Canada HOS cycle 1 vs cycle 2: which one your drivers should run

In Canada, cycle 1 lets a driver work 70 on-duty hours in any 7 days, and 36 hours off in a row resets the clock. Cycle 2 allows 120 on-duty hours in any 14 days, but the driver has to take 24 hours off before reaching 70, and a full reset takes 72 hours. Put drivers who are home every week on cycle 1. Cycle 2 fits drivers who stay out on the road for close to two weeks and then go home for three days or more.

Most HOS surprises on the dispatch board come from not knowing what each cycle allows. This guide covers the rules, works through the math, and shows how to match each driver to the right cycle.

The two cycles, in plain numbers

Both cycles come from the federal Commercial Vehicle Drivers Hours of Service Regulations (SOR/2005-313). These rules cover carriers that cross provincial lines or the border. As of November 2026, the Justice Laws site shows the rules were last amended in June 2021, so the cycle limits haven't changed in years.

Cycle 1 (70 hours / 7 days). A driver on cycle 1 cannot drive after building up 70 hours of on-duty time in any 7-day period. "On-duty" covers driving plus loading, fueling, inspections, and waiting at a shipper.

Cycle 2 (120 hours / 14 days). A driver on cycle 2 cannot drive after 120 on-duty hours in any 14 days. There's a second limit too: the driver cannot drive after reaching 70 on-duty hours unless they have taken at least 24 hours off in a row first. The FMCSA's own cross-border HOS page sets out both limits for US drivers running in Canada.

One rule covers every driver. Whatever the cycle, a driver must have taken at least 24 hours off in a row in the 14 days before they drive.

The daily limits apply under both cycles: 13 hours of driving, 14 hours on duty, and no driving after 16 hours have passed since the shift started. Drivers also need 10 hours off each day. Transport Canada's HOS application guide explains each of these limits.

Side-by-side: cycle 1 vs cycle 2

	Cycle 1	Cycle 2
On-duty cap	70 hours in any 7 days	120 hours in any 14 days
Break needed mid-cycle	None beyond daily rules (plus 24 hrs off in any 14 days)	24 hours off in a row before reaching 70 hours
Reset to zero	36 hours off in a row	72 hours off in a row
To switch INTO this cycle	72 hours off (coming from cycle 2)	36 hours off (coming from cycle 1)
North of 60°	80 hours in 7 days	120 hours in 14 days, 24 hrs off at the 80th hour
Best fit	Home every weekend, regional, mixed Canada–US work	10–14 day runs, drivers who take 3+ days at home after
Classic dispatch surprise	Hours from 6 days ago haven't dropped off yet	Forgetting the 24-hour break before hour 70

The north-of-60 numbers apply in the territories. J.J. Keller's summary lists those limits next to the southern ones.

How the math plays out on a real week

Take a driver who works 13 on-duty hours a day, Monday to Friday. That's 65 hours by Friday night.

On cycle 1:

• Saturday: only 5 hours left (70 − 65).
• Sunday: zero. Monday's 13 hours are still inside the 7-day window.
• The following Monday: last Monday's hours drop off, so 13 hours are back.
• Or the driver takes 36 hours off over the weekend. The clock goes to zero and Monday starts fresh.

On cycle 2:

• Saturday: the driver is at 65 hours and has to take 24 hours off before reaching 70. Plan Saturday as the off day.
• Sunday onward: 55 hours are left in the 14-day window (120 − 65).
• About four more 13-hour days takes them to roughly 117.
• Then they're stuck. The first week's hours don't start dropping off until day 15. A 72-hour reset is the only quick way back to zero.

Here's what that shows. Cycle 2 does not give you more hours. Over two weeks, a cycle 1 driver who takes a 36-hour reset each weekend can actually log more on-duty time than a cycle 2 driver. What cycle 2 gives you is a shorter break in the middle of a trip (24 hours instead of 36). The cost is a much longer reset at the end (72 hours instead of 36).

Which drivers should run cycle 1

Cycle 1 is the safe default for most small and mid-sized fleets. It fits drivers who:

• Are home most weekends. A Friday night to Sunday morning break covers the 36-hour reset without any extra planning.
• Run regional or shorter long-haul lanes. Examples include Lower Mainland to the Interior, GTA to Montreal, or Winnipeg to Regina.
• Cross into the US often. The US property-carrying rule is 60 hours in 7 days or 70 in 8, with a 34-hour restart. Your driver is already planning around a 70-ish weekly number, so cycle 1 is simpler to dispatch.
• Are newer. A 7-day window is easier to keep in your head than a 14-day window with a break rule inside it.

