Personal conveyance rules can feel like a maze, especially when you’re just trying to end your day safely. Truck drivers, fleet owners and safety managers all need to know how to use this off-duty status without risking costly violations. The last thing you want is a simple trip to a truck stop turning into a major compliance headache.
So often, a move that feels like personal time is actually a violation waiting to happen. You might think you’re just getting a head start on tomorrow, but a DOT officer sees it as illegally advancing a load. This common mix up can lead to fines, hits to your Hours of Service CSA BASIC scores, and unwanted attention during a DOT audit.
This guide is here to clear up that confusion. We’ll break down the official FMCSA guidance into simple, real world terms. By the end, you’ll understand exactly when you can use personal conveyance, how to document it correctly, and how to create a policy that protects you and your company.
Before we jump in, check out this short video on the proper way to use the personal conveyance status:
Be sure to grab your free Personal Conveyance Use template near the end of the article!
Your Guide to Navigating Personal Conveyance Rules
The rules around personal conveyance can feel tricky. One wrong turn can leave you exposed to expensive violations and serious safety risks. Are you positive you’re using this off-duty status correctly, or could you be unknowingly racking up fines and watching your truck insurance premiums climb?
Many fleet managers and drivers struggle to turn the official FMCSA guidance into a clear, easy to follow policy. This gray area often leads to confusion on the road, where a simple mistake can snowball into a major headache, hitting your CSA scores and your bottom line.
The Real Risks of Misusing Personal Conveyance
It’s tempting to brush off a minor logbook mistake, but roadside inspectors and DOT auditors see improper PC use as a huge red flag. As a fleet manager, you’re already juggling a dozen other compliance tasks; the last thing you need is to find out your drivers are bending the rules.
And it’s happening more than you might think.
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) found after reviewing over 41,000 roadside inspections that nearly 38% of drivers were caught misusing the personal conveyance provision.
This isn’t just about a few Hours of Service violations. Federal data shows that companies whose drivers fudge their PC logs are four times more likely to be involved in a crash. This kind of misuse also drives up out-of-service rates, which can cripple your safety scores and send your insurance costs through the roof.
Cutting Through the Confusion
This guide is built to cut right through that confusion. We’ll break down what personal conveyance is, how it works with Hours of Service and ELDs, and exactly what you need to do to protect your business.
A solid understanding of the core principles of what is DOT compliance is the foundation for a strong safety culture. By the end of this guide, you’ll have a clear plan and actionable steps to make sure your fleet stays on the right side of the rules.
What Exactly Is Personal Conveyance?
Personal conveyance rules can seem confusing at first, but let’s boil it down. Just think of it as your personal commute, but you happen to be driving a commercial truck.
In the simplest terms, personal conveyance (PC) is when you move your commercial motor vehicle for personal reasons while you are completely and totally off duty.
The golden rule is this: the truck’s movement cannot benefit your motor carrier in any way. If you’re moving the truck to advance a load, get closer to your next pickup, or do any other task for your company, it’s not personal conveyance. The whole point of this status is to let you get to a safe place for rest or handle personal errands without it eating into your valuable on duty driving time.
The Core Principles You Must Follow
To use personal conveyance, you have to be fully relieved of all work responsibilities. That means no loading, no unloading, no waiting for dispatch, and no performing vehicle maintenance at your company’s direction. It is a true off duty status, just like you would be at home.
How PC Interacts With Your Hours of Service
It’s critical to remember that using PC does not pause or reset your 14 hour on duty clock or your 11 hour driving clock. Those timers keep ticking until you take a required 10 hour off duty break. Misunderstanding this can lead to some serious Hours of Service violations.
Under the FMCSA’s official guidance in 49 CFR § 395.8, you can only switch your ELD to personal conveyance mode when you’re completely off the clock.
