Truck Driver Working Hours in India vs US HOS Rules

A shipper that runs trucks in Texas and Maharashtra writes one driver-hours policy, copies the US numbers into it, and sends it to both depots. In Pune, the planner reads "11 hours of driving" and schedules a single driver for a 560 km run that starts with two hours of loading. Every hour of that day is lawful in Dallas. In Pune, the same day breaks the eight-hour working limit by almost five hours and owes double-rate overtime.

The two countries regulate different things. The US caps driving and on-duty time to keep fatigued drivers off the road, and it records them on an electronic logging device. India caps working hours as a labour standard under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, and it records them in an employer's register. Once a planner sees which clock each law runs, the gaps stop being surprises and turn into crew, relay and payroll decisions.

• What this comparison covers: who each regime applies to, the daily and weekly limits side by side, what counts as work, records, overtime cost and fatigue controls in both countries.
• What it adds: one run logged under both rulebooks, a weekly overtime formula, a timestamped failure on an Indian lane, and a policy checklist for a fleet that operates in both markets.

Driving-time safety rules against a labour-law cap on hours

The US rule asks how long a driver has been driving and on duty since the last long rest; the Indian rule asks how many hours an employee has worked today and this week. Everything else in this article follows from that difference in purpose, measuring unit and enforcer.

In the US, 49 CFR Part 395 is a motor carrier safety regulation enforced at the roadside and in carrier audits by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and state partners. A driver who exceeds a limit can be placed out of service on the spot under 49 CFR 395.13. The rule follows the driver, not the payroll, so it applies whether the person is an employee, a leased owner-operator or a team member.

Truck crew scheduling in India now runs on section 25 of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, effective 21 November 2025, with an eight-hour daily cap; US carriers schedule against 49 CFR 395.3, which allows 11 hours of driving inside a 14-hour period after 10 hours off duty.

In India, the Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961 used to hold the hours rules for transport crews. Section 143(1)(f) of the OSH Code repealed it, and the government made the four labour codes effective from 21 November 2025. Hours are now a condition of employment, inspected by an Inspector-cum-Facilitator and enforced against the employer. Nobody stops a truck at a toll plaza for working its ninth hour.

Who each regime covers: vehicle weight, interstate trade or headcount

US hours rules attach to the vehicle and the trade; Indian hours rules attach to the employer and its headcount. A one-truck owner-driver can be fully covered in the US and outside the Code in India, while a ten-person Indian fleet can be covered even if its vans are small.

• US vehicle threshold: the federal definition of a commercial motor vehicle in 49 CFR Part 390 starts at a gross vehicle or combination weight rating, or actual weight, of 10,001 pounds (4,536 kg), along with passenger and placarded hazmat triggers.
• US trade test: the federal rules govern interstate commerce; intrastate operations follow state rules, which often adopt Part 395 with their own variations.
• India headcount threshold: the Code's definition of establishment includes a motor transport undertaking in which ten or more workers are employed.
• India private carriers: a motor transport undertaking includes a private carrier, so a manufacturer moving its own goods with its own crews can fall inside the Code.
• India crew roles: a motor transport worker includes drivers, conductors, cleaners, station staff, time-keepers and attendants, so a helper on the truck counts toward the ten and has hours of his own.

Which government writes the detailed numbers matters more in India than most planners expect. For a motor transport undertaking, the Code names the State Government where it is situated as the appropriate government. Central notifications therefore guide, but the state's own rules and notifications decide the interval, spread-over and register format for most private fleets.

Limits side by side: daily, weekly, rest and continuous-work caps

The US gives a driver more daily hours but stops the wheels hard at each limit; India gives fewer daily hours, allows overtime with consent and pays for it. The table sets the figures next to each other, with the source clause for each.

Two lines in that table cause most policy errors. The five-hour continuous-work interval in India is measured on work, including loading, while the US break counts only driving. And the US weekly cap is a hard stop on driving, whereas the Indian weekly figure is the point where overtime pay starts.

Central notification S.O. 2517(E), dated 13 May 2026, and the Central Rules notified as G.S.R. 345(E) on 8 May 2026 are new. Treat them as the national reference and confirm the figures in your state's notification before you lock them into a dispatch system.

What counts as work: 395.2 on-duty time against running time

Both laws count loading and waiting as work, so a planner who measures only wheel time will understate hours in both countries. The difference lies in how each treats a short stop at a terminal or a roadside break.

