What Is Personal Conveyance? Everything You Need To Know

What is Personal Conveyance?

Personal conveyance is when you use a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) for personal use while you are off-duty. In other words, you're driving the truck for yourself, not for your company’s business. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a driver can log time as personal conveyance only when relieved from work and all responsibilities by the carrier. This means you are truly off the clock – no dispatch, no pending deliveries – just using the vehicle like a personal car. Importantly, the movement must not benefit the motor carrier in any way. If it’s even partly work-related (advancing towards your next load, for example), it’s not personal conveyance.

One common misconception is that the truck must be empty to use personal conveyance. That’s not the case. Under current guidance, you can use personal conveyance even if the vehicle is loaded, as long as you’re off-duty and not hauling for the company’s benefit. The FMCSA updated its guidance in 2018 to make this clear, giving drivers more flexibility – especially those who can’t easily detach from a trailer or cargo. So a loaded trailer doesn’t automatically forbid personal conveyance, provided the trip is purely personal.

FMCSA Rules and Guidance on Personal Conveyance

The FMCSA’s official guidance lays out the ground rules for personal conveyance. Here are the key points:

• Off-Duty Status Required: You must be off-duty to use personal conveyance – meaning you have no work responsibilities at that moment.
• No Impact on HOS Limits: Time spent driving under personal conveyance does not count toward your HOS driving or on-duty limits.
• ELD Logging: Electronic Logging Devices have a special status for personal conveyance (often labeled “Personal Use” or “PC”). You must switch your duty status to Off-Duty (Personal Conveyance) before you start driving for personal reasons.
• Carrier Discretion: While FMCSA permits personal conveyance, it isn’t mandatory for carriers to allow it. Your motor carrier can choose whether to enable personal conveyance on its ELD system and can set stricter policies if they do allow it.
• No Fixed Distance/Time Limits (U.S.): Currently, FMCSA does not impose a specific distance or time limit on personal conveyance in the U.S., but usage must be reasonable.

Examples of Valid Personal Conveyance Usage

What does personal conveyance look like in real life? Here are some everyday examples that qualify as valid personal conveyance, assuming you are off-duty and not under company orders at the time:

• Going to Eat or Run Personal Errands: After parking for the evening at a truck stop or motel, you bobtail or drive your rig (or delivery van) to a nearby restaurant, grocery store, or even a movie theater for personal relaxationfmcsa.dot.gov. This is personal conveyance because you're off-duty and just using the vehicle to access food or entertainment. Similarly, local delivery drivers could log off-duty and take the company van to grab lunch (if permitted) – that short, personal errand is PC.

• Commuting Between Home and Work: You drive your commercial truck from the terminal or drop yard to your home (or vice versa) while off-duty. This is considered commuting, which is a personal use. For example, a last-mile delivery driver might finish the day’s deliveries, go off-duty, and drive the empty delivery truck home for the night (with the carrier’s permission) – that commute home can be personal conveyance. The key is that your work is done and you’re just traveling to or from your residence, not doing any company tasks on the way. Note: Make sure the commuting time/distance still allows you enough rest before your next duty period – if you have a long commute, you need to factor that in so you’re not tired.

• Travel to a Safe Rest Location: Let’s say you’ve just delivered a load and run out of driving hours at the customer’s facility. Your day is done, but you can’t park overnight there. Personal conveyance allows you to drive to the nearest reasonable safe location to sleep – for instance, the next truck stop 10 miles down the road. FMCSA explicitly lists “time spent traveling to a nearby, reasonable, safe location to obtain required rest after loading or unloading” as personal conveyance. The important caveat: it has to be the first such safe location available. You’re expected to go directly to the closest safe spot. This provision is meant to let drivers find parking for rest, not to squeeze in extra miles. As long as you choose a practical, nearby spot, this relocation for rest is legitimate PC.

