§395.13 provides that when an authorized officer declares a driver out of service for an HOS violation, the driver may not operate a CMV until the OOS period (typically 10 consecutive hours) has expired. Operating during the OOS period is a separate violation under §395.13(d) and is treated as one of the most serious HOS findings in the regime.
Severity weight + disqualification
Severity weight 10 in the HOS Compliance BASIC — the maximum. Driving after an OOS order is also one of the §383.51(e) "violation of out-of-service order" offenses, triggering CDL disqualification of 180 days to 1 year on the first offense, 2 to 5 years on the second within 10 years, and 3 to 5 years for life on the third.
OOS
A driver caught driving during an active OOS order is placed back OOS at the new inspection. The carrier is cited, the driver is cited, and the citation flows through to both the HOS Compliance BASIC and the §383.51 disqualification clock.
How to prevent it
- When a driver is placed OOS, log it in dispatch immediately and confirm the OOS expiration time before any further dispatch.
- Reach drivers in real time — a roadside OOS that dispatch doesn't know about is the most common cause of accidental §395.13 violations.
- Train drivers that "I have to get to the yard" is not a §395.13 defense — they must wait.
How Roadworthy HQ helps
Roadworthy HQ has no hours-of-service screen. It does not import ELD data, store records of duty status or supporting documents, or detect HOS violations. On the ELD side it keeps a per-vehicle registry of the device (provider, model, serial, FMCSA registration ID) and checks it daily against FMCSA's revoked-device list, with warnings ahead of the replacement deadline. A driver can be marked short-haul on their profile so the audit-readiness check stops expecting logs from them. It does not time a driver's out-of-service period.