• US on-duty time: 49 CFR 395.2 includes waiting to be dispatched unless relieved, inspecting and servicing the vehicle, loading or unloading and supervising it, and all time in the vehicle except resting in a sleeper berth.
• US driving time: only time at the controls of a vehicle in operation; the 11-hour limit counts this category, and the 14-hour period and weekly limits count on-duty time.

The Indian definition sits in the proviso to section 25(1). A motor transport worker's hours include work during running time, subsidiary work, and periods of mere attendance at terminals of less than fifteen minutes. Subsidiary work explicitly covers accounts and cash handling, taking over and garaging the vehicle, travelling between the sign-on point and the vehicle, upkeep and repair, and loading and unloading.

• Running time boundaries: running time starts when the vehicle starts functioning for the day and ends when it stops, excluding interruptions longer than a duration the Central Government prescribes during which the crew is free to dispose of its time.
• Fifteen-minute interruption figure: rule 64(2) of the Central Rules sets that duration at fifteen minutes for a transport vehicle, so a 12-minute fuel stop stays inside running time.
• Free-time test: a longer stop counts as rest only if the crew is genuinely free; a driver guarding cargo at a checkpost is attending, not resting.

One 560 km run logged under both rulebooks

The same shift can be lawful for one driver in the US and require a second crew member or a relay in India. Laying both logs over one day shows exactly where the eight-hour cap bites.

Take a run of about 350 miles (560 km): 1 hour 45 minutes of document collection, inspection and supervised loading, 6 hours 30 minutes of driving, a 40-minute meal stop, 2 hours 40 minutes more driving with a 12-minute fuel stop, and 1 hour 15 minutes of unloading. The figures are illustrative; the arithmetic is the point.

A US carrier still faces the weekly limit. Five such days add up to 61 hours 50 minutes on duty, so a carrier on the 60-hour, 7-day schedule loses the driver partway through day five unless a 34-hour restart intervenes. The Indian employer faces a different weekly problem: the overtime bill, worked through below.

Dispatch planning for a 560 km single-driver day shows the gap: 49 CFR 395.3 accepts 9 h 10 min of driving inside a 13-hour shift, while section 25(1)(a) of India's OSH Code counts the same 12 h 22 min of loading, driving and unloading as 4 h 22 min over the daily cap.

A Pune depot run that imported the US settings, minute by minute

The usual failure is not a reckless driver but a dispatch tool configured for the wrong country. The trace below is a composite of a typical depot day, with illustrative trip sheet numbers, showing where the Indian limits were crossed and where the controlled version differs.

1. 05:40, sign-on: the driver and cleaner collect the invoice, e-way bill and trip sheet TS-24-0871 at the Pune depot; the transport management system creates trip TR-5512 but stamps no work start, because its clock begins at gate-out.
2. 07:25, gate-out: loading of 14 pallets is complete; the system starts its imported driving clock at zero, although 1 hour 45 minutes of subsidiary work has already passed.
3. 10:40, interval missed: five hours of continuous work have elapsed since sign-on; no alert fires because the tool warns only after eight hours of driving.
4. 13:55, meal stop: the crew takes 40 minutes near Solapur; the break arrives 3 hours 15 minutes late against the five-hour interval, and the register later records 8 hours because the dispatcher entered gate-out to arrival.
5. 18:42, unloading complete at Hyderabad: 12 hours 22 minutes of work are on the trip sheet and 8 hours in the register; the mismatch surfaces at the depot's next inspection, along with unpaid overtime for both crew members.

The controlled version of the same day uses the same truck. Work time starts at sign-on, an interval is planned before 10:40, and a relay driver takes over at Solapur, so neither crew exceeds eight hours. The cleaner either rides the full trip under an overtime agreement or swaps with the relay.

Records and sign-off: ELD logs against registers under section 33

US hours evidence is produced by a device and certified by the driver; Indian hours evidence is kept by the employer in a register. Each fleet needs a named owner for every record, because the regulator in each country looks at a different person first.

Section 31(3) adds a constraint planners often miss. A change in the system of work that changes the notice must be intimated to the Inspector-cum-Facilitator before it is made. Moving a depot from single drivers to relays is such a change, so the notice update belongs in the rollout plan, not after it.

Overtime cost: the FLSA motor carrier exemption against double pay

Long days cost US carriers mainly in compliance risk and lost capacity, while they cost Indian employers directly in wages. The pay rule is often what pushes Indian fleets toward relay crews.

Under section 13(b)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, drivers, helpers, loaders and mechanics whose work affects the safety of vehicles in interstate commerce are exempt from federal overtime when the Secretary of Transportation has power over their hours. The small vehicle exception brings overtime back in any workweek involving vehicles of 10,000 pounds or less. State wage law may still apply, so check it separately.