• Moving the Vehicle at an Officer’s Request: If a law enforcement or safety official knocks on your door and asks you to move your truck (maybe you’re parked somewhere you shouldn’t or there’s an emergency), you can do so under personal conveyance. For example, a state trooper wakes you during your off-duty break and directs you to relocate your rig – that travel is off-duty PC because you’re not doing it for commerce, you’re complying with a safety request while off-duty.

• Personal Trips in a Bus (No Passengers): For drivers of buses or motorcoaches, an example of PC is driving the bus (empty) to go get food or lodging while you’re off-duty. Suppose you drop off all your passengers, go off-duty, and then drive the bus to a hotel for the night – that’s personal conveyance. No passengers are on board, and you’re just taking yourself (and perhaps other off-duty co-drivers) to a rest location or restaurant. FMCSA allows this scenario, noting that other off-duty drivers on the bus are “not considered passengers” in this context.

• Hauling Personal Property: Maybe you’re a driver who’s relocating to a new home, and you use the company truck on a day off to move your personal furniture (with the carrier’s permission). Transporting personal property while off-duty is a valid PC use. The same goes for any off-duty use of the CMV to carry your own stuff, not freight.

• Going Home After an Offsite Job: If you’ve been working at a remote location or drop yard and are done for the day, using the CMV to drive home (off-duty) is considered personal conveyance. For instance, a utility fleet driver finishes repairing lines in a distant town. The driver is done with work and allowed to drive the bucket truck home – that trip home is personal conveyance because it’s essentially a commute after an offsite work shift.

In all these examples, the common thread is no business purpose to the trip. You’re not edging closer to the next pickup, not repositioning on the company’s behalf, and not doing any work along the way. It’s purely personal time behind the wheel.

Examples of What Does NOT Qualify as Personal Conveyance

Equally important is knowing what isn’t allowed under personal conveyance. Many HOS violations occur when drivers mistakenly (or intentionally) log on-duty driving as off-duty PC. Here are some scenarios that would not count as valid personal conveyance, based on FMCSA guidance and real-world enforcement:

• Advancing the Load or “Forward Progress” for the Carrier: This is a big one. You cannot use personal conveyance to continue a work-related trip or to get closer to your next destination. For example, if you run out of hours 100 miles from your delivery, you can’t just switch to PC and drive those 100 miles off-duty. Likewise, you shouldn’t skip nearer rest areas just to park closer to tomorrow’s delivery. FMCSA explicitly calls out “bypassing available resting locations in order to get closer to the next loading or unloading point or other scheduled destination” as misuse of personal conveyance. Inspectors refer to this as “enhancing operational readiness” or “furthering the load” – it’s essentially using PC as a loophole to advance your route, and it’s not allowed. If the last three truck stops were full and you kept driving an extra hour toward your receiver while off-duty, a DOT officer likely will not accept that as valid PC; they’ll see it as you extending your work drive time under the guise of PC.

• Returning to Pick Up Another Load or Trailer: Personal conveyance can’t be used if you are traveling to handle more company business. For instance, after you drop one trailer, you drive bobtail under dispatch back to get another trailer – that trip is 100% on-duty driving, not PC. FMCSA gives the example of a tow truck driver who delivers a towed unit and then drives back to pick up another one at the carrier’s direction. That return leg is for the motor carrier’s benefit, so it doesn’t qualify as personal conveyance.

• Repositioning or Bobtailing for Business: Any continuation of a trip to fulfill a business purpose is not personal conveyance. This includes bobtailing or driving with an empty trailer to go get your next load, or repositioning the tractor/trailer because your company asked you to relocate equipment. For example, your dispatcher tells you to move the truck 50 miles to a better parking area for tomorrow’s load – if you’re doing it under company orders, that drive time must be logged on-duty, not as PC. The rule of thumb: if the movement is at the direction of the carrier, it’s not off-duty time.

• Driving With Passengers On Board: If you’re operating a passenger-carrying CMV (like a bus) and there are passengers on board, you cannot call that personal conveyance. Even if you’re off-duty and just ferrying them for convenience, as long as you’re responsible for passengers, you’re in a work capacity. (Off-duty co-drivers in a truck don’t count as “passengers” in this sense, but paying bus passengers or any riders who are the company’s customers definitely make it a business trip.) Bottom line: no passengers allowed during PC movement in a commercial passenger vehicle.

