Canada's 36-hour and 72-hour cycle resets: how to stop losing a day

In Canada, a driver on Cycle 1 (70 hours in 7 days) resets their hours by taking at least 36 hours off duty in a row. A driver on Cycle 2 (120 hours in 14 days) needs at least 72 hours off in a row. The hours must be consecutive, and any on-duty work during the break can cancel the reset and cost your truck a day.

That last part is where most of the pain comes from. The rule is short. The mistakes around it are not.

What the regulation actually says

The rules come from the federal Commercial Vehicle Drivers Hours of Service Regulations (SOR/2005-313). Section 28 says a driver may end the current cycle and start a new one after taking at least 36 consecutive hours off for Cycle 1, or at least 72 consecutive hours off for Cycle 2.

Section 29 covers switching cycles. Going from Cycle 1 to Cycle 2 takes at least 36 consecutive hours off. Going from Cycle 2 back to Cycle 1 takes at least 72. After the break, the driver's accumulated hours are set back to zero.

B.C.'s Commercial Vehicle Safety and Enforcement branch sums it up in its driving cycle recap: no driving after 70 hours in 7 days on Cycle 1, and no driving after 120 hours in 14 days on Cycle 2. Cycle 2 drivers also need at least 24 hours off before or when they reach 70 on-duty hours.

Two quick terms, since they trip people up:

• On-duty time is any work for the carrier, not just driving. Inspections, fueling, loading, waiting at a dock, and paperwork all count.
• Off-duty time is time when the driver is free of work. Sleeper berth time is off-duty time.

If you are still deciding which cycle your drivers should run, start with our breakdown of Canada HOS Cycle 1 vs Cycle 2.

Resets, switches and breaks at a glance

Here is every "time off" rule that affects a driver's cycle in one place. Pin it next to the dispatch board.

What you want to do	Hours off in a row	Does it reset hours to zero?	Source
Reset Cycle 1 (70 hrs / 7 days)	36 or more	Yes	SOR/2005-313, s. 28
Reset Cycle 2 (120 hrs / 14 days)	72 or more	Yes	SOR/2005-313, s. 28
Switch from Cycle 1 to Cycle 2	36 or more	Yes, starts new cycle	SOR/2005-313, s. 29
Switch from Cycle 2 to Cycle 1	72 or more	Yes, starts new cycle	SOR/2005-313, s. 29
Keep driving on Cycle 2 past 70 hours	24 or more	No	SOR/2005-313, s. 27
Meet the 14-day rest rule (any cycle)	24 or more, once in the last 14 days	No	Federal HOS rules
US 34-hour restart	34 or more	Only for US hours, not Canadian	FMCSA

Cycle 2's 24-hour break is not a reset

This is a common mix-up. A Cycle 2 driver hits 70 hours, takes 24 off as required, and someone on the team thinks the clock is back to zero. It is not.

The 24-hour break only lets the driver keep working toward the 120-hour cap. The hours from the last 14 days still count. To clear them, the driver needs 72 hours off in a row.

The same confusion happens with a 36-hour break on Cycle 2. Thirty-six hours off is a nice weekend. On Cycle 2, it resets nothing.

Five ways a reset gets wasted

The national HOS Application Guide from CCMTA (the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, the national group of federal and provincial transport regulators) warns that doing on-duty work during a reset interrupts the consecutive hours. That can make the whole break useless for a reset.

Here is how that happens in real life:

1. The early pre-trip. The driver wants to roll at 6 a.m. sharp, so they start the inspection at 5:30. If the 36 hours were not up until 6:00, the reset is broken.
2. "Just move the truck." Someone in the yard asks the driver to shift the truck so a trailer can get out. Moving the truck is on-duty time, even if it takes four minutes.
3. The quick fuel-up. Fueling on Saturday so Sunday is faster feels smart. It is on-duty time in the middle of the reset.
4. The 34-hour habit. A driver who runs a lot of US freight goes off duty for 34 hours, then picks up a Canadian load. Under Canadian rules, they are still carrying their old hours.
5. The wrong cycle in the ELD. If the electronic logging device (the in-cab unit that records hours) is set to Cycle 2 but the driver thinks they are on Cycle 1, the math on the screen will not match the plan. Check the cycle setting before you count on a reset.