• India runs the other way: section 27 of the Code requires wages at twice the ordinary rate for overtime, calculated on a daily or weekly basis, whichever favours the worker, and makes overtime subject to the worker's consent. Rule 69(3) of the Central Rules takes daily wages of a monthly-paid worker as one twenty-sixth of the monthly wage.
• Daily or weekly basis: rule 69(1) of the Central Rules frames overtime for a monthly-paid worker around the 48-hour week, while section 27 itself says the daily or weekly basis applies, whichever favours the worker. The example below shows why the daily basis usually wins for long single-driver days; confirm how your state rules apply it.

Weekly overtime for one Indian motor transport worker (illustrative)

  OT_daily  = sum over days d of max(0, H_d - 8)
  OT_weekly = max(0, sum of H_d - 48)
  OT_hours  = max(OT_daily, OT_weekly)        # section 27: whichever favours the worker
  hourly    = (W_m / 26) / 8                  # rule 69(3) day = 1/26 of monthly wage
  OT_pay    = OT_hours * 2 * hourly

  H_d = counted working hours on day d (running time + subsidiary work
        + terminal attendance under 15 minutes)
  W_m = monthly wage in rupees

Example: five days of 12.37 h, W_m = 24,000
  OT_daily  = 5 * 4.37 = 21.85 h
  OT_weekly = 61.85 - 48 = 13.85 h
  OT_hours  = 21.85 h
  hourly    = 24,000 / 26 / 8 = 115.38
  OT_pay    = 21.85 * 2 * 115.38 = 5,042.11 rupees a week

Payroll for an Indian driver working five 12-hour 22-minute days follows section 27 of the OSH Code: overtime at twice the wage rate on the more favourable daily basis, 21.85 hours, which on a ₹24,000 monthly wage adds ₹5,042 a week, while a US driver exempt under FLSA section 13(b)(1) earns no federal overtime.

Fatigue controls beyond the hours cap: cabins, rest rooms, devices

Neither country relies on hours limits alone. The US leans on device-recorded duty status and mandatory rest blocks, while India has added cab comfort and depot welfare duties that address fatigue through conditions of work.

• Cab air-conditioning in India: rule 125C(4) of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, as amended by G.S.R. 886(E) of 8 December 2023, requires N2 and N3 goods vehicles manufactured on or after 1 October 2025 to have a cabin air-conditioning system tested to IS 14618:2022.
• Drive-away chassis: for N2 and N3 chassis sold without a cab body from that date, the chassis maker must supply a type-approved air-conditioning kit to the body builder.
• Medical facilities and shelters: rule 63 of the Central Rules requires a medical facilities room at every operating centre and halting station, and rule 56 has the employer provide uniforms and raincoats to motor transport workers free of charge.
• Electronic recording in the US: carriers must use an ELD for most drivers, and the out-of-service power in 395.13 means a roadside officer can stop a driver who has exceeded a limit.
• Restart and berth rest in the US: the 34-hour restart and the sleeper berth provisions give planners structured ways to rebuild hours, covered in our sleeper berth split guide.

Checks a dispatch system can enforce and calls a supervisor keeps

Arithmetic on time stamps belongs in software; deciding whether a stop was really free time belongs to a person. Splitting the work this way keeps the hard limits automatic and the judgement calls accountable.

For the US side, our analysis of an ELD hours-of-service dispatch lock covers how a carrier wires ELD balances into load assignment. This guide differs by setting those US controls against the Indian labour-code model, which that page does not address.

Depot dispatch in India should start the working clock at the trip sheet sign-on, because the section 25 proviso of the OSH Code counts loading, garaging and travel to the vehicle as subsidiary work; on a typical depot day, gate-out timing alone understates hours by 1.5 to 2 hours.

Writing one hours policy for a fleet that runs in both countries

Write one policy with two country annexes, not one set of numbers. The shared part defines events and evidence; each annex sets the limits, records and pay rules that its own law requires.

Start with the events every dispatch and logging system must capture in both countries: sign-on, loading start and end, departure, each stop with its reason, arrival, unloading end and sign-off. With those seven events recorded, either rulebook can be computed. Our 14-hour rule guide shows the US window arithmetic in detail.

For more planning guides across both markets, browse the Logistics and Supply Chain hub or read about the US 30-minute break rule. If you are scoping a dispatch or roster system that has to compute both rulebooks from the same trip events, you can send us your requirements and we will map the events, clocks and registers to your lanes.