However, the line between personal and work related moves often gets blurred. A CVSA analysis of over 41,000 inspections revealed that 38% of the time, PC was used improperly. While the U.S. doesn’t have a hard distance limit for PC, the travel must be “reasonable” and that’s where a lot of the gray area and violations come in.
Permitted vs. Prohibited Personal Conveyance Use
To clear up any confusion, it’s helpful to look at some real world scenarios. The table below breaks down common situations to show you exactly when PC is allowed and when it crosses the line into a violation.
| Scenario | Permitted Use (Off-Duty) | Prohibited Use (On-Duty) |
|---|---|---|
| Out of Hours | Driving from a shipper to the nearest safe rest area after running out of HOS. | Continuing to the next pickup location to “get a head start” for the morning. |
| Commuting | Driving from your home terminal to your house at the end of your work week. | Driving from your home to the terminal to begin your work week. |
| Personal Needs | Traveling from a truck stop to a nearby restaurant, laundromat, or store for personal supplies. | Driving to a repair shop at the carrier’s direction. |
| Rest Location | Moving from a “no parking” shipper to a truck stop after being loaded. | Repositioning the truck on site at the request of the shipper or receiver. Use Yard Move instead. |
| Trailer Status | Can be used with a loaded or unloaded trailer, as long as the move is purely personal. | Moving a trailer closer to the next scheduled pickup location. |
Think of it this way: if the reason for moving the truck is personal, you’re likely in the clear. If it’s to advance the load or fulfill a work related duty, it’s a violation waiting to happen.
Don’t Confuse PC With Other ELD Statuses
You might sometimes mix up Personal Conveyance and “Yard Move,” but they are two completely different statuses with their own set of rules.
- Personal Conveyance is an off duty status used for personal travel.
- Yard Move is an on duty, not driving status used for moving the truck within a terminal, customer facility, or rail yard.
Using Yard Move to get to a truck stop or Personal Conveyance to reposition for a load are clear violations that will get flagged during a roadside inspection or a DOT audit. Nailing these details is key to maintaining a clean safety record.
Real World Scenarios for Using Personal Conveyance
Knowing the rules for personal conveyance is one thing, but seeing how they play out on the road is what really matters. That’s what keeps you out of hot water with DOT. Let’s walk through some everyday situations to nail down what’s a legitimate use of PC and what’s a clear violation.
Here’s the million dollar question you have to ask yourself every single time: “Does this move benefit my company or advance the load?”
If the answer is yes, you can’t use personal conveyance. Period. If the move is purely for your own needs after you’re completely off the clock, you’re probably good to go.
Examples of Proper Personal Conveyance Use
These are the kind of situations where flipping your ELD to personal conveyance is exactly what it’s for. In every case, notice that you are fully relieved from duty and the move isn’t helping the carrier one bit.
- Driving to a safe haven after your hours run out. You just got empty at a receiver, but they’ve got a “no overnight parking” sign plastered everywhere. Using PC to drive to the nearest truck stop or rest area is a perfect example of a valid use. Your ELD annotation should be crystal clear, something like: “PC from shipper to find nearest safe parking.”
- Traveling for personal needs during a break. You’re settled in at a truck stop for your 10 hour break and need to grab dinner or hit a laundromat. Driving the tractor to a nearby restaurant is a personal trip and totally allowed under PC.
- Commuting from the terminal to home. You’ve wrapped up your work week and dropped your trailer at the company yard. Driving the tractor home from there is a textbook commute and a valid use of personal conveyance. You’re off duty and heading to your own house.
Examples of Improper Personal Conveyance Use
Now for the flip side. These are the common mistakes that will get you a violation, a fine, and a nasty mark on your safety record. All of these moves give the carrier a direct benefit.
- Moving closer to your next destination. You shut down for the day with only 30 miles to go to your next pickup. Driving those 30 miles under PC to get a “head start” for the morning is a huge no no. You’re advancing the load, and that’s a clear violation.