None of these feel like a big deal in the moment. Each one can turn a Saturday morning dispatch into a Sunday night dispatch.

A real week: where the day goes

Say you run a Winnipeg-based truck on Cycle 1. By Thursday at 6 p.m. the driver has 66 on-duty hours in the last 7 days. You plan a reset.

• Driver goes off duty: Thursday 6:00 p.m.
• 36 hours later: Saturday 6:00 a.m.
• You book a pickup for Saturday at 8:00 a.m.

Now the driver gets up early Saturday and does a pre-trip at 4:30 a.m. That is only 34.5 hours off. The reset is broken, and the old hours are still on the log. Some hours may roll off as days drop out of the 7-day window, but likely not enough for a full day of work.

If the driver goes back off duty after the inspection, the next 36 hours will not be up until Sunday afternoon. Your Saturday load is gone, or you are paying another driver to cover it. One half-hour inspection cost about a day and a half of truck time.

The fix is simple. Tell the driver the exact clock time the reset ends, not just "36 hours." "You are free to start work at 6:01 a.m. Saturday" is hard to get wrong.

The 14-day rule still applies

On top of the cycle limits, there is a floor that every driver must meet. Alberta's carrier training module on hours of service explains that, whatever cycle they follow, a driver cannot drive unless they have had at least one period of 24 consecutive hours off in the past 14 days.

A driver who resets every week will meet this without thinking about it. The risk is with drivers on Cycle 2 who run long stretches. Watch for anyone getting close to 14 days without a full 24 hours off.

Changing the start of the driver's day

In Canada, the carrier sets the hour each driver's "day" starts. You cannot just move it whenever it suits the schedule. Alberta's training material on cycles (Module 9) lists changing the start time of the day as needing 36 consecutive hours off on Cycle 1 and 72 on Cycle 2. That is the same as a reset.

So if you want to move a driver from a midnight start to a noon start, plan it for the same break as a reset. Doing it later means waiting for another one.

Crossing the border: 34 is not 36

Cross-border fleets feel this the most. The US lets property carriers restart their 60 or 70-hour clock with 34 hours off. Canada does not accept that. The FMCSA's cross-border FAQ lays the two side by side: 34 hours in the US, versus 36 hours for Cycle 1 or 72 hours for Cycle 2 in Canada.

If a driver is coming home through the Pacific Highway crossing or the Ambassador Bridge and you want a clean Canadian cycle, plan the full 36 hours. Two extra hours at a truck stop cost less than an hours-of-service violation at a scale.

For the rest of the differences, our US vs Canada HOS cheat sheet covers daily limits, sleeper splits and the 34-hour restart in one place.

ELDs don't change the rules, but they catch the mistakes

Since January 1, 2023, Canadian roadside officers have been able to write up drivers who are running without a compliant ELD, according to the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance. CVSA also notes that the ELD rule does not change Canada's hours-of-service rules, and that each province and territory applies it to its own carriers.

In practice, that means a broken reset used to hide in a paper log book. Now it shows up on the screen at the scale. The ELD will not "round up" 34.5 hours to 36.

One more note: these are the federal rules for carriers that cross provincial or national lines. Some provinces, including Alberta, have their own hours-of-service rules for trucks that stay inside the province. If you run only local work, check your provincial rules.

Planning resets from the dispatch desk

The dispatchers who lose the fewest days do three things:

• They plan resets around freight, not the other way around. If you know Thursday's load ends in Brampton at 6 p.m. and the next good load picks up Saturday morning, a 36-hour reset fits right in the gap.
• They give an exact end time. Every reset gets a written clock time in the driver's message, so nobody guesses.
• They see hours before they book. Before accepting a load, they check the driver's real hours left, not what they remember from Tuesday.

That last one is hard when hours live in the ELD portal, loads live in a spreadsheet, and driver chats live on someone's phone. TorqueAI pulls hours from your ELD into the same screen where you plan loads, so you can see whether a reset will finish in time before you say yes to a shipper. If you run freight across the line, our page on cross-border trucking software covers how one system handles both sides of the border.

A reset is the cheapest tool you have to get a truck back to full hours. Done right, it costs one day. Done wrong, it costs two.