🚙 Personal Conveyance Rules for Truckers: What Counts and What Doesn't
No button in the ELD starts more arguments than personal conveyance. One driver swears you can run 200 miles on it; another won't touch it because "that's how you get a false log." Both are wrong. Here are the personal conveyance rules for truckers in plain language — what FMCSA actually says, what your carrier can add on top, and how the whole thing looks to the officer scrolling through your logs. 🚛
🧭 What exactly is personal conveyance?
Personal conveyance is the movement of a commercial motor vehicle for personal use while the driver is off duty. Two conditions have to be true at the same time: you are relieved of all work and responsibility for the truck and the load, and the trip serves a personal purpose, not the motor carrier's business. Fail either one and the miles are driving time on your 11- and 14-hour clocks, no matter what the ELD screen says.
Three things drivers constantly get wrong about the legal side:
- PC is guidance, not a separate regulation. The rules come from an FMCSA regulatory guidance document published in June 2018 — an official interpretation of the hours-of-service rules, not a new section of 49 CFR. That's why the details live in examples rather than hard numbers, and why the agency can revise them (the guidance is current as of September 2026, but it may change).
- Loaded or empty doesn't matter. Before 2018 many carriers only allowed PC with an empty trailer. The current guidance says laden or unladen is not the test — the purpose of the move is. You can drag a loaded reefer to dinner; you can't bobtail toward your next pickup.
- Your company has the final word. FMCSA explicitly lets motor carriers restrict PC or forbid it altogether. If the PC button isn't in your ELD, that is a policy decision, not a malfunction.
PC pairs with the rest of the clock math, so if the 11/14/70 rules are fuzzy, start with our hours-of-service guide and come back — everything below assumes you know what a dead 14-hour window means.
✅ When does FMCSA say personal conveyance is legitimate?
The guidance works through examples. The ones that matter to an OTR driver:
- To the nearest safe rest location after loading or unloading, when your hours are gone. This is the big one — the case PC exists for. You're at the receiver at 2 a.m., the clock died while the lumpers worked, and the guard says you can't stay on the property. You may move the truck off duty, under PC, to the nearest safe place to get your required rest.
- From en-route lodging to food and errands. Parked at a truck stop or motel mid-trip, you can drive to a restaurant, a store, a laundromat or a movie and back. That's a personal trip in every sense.
- Commuting. Between your home and the terminal, a trailer-drop lot or another work site — including the ride home after your last drop, if home is genuinely where you're going and dispatch didn't route you there for the company's benefit.
- Moving the truck because a safety official told you to. If a police officer or DOT official orders you off a shoulder or lot during your 10-hour break, that move is PC — it doesn't restart or extend your break math against you.
- Hauling your own stuff while off duty. Using the truck to move personal property — your motorcycle, your furniture — on your own time is PC too.
The "nearest safe location" trap
Read the first example again: nearest safe location, measured from where the truck sits — not the nicest one, not the one with your rewards points, and not the one that happens to be 80 miles down the road toward your receiver. FMCSA says the nearest rest location controls even if it's in the opposite direction from your destination. If the nearest lot is full or genuinely unsafe, you may continue to the next one — and you should annotate the log saying exactly that. Knowing where the next real spot is before your clock dies is half of this game; our truck parking guide covers how to plan it.
🚫 What never counts as personal conveyance?
The guidance is just as specific about the other side. None of these are PC, loaded or empty:
- Moving the load toward delivery. Any miles that bring freight closer to the receiver are driving time — even if you'd "pass that way anyway," even if it's just one exit.
- Getting to the next pickup. Bobtailing or pulling an empty trailer to retrieve your next load is a business trip by definition.
- Returning to the terminal after unloading. Coming back to the yard serves the carrier, not you.
- Driving to the shop. Taking the truck for repairs, maintenance or a wash is work, and it logs as on-duty driving.
- Catching up on schedule. Using PC to claw back time lost at a dock or in traffic — the classic "I'll just PC an hour closer" — is exactly the abuse the guidance was written against.
- Anything that "enhances the operational readiness" of the carrier. That's FMCSA's umbrella phrase, and officers use it: if the move leaves the company better positioned to make money, it's not personal.