- Driving to a repair shop for company directed maintenance. Dispatch calls and tells you to take the truck over to a specific shop for repairs. This is on duty time, not personal. That maintenance benefits the carrier by keeping the truck in service, so it’s not a personal trip.
- Repositioning your truck for a pickup. You get to a shipper early and park on the street. A few hours later, they call and say a dock is open. Moving your truck into position to get loaded is part of the job. This isn’t personal conveyance; it’s a work task. You might want to learn more about the differences by checking out our guide on the FMCSA Yard Move duty status.
The most common trap you can fall into is using PC to “make up time” or get a jump on the next load. Auditors are trained to spot these patterns in your ELD data, like a PC move that ends right at a new shipper, immediately followed by an on duty event.
If you can honestly tell the difference between a trip for yourself and a trip that helps your company, you can use personal conveyance with confidence. Just be honest in your annotations and your intentions.
Avoiding Enforcement Risks and Audit Traps
Thinking you can get away with fudging your personal conveyance is a huge mistake. For a DOT officer or an auditor digging through your logs, PC misuse isn’t just a minor slip up; it’s a massive red flag. It tells them there are probably deeper compliance problems lurking under the surface, and it’s an open invitation for them to dig deeper.
The consequences are real, ranging from simple roadside violations to a serious hit on your company’s hours of service CSA scores. When an auditor starts looking at your records, they’ve been trained to spot patterns of abuse. They’re hunting for those suspicious looking moves that scream a driver was trying to game the system, not just find a safe place to park for the night.
What Auditors Look For in Your ELD Data
Auditors are like detectives when it comes to ELD data. They don’t just look at a single trip; they connect the dots over weeks and months to find drivers who aren’t playing by the rules.
Here are the dead giveaways that get their attention:
- Unusually Long Distances: While the FMCSA doesn’t put a hard number on it, consistently long PC trips are going to raise eyebrows. An auditor will want to know why you “needed” to go 100 miles under PC instead of finding a safe spot much closer.
- Moving Toward the Next Stop: This is the big one and the easiest to prove. If your PC time just so happens to end right near your next shipper or receiver, it’s pretty obvious the move was made to advance the load for the company.
- Vague or Missing Annotations: Every single personal conveyance move needs a clear, specific annotation. Notes like “PC” or “personal time” just don’t cut it. Auditors need to see the why, like “PC to nearest truck stop after being told to leave shipper property.”
- Back to Back PC and On Duty: Seeing a log where you end a PC move and instantly click over to On Duty at a customer’s location is a smoking gun. It’s a clear pattern that you used PC to get into position for your next dispatch.
The High Cost of Getting It Wrong
The heat is on. Enforcement is getting smarter, and the penalties for getting PC wrong are getting stiffer. A recent CVSA analysis of over 41,000 roadside inspections found that a whopping 38% of drivers were caught misusing personal conveyance. Even more concerning, these violations were tied to carriers that were four times more likely to be involved in a crash.
In 2025 alone, authorities wrote up 12,365 hours of service citations that included PC misuse (395.8(e)(1)PC ). There were probably some included in the almost 60,000 violations of 395.8(e)HOSPD (No Driver may make a false report in connection with a duty status) as well. But coding differences lead to data issues. Either way, the trend is clear: regulators are cracking down. With each of these log falsification violations costing your fleet 7 CSA points in the Hours of Service BASIC, just a couple of these can wreck your score quickly.