• Trips for Vehicle Maintenance or Fuel: Suppose you finish your deliveries but then decide to swing by the company garage for a quick truck service, or you go refuel the truck while off-duty. That does not qualify as personal conveyance. Driving a CMV to a maintenance facility, repair shop, or to get routine service is a work function, even if it’s after hours. The same logic applies to fueling up the truck or picking up spare parts – those activities benefit the motor carrier, so any driving you do for them must be on-duty. (In practical terms, try to do those tasks while on-duty; if you do them during what you claimed was PC, an inspector may cite you for falsifying logs if they find out.)

• After an OOS Order for HOS Violations: If you’ve been placed Out of Service for exceeding your hours, you can’t then say “okay, I’ll just PC to the hotel.” FMCSA specifically says after an HOS OOS order, driving to a rest location is not personal conveyance (unless an officer explicitly directs you to move). Essentially, if you’re out of hours to the point of an OOS, you’ve lost the flexibility to move – except under escort or instruction. In other words, running out of hours isn’t a free pass to switch to PC and keep driving. An exception is if an officer on the scene tells you to relocate; then you do so at their direction (which FMCSA counts as valid PC, as noted earlier). But you cannot decide on your own to drive somewhere else once you’ve been put OOS for hours.

• Travel Back to Terminal After a Delivery: Let’s say you finish unloading at a receiver and your company wants you to come back to the yard. If you’re driving back to your terminal or yard right after delivering, that return trip must be on-duty driving, not personal conveyance. Even though your trailer might be empty, the purpose of returning to base is to finalize the work or stage for the next assignment – it’s a commute for the company, not for you personally. FMCSA lists “time spent traveling to a motor carrier’s terminal after loading or unloading from a shipper or receiver” as not qualifying for PC. So if your dispatcher says “come on back to the yard now,” you need to log that drive as on-duty.

• Delivering Luggage after Passenger Drop-Off: A bus/motorcoach-specific example: after passengers get off, if the driver is told to deliver their luggage separately (while the driver is otherwise off-duty), that trip is not PC. It’s a strange scenario, but the guidance covers it – basically, if any portion of the trip is still fulfilling a service (like handling luggage), it’s a work task.

In short, anytime you use the vehicle in a way that even slightly furthers your company’s operations or business, you should not use the personal conveyance designation. If you try to stretch the definition, you risk violations for false logs. Enforcement officers have seen every trick in the book, especially since ELD data makes it easier to spot suspicious PC use (for example, a straight line of 200 miles on PC right after your 11 hours ran out). It’s just not worth it – use PC only for legitimate off-duty travel.

Practical Checklist for Personal Conveyance

Do:

• Confirm you are completely off-duty.
• Clearly mark your status as Off-Duty (Personal Conveyance) on your ELD.
• Ensure the purpose of your trip is purely personal and not related to your company’s business.
• Choose the nearest reasonable safe location for rest or personal errands.
• Understand and adhere to your company's personal conveyance policies.
• Keep distances traveled reasonable and defensible.

Don’t:

• Use personal conveyance to extend your driving hours.
• Perform any work-related tasks during personal conveyance.
• Transport passengers commercially under PC.
• Use PC to reposition for business advantage.
• Drive to company facilities for maintenance or fueling.
• Ignore fatigue or safety standards.

Conclusion

Personal conveyance can be a helpful tool for commercial drivers to take care of personal needs on the road – whether grabbing a meal, finding a safe place to sleep, or getting home to family after a long trip. When used correctly, it gives drivers flexibility without infringing on Hours-of-Service limits. But with that flexibility comes responsibility. Always remember the golden rule: if it’s not purely personal, it’s not personal conveyance. By following FMCSA guidelines and the practical checklist above, you can avoid logbook trouble and stay compliant. Safe driving, and enjoy your off-duty time when you get it – you’ve earned it!