One more that surprises people: if you've been placed out of service for an hours violation, you can't PC your way to a better parking spot — moving at an officer's specific direction is the only exception.
📊 Situation by situation: is it PC or not?
Print this one mentally. Ten situations every OTR driver eventually meets, as of September 2026:
| Situation | PC? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Hours ran out at the shipper, guard orders you off the property; you drive to the nearest truck stop | ✅ Yes | The textbook case: off duty, moving only to reach the nearest safe place to rest; annotate the log |
| Same situation, but you skip the nearest lot and run 60 miles to your favorite chain — which is toward the receiver | ❌ No | Nearest means nearest by distance; passing safe parking to advance the trip reads as driving time |
| Nearest lot is full at 11 p.m.; you continue to the next one and note it in the ELD | ✅ Yes | Allowed — the annotation explaining why you kept going is what protects you |
| Parked for your 10-hour break, you drive to a restaurant or store and back | ✅ Yes | En-route lodging to food and errands is a listed appropriate use |
| Loaded trailer, you move "just 40 miles down the road — it's on my way anyway" | ❌ No | Any move that brings the load closer to delivery is on-duty driving, loaded or not |
| After delivering, you bobtail toward tomorrow's pickup | ❌ No | Retrieving the next load is a business purpose, not a personal one |
| After delivering, you head back to the carrier's yard | ❌ No | Returning to the terminal serves the carrier; it's driving time |
| Truck needs a repair; you drive it to the shop on your day off | ❌ No | Maintenance moves enhance the carrier's operational readiness — on-duty driving |
| During your break, a police officer tells you to move off the shoulder; you relocate | ✅ Yes | Movement at the direction of a safety official is PC and doesn't break your rest |
| Day off at the terminal; you bobtail home, and back on Monday | ✅ Yes | Commuting between residence and terminal or drop lot is a listed appropriate use |
🖥️ How does personal conveyance work in the ELD?
PC is one of two special driving categories in the ELD rule (the other is yard moves). Mechanically:
- The carrier enables it. PC has to be turned on for your profile from the fleet's back office. No button — no PC, and that's your company policy talking.
- You select PC before the wheels move. The ELD starts recording a driving event automatically at a few miles per hour; drive time already recorded as driving can't simply be rebadged later. Status first, then roll.
- The event is still recorded. PC time logs as off duty, but the ELD keeps the event — with position recorded at reduced precision (roughly to within a 10-mile radius instead of the usual fix). You're off duty, not invisible.
- Annotate. A one-line note — "hours out at receiver, moving to nearest safe parking, first lot full" — takes fifteen seconds and answers the question before it's asked.
- Switch back when the personal trip ends. Leaving PC on while you start working the next morning creates exactly the kind of log mess that gets flagged.
Personal conveyance vs. yard move
Drivers mix these up weekly, and they're opposites:
| Personal conveyance | Yard move | |
|---|---|---|
| Duty status | Off duty | On duty, not driving |
| Where | Public roads, anywhere | Private property: terminal, warehouse yard, port |
| Whose benefit | Yours only | The carrier's — repositioning, docking, shuttling |
| Clock effect | Doesn't burn your 11/14 | Burns on-duty time but not driving time |
Moving from door 14 to door 32 at a warehouse is a yard move. Driving to dinner is PC. Logging a yard shuttle as PC "to save the clock" is a false log, plain and simple. Several driver apps make the bookkeeping easier — parking finders for the "nearest safe location" question, and ELD apps that prompt for annotations.
👮 What does an inspector see — and what raises red flags?
At a roadside inspection or the scale house, your logs transfer to the officer with the full event history — every PC segment, its length, where it started and where it ended. Officers also see your BOL, your fuel receipts and, if it comes to an audit, the carrier's dispatch records and GPS. PC survives scrutiny when the story is boring; it fails when there's a pattern:
- Long PC segments that end at a shipper or receiver. A 100-mile "personal" hop that happens to finish at your delivery is the single fastest way to a false log violation.
- PC that always appears when the 14-hour window dies mid-route. Once is life; every Tuesday is a scheme.
