Minnesota Intrastate ELD Rules and Hours of Service

Minnesota's neighbors rewrote the driving clock for trucks that stay home. Wisconsin and North Dakota both give intrastate drivers 12 hours behind the wheel inside a 16-hour day. Minnesota did not. Its statute pulls in the federal hours of service rule nearly whole, clock and electronic logging device included, and makes its changes at the edges: which federal exceptions count, which trucks are outside the rule, and when harvest season runs.

Those edges are where a Minnesota carrier gets caught. A device set to the federal ruleset gets the hours right here. It can still apply an exception Minnesota never adopted.

The adoption, in one sentence

Minn. Stat. 221.0314 is the section that brings the federal motor carrier safety rules into state law for intrastate carriers. Subdivision 9 covers hours of service, and paragraph (a) reads that Code of Federal Regulations, title 49, part 395, is incorporated by reference, except that paragraphs (a), (c), (d), (f), (h), (i), (m), and (n) of section 395.1 of that part are not incorporated. The next sentence closes the loop: cross-references to sections or paragraphs not incorporated in this subdivision are not incorporated by reference either.

So everything in part 395 outside those eight paragraphs runs at its federal text for an intrastate Minnesota driver. That covers 49 CFR 395.3, the property-carrying driving limits, and 395.8, the record of duty status rule that carries the ELD requirement. Subdivision 9 prints no Minnesota start date for devices and no Minnesota ruleset for them. A device on the FMCSA registered list running the federal property ruleset is measuring the right clock.

The eight paragraphs Minnesota left out

Here is what each dropped paragraph does in the federal rule, read from the current text of 49 CFR 395.1.

Three of those matter on a normal Minnesota week.

Construction hauling. The federal paragraph (m) lets a driver used primarily to haul construction materials and equipment end any 7 or 8 day period with an off-duty stretch of 24 or more hours. Minnesota did not incorporate it, so an intrastate construction hauler resets the weekly limit the standard federal way, with a 34-hour restart under 49 CFR 395.3(c).

Utility work. Paragraph (n) takes all of part 395 off a driver of a utility service vehicle, which 49 CFR 395.2 defines broadly: vehicles used to repair, maintain, or operate facilities for electric, gas, water, sewer, telephone, cable, broadband, and cellular service. Minnesota replaced that with a narrower list of its own, covered below.

December retail deliveries. Paragraph (f) suspends the driving limits for retail store deliveries to consumers within 100 air miles from December 10 to 25. An intrastate Minnesota delivery driver keeps the normal limits through the holidays.

What stays in is just as useful to know. Adverse driving conditions in paragraph (b), short haul in (e), sleeper berths in (g), the agricultural exemption in (k), well drilling in (l), the 16-hour property-carrying exception in (o), and covered farm vehicles in (s) all come through, because subdivision 9 does not name them.

The federal clock, unchanged

Since 49 CFR 395.3 is incorporated in full, the numbers match the federal interstate rule. The hours of service page covers each one with its source.

The Wisconsin column comes from Wis. Adm. Code s. Trans 327.03 (10), which the Wisconsin intrastate ELD page walks through. The North Dakota intrastate ELD page covers that state's 12, 16 and 70 statute. A fleet running on both sides of the St. Croix or the Red River keeps two rulesets on the device. The Minnesota one is the federal one.

Lightweight vehicles are out

Subdivision 9(c) is short: the requirements of 49 CFR part 395 do not apply to drivers of lightweight vehicles. Minn. Stat. 221.012, subd. 22 defines a lightweight vehicle as a vehicle with a gross vehicle weight of 10,000 pounds or less. It excludes vehicles transporting passengers for hire and vehicles transporting hazardous materials that must be placarded or marked under 49 CFR 177.823. Those two stay under part 395 at any weight.

One wrinkle is worth flagging before relying on it. MnDOT's 2026 Commercial Vehicle Resource Book, Section 10, describes the intrastate hours rule as reaching private carriers with a vehicle over 10,000 pounds GVW and for-hire motor carriers with any size vehicle. The statute's lightweight carve-out contains no for-hire limit. We treat the statute as controlling, but a for-hire carrier running light trucks should confirm its own case with MnDOT's Office of Freight and Commercial Vehicle Operations before dropping logs.

