Under federal hours of service regulations, which scenario would prohibit a driver from continuing to drive?

• A. The driver has already been on duty for 10 hours
• B. A driver on cycle 2 has accumulated 120 hours of on-duty time in 12 days
• C. The driver has taken only 24 consecutive hours off in the preceding 14 days
• D. The driver has taken a 36-hour reset and is switching from cycle 1 to cycle 2

Answer: (B)

In this rule set, the driver’s available driving time is tied to the number of on-duty hours accumulated in the current cycle. For cycle 2, there is a maximum of 120 on-duty hours allowed within the cycle period. Once that total is reached, the driver is not permitted to drive again until the cycle is reset by taking the required off-duty time. That’s why accumulating 120 hours of on-duty time in 12 days would prohibit continuing to drive—the driver has hit the cycle’s cap and must wait (take off-duty time) before resuming.

The other scenarios don’t exceed that on-duty cap: ten hours on duty falls well within a daily limit, so it doesn’t by itself stop driving. Twenty-four hours off within the past fourteen days doesn’t push the on-duty total over the cycle limit. A 36-hour reset is the intended method to move from one cycle to the next, which is precisely what allows more driving after the reset.