- PC right past available parking. The officer knows where the truck stops are on that stretch, too.
- No annotations anywhere. Legal PC with a note reads as a professional covering himself; the same PC bare reads as a question mark.
The consequences run through the usual machinery: a false log violation, possibly an out-of-service order on the spot, and points that follow the carrier — and you — through the CSA scoring system. Since log checks happen at weigh stations as routinely as on the roadside, assume every PC segment will be read by a professional eventually. If it was honest, say so plainly: "hours ran out at the dock, this was the nearest safe lot, note's in the log." Honest PC with a clean paper trail is a non-event.
🏢 What limits do carriers put on personal conveyance?
Because the federal side has no mileage number, companies write their own. Many carriers cap PC at a fixed distance per event — commonly somewhere in the 25–75 mile range — and some require a call to dispatch before using it, or disable it for drivers with recent log trouble. A few ban it outright. None of that is FMCSA overreach; the guidance explicitly leaves carriers that discretion, mostly for insurance and fatigue-liability reasons: an off-duty driver in a company truck is still the company's exposure.
So the practical rules are: learn your company's PC policy at orientation, not at 2 a.m. at a closed gate, and treat PC as an emergency exit rather than a planning tool. A dispatcher who routes you so your clock doesn't die at a dock is worth more than any status button. That's how it works at ASTEL: dispatch is on the line 24/7, the owner is a former driver who knows exactly what a dead clock at a receiver feels like, and trip planning around your hours is the dispatcher's job, not an afterthought — with the Chicago yard as a real home base rather than a pin on a map.
❓ FAQ: personal conveyance
Is there a mile limit for personal conveyance?
No. As of September 2026 FMCSA sets no federal distance or time limit for personal conveyance; the move only has to be genuinely personal and reasonable. Many carriers add their own caps, commonly somewhere between 25 and 75 miles per event, and some require a call to dispatch or disable PC entirely, so check your company policy first.
Can I use personal conveyance with a loaded trailer?
Yes. Since the June 2018 guidance, laden or unladen is not the test; the purpose of the move is. You can drive a loaded truck under PC to a restaurant or to the nearest safe parking spot, but the same loaded truck moving toward its receiver is on-duty driving, not personal conveyance.
Can I use personal conveyance to get to my next pickup or back to the terminal?
No. Any move that advances the load or the carrier's business is driving time: heading to the receiver, deadheading or bobtailing to the next shipper, returning to the terminal after unloading, or taking the truck to a shop for repairs. Logging those miles as PC is a false log violation.
What if the shipper makes me leave after my hours run out?
That is the classic legitimate PC case. You may drive off duty to the nearest safe place to rest, measured from where you are, even if it lies in the opposite direction from your route. If the nearest lot is full or unsafe, continue to the next one and write an annotation in your ELD explaining why.
What is the difference between personal conveyance and a yard move?
Personal conveyance is off-duty movement of the truck for your own purposes, usually on public roads. A yard move is a separate ELD category for repositioning the truck on private property such as a terminal or warehouse yard, and it logs as on duty, not driving. Logging a yard shuttle as PC to save the clock is a false log.
🚛 Run your clock with a dispatch that never sleeps
ASTEL is a family-owned carrier out of Chicago running refrigerated freight year-round on late-model Volvo trucks, with our own repair shop and mechanics, 24/7 dispatch and a direct line to the owner. Drivers earn $90,000–$110,000 a year — $2,400–2,700+ a week gross, a flat $0.80 per mile for drivers with 1+ year of experience, all miles paid ZIP-to-ZIP, weekly pay, plus $50/$200/$500 bonuses for clean DOT inspections.
Apply in 2 minutes →Based on FMCSA's regulatory guidance on personal conveyance (Federal Register, June 7, 2018) and the ELD provisions of 49 CFR Part 395, as of September 2026. Personal conveyance is agency guidance, not a separate regulation — interpretations and enforcement practice may change, and your carrier's policy may be stricter than anything described here; the carrier's policy and an officer's judgment control in the moment. Pay and mileage figures describe ASTEL driver ranges, not guarantees. This article is general information, not legal advice.