Registration is a separate question with its own thresholds. The Minnesota DOT number page and the Minnesota intrastate authority page cover those with their own sources.

Private carriers Minnesota lets go

The Resource Book lists intrastate operations excepted from the hours rules. Private carriers that are covered farm vehicles, public utilities, cooperative electric associations, telephone companies, or building contractors hauling their own materials and tools from shop to site are on it. So are pipeline welding trucks, utility construction materials within 50 miles of a project, and transportation described in Minn. Stat. 221.025.

Read the utility entries next to the federal paragraph (n) Minnesota dropped. The federal exemption follows the vehicle and its utility work. Minnesota's statutory list in 221.031, subd. 2(c) names private carriers that are public utilities, cooperative electric associations, or telephone companies. A for-hire contractor doing utility work for someone else is not on that list, so check whether the Resource Book's utility construction entry fits before assuming the exemption.

Harvest season lasts all year

Federal paragraph (k) lifts part 395 during planting and harvesting periods, as each state defines them, for drivers hauling agricultural commodities from the source to a point within 150 air miles, farm supplies within 150 air miles of the distribution point, or livestock within 150 air miles of the final destination. Minnesota incorporated (k) and set the period in subdivision 9(b): January 1 through December 31 of each year.

That makes the agricultural exemption a year-round rule for qualifying intrastate hauls in Minnesota. The 150 air-mile limits and the list of qualifying loads still apply exactly as the federal text writes them. The season is the only part Minnesota changed. North Dakota uses the same January to December season.

Drivers can be 18

Hours of service is subdivision 9. Driver qualification is subdivision 2, and it incorporates 49 CFR part 391 except, among others, section 391.11, paragraph (b)(1). That is the federal rule requiring interstate drivers to be at least 21. Subdivision 4 puts Minnesota's own floor in its place: drivers in intrastate transportation subject to subdivision 2 must be at least 18. Drivers of vehicles subject to the hazardous materials section, 221.033, must be at least 21 except as that section provides.

An 18-year-old can log hours on a Minnesota intrastate run under the same device rules as anyone else. The first run that crosses into interstate commerce needs a driver who meets the federal age rule. The licensing side is on the Minnesota CDL page.

When the federal rule takes over

Everything above applies to intrastate commerce. Under 49 CFR 390.5, a run between two Minnesota addresses is still interstate commerce when it is part of a shipment that starts or ends outside the state. Interstate work runs under the federal rules directly, including every paragraph of 49 CFR 395.1 that Minnesota left out. A construction hauler with one interstate load in the week can use the federal 24-hour restart on that work and not on the rest. Set the device up for both and tell the driver which one each load is on. The national ELD mandate page covers the federal paper-log exceptions, and the FMCSA ELD list is where a device is confirmed as still registered.

FAQ

Do Minnesota intrastate drivers need ELDs?

Yes, when part 395 reaches them. Minn. Stat. 221.0314, subd. 9(a) incorporates 49 CFR part 395 by reference for intrastate carriers, and the only pieces it leaves out are eight paragraphs of section 395.1. The electronic logging device rule in 49 CFR 395.8 and the device specifications in subpart B are not among them, so they apply inside Minnesota on the federal text, including the federal routes to a paper log and the 150 air-mile short-haul exception.

Does Minnesota give intrastate drivers extra driving hours?

No. Subdivision 9 does not except any part of 49 CFR 395.3, so an intrastate Minnesota property driver runs the federal 11-hour driving limit, 14-hour window, and 60 or 70 hour weekly limit. The state changes the exceptions around the clock instead: it does not incorporate the federal retail-delivery, oilfield, construction restart, driver-salesperson and utility service vehicle provisions of 49 CFR 395.1.

Which Minnesota intrastate vehicles are outside the hours rules?

Minn. Stat. 221.0314, subd. 9(c) says part 395 does not apply to drivers of lightweight vehicles, which Minn. Stat. 221.012, subd. 22 defines as 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight or less, other than vehicles carrying passengers for hire or placarded hazardous materials. MnDOT's 2026 Commercial Vehicle Resource Book also lists excepted private carrier operations, such as public utilities, cooperative electric associations, telephone companies, and building contractors hauling their own materials and tools from shop to site.