The 150 air-mile short-haul exemption
Stay within 150 air miles of where you started, come back to the same place, and finish inside 14 consecutive hours, and you are excused from records of duty status and from running an ELD. You are not excused from the driving limits.
The three conditions
| Condition | Detail |
|---|---|
| Radius | Operate within 150 air miles of the normal work reporting location |
| Return | Start and finish at that same location |
| Duty period | Released from duty within 14 consecutive hours |
All three, every day you use it. Miss one and the exemption does not apply to that day.
Air miles are not road miles
An air mile is a nautical mile — straight-line distance, ignoring the road. 150 air miles is about 172.6 statute miles, measured as the crow flies from your reporting location. A delivery 160 road miles away round a lake may sit comfortably inside the radius; one 170 road miles away in a straight line does not.
The practical effect is that the boundary is a circle on a map, not a number on your odometer, and drivers who work to the odometer either lose days they were entitled to or lose the exemption without noticing.
What it does and does not excuse
| Still applies? | |
|---|---|
| 11-hour driving limit | Yes — unchanged |
| 14-hour duty period | Yes — and it is a condition of the exemption itself |
| 30-minute break after 8 hours driving | Yes |
| 60/7 or 70/8 cycle | Yes |
| Records of duty status (logs) | No — employer time records instead |
| ELD | No |
The day you lose it
A dispatcher adds a drop 40 miles beyond the radius, or the day runs to 14 hours and 20 minutes. Either one and the exemption is gone for that day — you owe a complete record of duty status for it, reconstructed after the fact. Exceed the conditions on more than 8 days in any 30 consecutive days and the ELD requirement generally comes back for good.
Which is why operations that live near the edge of the radius usually run ELDs anyway: the paperwork saved is smaller than the risk of reconstructing a log under audit.
Questions
What is the 150 air-mile short-haul exemption?
A driver who starts and ends the day at the same work reporting location, stays within a 150 air-mile radius of it, and is released within 14 consecutive hours does not have to keep records of duty status or run an ELD — the employer keeps time records instead.
Is 150 air miles the same as 150 road miles?
No, and this catches people. Air miles are straight-line distance — 150 air miles is about 172.6 statute miles. The radius is measured from the reporting location, not along the road, so a winding 200-mile route can still be inside it.
Does the exemption change my driving limits?
No. The 11-hour driving limit, the 14-hour rule and the cycle all still apply. The exemption is about paperwork and ELDs, not about how long you may drive.
What happens if I go outside the radius?
You lose the exemption for that day and must complete a record of duty status for it. A driver who exceeds the conditions on more than 8 days in any 30 consecutive days generally has to run an ELD.
Do I still need a 30-minute break?
Yes if you accumulate 8 hours of driving — see the break rule. The exemption does not remove it.