Here’s a breakdown of the most common personal conveyance related violations from CY 2025 and their CSA severity points:
| Violation Code | Violation Name | Number of Violations in 2025 | CSA Violation Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 395.8E-HOSPD | HOS (Property) – No driver may make a false report in connection with a duty status. Explain: | 59,311 | 7 |
| 395.8E1PC7 | HOS – False record of duty status driver improper use of Personal Conveyance – Not OOS | 12,365 | 7 |
| 395.8E-HOSPDOOS | HOS (Property) – Driver produces a false record of duty status that concealed an HOS limitation violation after the last rest period. Explain: | 12,238 | 7 |
| 395.8(e) | False report of drivers record of duty status | 10,429 | 7 |
| 395.8E1PC-OOS | HOS – False record of duty status that concealed an HOS limitation violation after the last rest period. Driver improperly used Personal Conveyance | 2,050 | 7 |
| 395.8E-HOSPCDOOS | HOS (Property) – Co-driver produces a false record of duty status with an apparent attempt to conceal hours. Explain: | 1,803 | 7 |
| 395.8E1-HOSPVID | HOS (Passenger) – No driver may make a false report in connection with a duty status. Explain: | 1,230 | 7 |
| 395.282IIELDDDA | HOS (ELD) – Driver failing to annotate the driver’s ELD record describing the driver’s activity when prompted by the ELD. | 150 | 1 |
| 395.8E1-HOSPVICDOOS | HOS (Passenger) – Co-driver produces a false record of duty status with an apparent attempt to conceal hours. Explain: | 77 | 7 |
| 395.28 | Driver failed to select/deselect or annotate a special driving category or exempt status | 19 | 1 |
Auditors are trained to see personal conveyance abuse as a symptom of a much larger problem. It suggests a poor safety culture or a complete lack of oversight, which is exactly the kind of thing that triggers a deeper, more painful full blown audit.
The only way to stay out of trouble is to get ahead of it. That means regularly reviewing your fleet’s PC usage and making sure everyone understands the rules. A great first step is to get familiar with the technology behind it all. Our complete guide on e-logs for trucks is the perfect place to start. By actively monitoring your logs and training your team on how to use PC and how to annotate it properly, you can fix small issues before they blow up into expensive violations.
Creating a Bulletproof Personal Conveyance Policy
A vague or non existent policy on personal conveyance is just asking for compliance trouble. Without clear rules, you’re leaving it up to individual drivers to interpret the regulations, which is a recipe for violations, fines, and major headaches during a DOT audit.
Creating a strong, clear personal conveyance policy is one of the most effective things you can do to protect your fleet.
The whole point is to remove any gray areas. Your policy should set firm expectations for your team and give you a solid defense if an inspector ever questions your logs. Think of it as your first line of defense against costly misunderstandings.
What to Include in Your Fleet Policy
A bulletproof policy doesn’t have to be complicated, but it absolutely needs to be specific. It’s a playbook for your team that answers their questions before they even have to ask. Ambiguity is your enemy here.
Here are the essential pieces your personal conveyance policy must cover:
- A Simple Definition: Kick things off with a straightforward explanation of personal conveyance. Define it as using a CMV for purely personal reasons while completely off duty, and make it crystal clear that the movement cannot provide any benefit to the company.
- Clear “Allowed” and “Not Allowed” Examples: List specific, real world scenarios. For instance, clearly state that driving from a shipper to the nearest truck stop for dinner is allowed, but driving 50 miles toward the next pickup location is strictly prohibited.
- Reasonable Distance Guidelines: The FMCSA doesn’t set a hard mileage limit, but your policy should. A common and defensible limit is 50-75 miles. This stops the kind of excessive use that auditors are trained to flag as suspicious.
- ELD Annotation Requirements: You must mandate that every single PC move has a detailed annotation. Provide examples of good vs. bad notes, like “PC to Walmart for supplies and dinner” (good) versus just “Personal” (bad).
Grab your very own customizable Personal Conveyance Policy Template here!
Your policy should be a key part of your bigger safety framework. To see how this fits into the bigger picture, you can learn more by exploring our fleet safety program template, which helps you build a strong foundation for compliance.
Training and Acknowledgment Are Non Negotiable
Just having a policy isn’t enough. You have to make sure every driver reads, understands, and agrees to it. This step is critical for both safety and liability. If you ever face an audit, showing that your team was properly trained is a massive point in your favor.
