that any officer would be very suspicious and examine your HOS records much more carefully.

Whenever you use personal conveyance, be sure to make good comments in your ELD notes. It’s always a great idea to keep all of your HOS supporting documents for the last week or so in your truck to help prove proper use of PC.

For example, if you go off duty at a truck stop at 9:00 and then move into PC status to go grab a bite to eat before heading back to the same location at 10:20, it would be a very good idea to have a receipt from the diner that you ate at during that time period.

Is there a personal conveyance mileage limit?

There isn’t a true personal conveyance limit on the number of miles that a driver can move while using personal conveyance in the US.

(Canada limits personal conveyance use to 75km, or about 46 miles, per day).

There also isn’t a specific time limit on the use of personal conveyance either.

But, given the situations discussed above, you can see that personal conveyance is intended to be use for short trips.

In my experience, we use the 40/40 guideline in trying to discover potential personal conveyance abuse. This is where a driver operates in PC mode for more than 40 miles or 40 minutes.

Can you use personal conveyance during your 34 hour reset?

Yes, since a driver is “Off-Duty” while taking their 34 hour reset.

But, do remember that the regulations prohibiting the operating of a truck when a driver is ill or fatigued still applies.

What is personal conveyance safe haven?

Personal conveyance status can be used to find the nearast “safe haven” to park and get your required 10 hours of rest.

There isn’t much in the way of guidance as to what that could mean (in terms of what a safe haven might actually be).

For instance, if you just finish dropping a loaded trailer at a receiver’s location and your 14 hour clock runs out, you can switch to Off-Duty status and then proceed to the nearest safe resting location.

But, what if you start checking your truck parking apps and find that your nearest location with any availibility is 50 miles away?

What if that truck stop is also on the way towards your next pick-up the following morning?

What if a truck stop is 10 miles away with parking, but it’s on your company’s do not stop list due to the location having a higher cargo theft exposure?

There are endless scenarios that you could run through here. My suggestion would be to document as much as possible (your phone’s camera and screenshot capability comes in handy here) and just try to make the best choice that you can.

I’ve seen/heard a number of instances where the officer would make a better suggestion of where to go rather than simply issuing a violation.

Can you use personal conveyance with an empty trailer?

Yes! You no longer have to have an empty trailer to utilize personal conveyance status.

Before the FMCSA issued their new personal conveyance rules (guidelines) in 2018, you had to be unladen (see empty) to be able to use the PC hours of service exception.

With the new guidelines, you can be under a load or not.

However, it’s much harder to establish that you weren’t “furthering commerce” if you’re pulling a loaded trailer.

One of the FMCA’s examples of CMV use that would specifically not qualify as PC reads:

“Continuation of a CMV trip in interstate commerce in order to fulfill a business purpose, including bobtailing or operating with an empty trailer in order to retrieve another load or repositioning a CMV (tractor or trailer) at the direction of the motor carrier”.

So, they really go a bit further to spell it out for us here.

What happens if a driver uses personal conveyance status incorrectly?

Bad things!

Law Enforcement reviews a driver’s ELD records during most roadside inspections (even if it’s just a level 3 inspection).

If the officer conducting the review determines that the driver misused personal conveyance they will usually cite the driver with a DOT violation of 49 CFR 395.8(e)(1)PC (Log Falsification/Improper use of PC exception).

Additionally, the driver will usually find themselves put out-of-service.

Drivers will be fined and likely delayed in their pickup or delivery. Additionally, both the carrier and driver are hit with a 7 to 9 CSA point violation.

A few similar violations in this CSA category will lead to additional enforcement activity and eventually to a compliance review.

During a compliance review, DOT inspectors will review your fleet’s Hours of service records more carefully in an attempt to uncover more potential violations.

This could lead to large fines, being assigned a Unsatisfactory Conditional Safety Fitness Determination.

Eventually, your insurance premiums and ability to access loads through load boards would also be impacted.

So, our advice is to prevent that nasty string of dominos from beginning to fall in the first place!

How can companies prevent personal conveyance abuse?

Don’t automatically allow your drivers to use their trucks during off-duty hours. Unless you’re an owner-operator, off-duty use is at the discretion of the CMV owner and/or company management.

In fact, the FMCSA encourages all trucking companies to develop and enforce robust personal conveyance use policies.  

Companies should develop a “personal use policy” and be very clear about their expectations when writing this policy. It is up to the carrier to impose any limits on drivers.

You should include distances that are allowed from a job site to a residence, or if they want a loaded truck to be parked in certain areas overnight.  

Many carriers will only allow a driver to use personal conveyance if they call into their dispatcher and receive permission to move into PC mode.

Company management should monitor their driver’s use of personal conveyance and you must discipline and deviation from your policy. 

As you can see, log falsification violations are among the most serious hours of service violations. Having just a few of these violations could have serious negative consequences for a trucking company.

As you can see, the use of personal conveyance can be tricky!

The most important points are to make sure that drivers understand the two-question filter to run any potential situation through and the points that we outlined about STOP-the 4 common appropriate uses of personal conveyance status.

As with anything related to the FMCSA hours of service, documentation is key!

Want us to monitor your fleet’s use of personal conveyance on a weekly basis?

Learn more about our My Safety Manager program!

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We work with you to create customized solutions that meet your unique needs, taking what’s typically far too much work off your plate so you have more time to grow your business.