Which drivers should run cycle 2

Cycle 2 makes sense for drivers who:

• Run long cross-country trips. Think Vancouver to Toronto and back, or a multi-stop loop across the Prairies. On these runs, losing 36 hours at a truck stop in the middle of the trip hurts more than a 24-hour break. (Our Trans-Canada Highway 1 fleet guide covers those lanes.)
• Stay out 10–14 days, then go home for three days or more. The 72-hour reset happens at home, where the driver wants to be anyway.
• Have steady, medium-length days. Cycle 2 works best when a driver runs 9–11 on-duty hours a day and takes a real day off mid-trip.

Cycle 2 is a bad fit for a driver who wants every weekend at home but sometimes runs long. Their weekend break may be under 72 hours, so it never resets the 14-day clock. Week-two loads then hit the 120 cap without warning.

Switching cycles: the rule dispatchers forget

A driver can't change cycles in the middle of the week just because the hours look better on the other side. The rules say:

• Cycle 1 → cycle 2: at least 36 hours off in a row first.
• Cycle 2 → cycle 1: at least 72 hours off in a row first.

After the break, the driver starts the new cycle at zero. The ELD has to show the switch, and the carrier is responsible for making sure each driver follows one cycle or the other. Alberta's federal HOS training module explains this carrier duty step by step.

Switching works well at natural breaks. For example, a driver moves from local work to a two-week long-haul rotation. Switch them during their days off before the first long trip, not at a fuel stop in Thunder Bay.

The cross-border trap: 34 hours is not 36

This is where cross-border fleets get caught most often. A driver finishes a run in California and takes a 34-hour restart before heading north. That fully resets their US clock. It does not reset a Canadian cycle 1 clock, which needs 36 hours in a row. Under cycle 2, it would need 72.

When the driver crosses back into Canada, Canadian rules apply. The on-duty hours they worked in the US still count toward their Canadian cycle. The FMCSA says plainly that drivers must comply with Canadian HOS while operating in Canada. If a driver might cross back within a day or two, have them take 36 hours instead of 34. Those two extra hours can save a load.

For every other US-vs-Canada difference, including daily limits, breaks, and sleeper splits, see our HOS rules US vs Canada cheat sheet.

What about provincial rules?

The federal rules apply when your trucks leave the province or cross the border. Trucks that stay inside one province follow that province's rules. Most provinces copy the federal rules, but not all. Transport Canada has reported that Alberta and Saskatchewan had not adopted provincial HOS rules matching the federal ones. If you run local work inside those provinces, check the provincial rules for those trucks.

What getting it wrong costs

Going over a cycle limit isn't paperwork. It's a driver who has to stop, a load that's late, and a shipper who starts calling your competitor. HOS violations can also be ticketed under Canada's Contraventions Act. Trucking Info reported that fines for severe violations, such as driving past 70 hours in a week, can reach $2,000 in provinces using that system. Repeat violations also hurt your safety rating, and that affects audits and insurance. Our piece on the compliance clock shows how these costs pile up.

A 5-question check before you book the load

Before you give a driver a multi-day load, answer these:

1. What cycle is this driver on? Check the ELD, not your memory.
2. How many hours do they have today, and how many drop off at the start of tomorrow? On cycle 1, the oldest day in the 7-day window falls off. On cycle 2, nothing drops off until the 14-day window moves.
3. When was their last 24 hours off in a row? This matters for every driver, and it's the big one on cycle 2 before hour 70.
4. Where will their reset happen? A 36-hour break at home is fine. A 72-hour break at a truck stop means a driver who won't stay with you long.
5. Are they crossing the border? If so, plan around the stricter of the US and Canadian rules, and remember that hours worked on both sides count.

The real fix is to stop checking hours in a separate app after the load is already promised. When ELD hours show on the same screen as the load board, the dispatcher sees the cycle problem before saying yes to the broker. TorqueAI pulls hours from connected ELDs into dispatch so you can see what each driver has left before you book. That matters most for cross-border fleets, where two rule sets apply on the same trip.

Short version: default to cycle 1. Move a driver to cycle 2 only when their real schedule is two weeks out followed by three days home. Whenever a driver changes cycles or crosses the border, count the reset hours twice.