Your implementation plan should include a few key steps:
- Mandatory Training Session: Hold a meeting, in person or virtual, to walk every single driver through the new policy. Use the specific examples from your document to answer questions and clear up any confusion.
- Written Acknowledgment: Require every driver to sign a form stating they have received, read, and understood the personal conveyance rules. Keep this signed document in their driver qualification file.
- Regular Reminders: Don’t let the training be a one time event. Talk about PC usage in safety meetings, send out reminders, and make the policy easy to find in your driver handbook or app.
A signed acknowledgment form is more than just a piece of paper. It is documented proof that you have done your due diligence as a carrier to educate your drivers, which can be invaluable during a DOT audit or in a courtroom.
By creating a clear policy and ensuring everyone is on the same page, you transform personal conveyance from a compliance risk into a well managed tool. It gives your drivers the flexibility they need while keeping your company safe. This proactive approach sets clear boundaries and fosters a real culture of compliance.
Regulatory References
When it comes to compliance, you can’t just take someone’s word for it. You need to know where the rules actually come from. The best way to make sure your policies are bulletproof is to go straight to the source. These are the official documents from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) that every DOT officer and auditor uses. Getting familiar with them is key to making smart decisions and staying audit ready.
- 49 CFR § 395.8 Driver’s record of duty status: This is the bedrock of the Hours of Service rules. It lays out exactly how your duty status must be recorded, which is the foundation that all personal conveyance rules are built on.
- FMCSA Personal Conveyance Guidance: Think of this as the FMCSA’s official playbook for personal conveyance. It’s packed with detailed explanations, Q&As, and specific real world examples of what’s allowed and what isn’t. This is your best friend for clearing up any confusion.
Frequently Asked Questions About Personal Conveyance Rules
Here are quick, straight to the point answers to the most common questions about personal conveyance.
What is the maximum distance for personal conveyance?
The FMCSA does not set a specific mileage limit, only stating the distance must be “reasonable.” To avoid issues, many companies set a policy limit of 50-75 miles for any single personal conveyance event.
Can you use personal conveyance with a loaded trailer?
Yes, you can use personal conveyance with a loaded or empty trailer. The key factor is the reason for the move, not the status of the trailer. As long as the movement is for a purely personal reason and does not advance the load for the carrier, it is allowed.
Does personal conveyance count towards your 14 hour clock?
No. Since personal conveyance is an off duty status, it does not count against your 11 hour driving limit or your 14 hour on duty window. However, it does not pause these clocks. They continue to run until you complete a 10 hour off duty break.
Is commuting to and from home considered personal conveyance?
Driving from a terminal or drop yard to your home at the end of a work period is a valid use of personal conveyance. However, driving from your home to the terminal to begin your work day is considered on duty time, as it is part of your commute to work.
What is a proper annotation for personal conveyance?
A proper annotation must be clear and descriptive. Vague notes like “PC” are not enough. A good annotation explains the purpose of the trip, such as “PC from shipper to nearest truck stop for safe parking” or “PC from rest area to restaurant for dinner.”
Can you use PC to get closer to your next pickup?
Absolutely not. Moving your truck to get closer to your next scheduled pickup or delivery location is considered “advancing a load.” This directly benefits the motor carrier and is a clear violation of personal conveyance rules.
What happens if you misuse personal conveyance?
Misusing personal conveyance can lead to serious penalties. A DOT officer can issue a citation for a false log, place you out of service, and negatively impact your carrier’s CSA score. A pattern of misuse can also trigger a full DOT audit.
Can a dispatcher tell you to use personal conveyance?
No. Any movement of the vehicle made at the direction of the motor carrier, including a dispatcher, is considered on duty time. A trip only qualifies as personal conveyance if it is for your personal use after you have been fully relieved of all work duties.
At My Safety Manager, we specialize in taking the complexity out of DOT compliance. From building clear policies to managing your entire safety program, we help you stay audit-ready so you can focus on running your business. Visit us at www.MySafetyManager.com to see how we can help.
