If you haul livestock, the single most useful thing to understand about hours of service is that a big chunk of your day often doesn’t count against the clock at all. Here’s the plain version.

The basic rule

During your state’s planting and harvest season, hauling an agricultural commodity — and that includes livestock and horses — you’re exempt from the federal HOS rules while you’re within a 150 air-mile radius of the source. Inside that radius, the clock simply doesn’t run.

Both ends, not just one

Since November 2021, the same exemption applies at the delivery end. So the HOS clock is off between a point 150 air-miles from where you loaded and a point 150 air-miles from where you’re dropping. Only the middle stretch counts.

On a lot of corridor runs, most of the haul — sometimes all of it — falls inside those two radii.

A few things worth knowing

• “150 air-miles” is about 172.5 road miles — straight-line distance, not odometer miles.

• The source can be a ranch, a sale barn, or a loading facility, not only the farm.

• If you’re outside the radius no more than 8 days in any 30, you can run paper logs instead of an ELD.

• Once you cross beyond the radius, normal HOS applies until you cross back in.

The honest caveat

Seasons are defined by each state, the details matter, and this is a plain-language explainer — not legal or compliance advice. Confirm your state’s dates and follow your ELD and the current FMCSA rules. Our free hours-of-service planner builds this exemption in so you can see it on a real trip.