Nebraska Intrastate ELD Rules and Hours of Service
Nebraska runs a 12 and 16 hour intrastate clock by statute, adopts the ELD rule as of January 1, 2026, and lifts the log for intrastate farm trucks.
By Evan Reid, Founder of Haul Handbook · Updated Sep 27, 2026 · 7 min read
Nebraska does its intrastate hours of service in one statute. Neb. Rev. Stat. 75-363 adopts the federal hours rule, 49 CFR Part 395, as Nebraska law, then rewrites the driving limits and carves out the state's farm operations in the same section. A second statute, 75-365, sets the date the federal text is frozen at. Put together, a Nebraska intrastate driver gets a longer day than the federal rule allows, keeps the ELD, and loses both the clock and the log in a few farm cases.
Here is how each piece works.
Who the Nebraska rule reaches
Section 75-363(2)(b) applies the adopted regulations to motor carriers in intrastate commerce for four classes: vehicles over 10,000 pounds (gross vehicle weight rating, gross combination weight rating, or actual weight), vehicles designed or used to carry more than 8 passengers including the driver for pay or more than 15 not for pay, loads that require hazardous materials placards, and drivers of vehicles that require a commercial driver's license. Part 395, hours of service of drivers, is item (i) on the adoption list in subsection (3).
The 10,000-pound line matters. A pickup and trailer with a combined weight rating over 10,000 pounds is inside the hours rule, and inside the ELD rule with it, even where no CDL is required to drive it.
The clock: 12, 16, and 70 or 80
Subsection (9)(a) says Part 395 applies to intrastate carriers and drivers, except that no carrier shall permit or require a driver to drive, and no driver shall drive, more than 12 hours following 10 consecutive hours off duty, or for any period after having been on duty 16 hours following 10 consecutive hours off duty. Subsection (9)(b) sets the weekly limit at 70 hours on duty in any 7 consecutive days if the employing carrier does not operate every day of the week, or 80 hours in any 8 consecutive days if it does.
| Limit | Nebraska intrastate | Federal interstate (49 CFR 395.3) |
|---|---|---|
| Off duty before driving | 10 consecutive hours | 10 consecutive hours |
| Driving | 12 hours | 11 hours |
| On-duty limit | 16 hours | 14 consecutive hours after coming on duty |
| Weekly, carrier not running every day | 70 hours in 7 days | 60 hours in 7 days |
| Weekly, carrier running every day | 80 hours in 8 days | 70 hours in 8 days |
Scroll sideways to see every column.
None of the Nebraska figures is a state invention. 49 CFR 350.305(d) lets a state's intrastate hours limits vary to the extent they allow a 12-hour driving limit, provided the driver may not drive after having been on duty more than 16 hours, and driving prohibitions at 70 hours in 7 days or 80 in 8. Nebraska took each of those numbers and kept the federal every-day-of-the-week test to decide which weekly limit a carrier uses.
The State Patrol's 2026-27 Truck Information Guide, page 33, reads the statute the same way: the rules for an intrastate driver are the same as the interstate ones except for the 12-hour, 16-hour and 70 or 80 hour limits. So the rest of Part 395 stays on at its federal text, including the 10-hour off-duty start, the 34-hour restart and the short-haul exceptions the guide covers on page 35. The national hours of service page walks through those federal pieces.
The ELD comes in with the adoption
Subsection (1) adopts the listed federal parts as they existed and were effective on the date specified in 75-365. Section 75-365(3) fixes that date at January 1, 2026. The statute's source note credits Laws 2026, LB781, with an effective date of April 15, 2026.
Two things follow. First, the date falls long after December 18, 2017, the compliance date written into 49 CFR 395.8(a)(1)(i). So the rule that a motor carrier must install and require each driver to use an ELD is part of the Part 395 Nebraska adopted. Second, the date is fixed. A federal change to Part 395 after January 1, 2026 does not reach a Nebraska intrastate carrier until the Legislature moves the 75-365 date. That differs from states whose adoption rolls forward with every federal revision.
The paper-log exceptions are federal and come in unchanged. Section 395.8(a)(1)(ii)(A) lets a carrier use paper records for a driver who needs a record of duty status on not more than 8 days in any 30-day period, for two driveaway-towaway cases, and for a vehicle manufactured before model year 2000 as shown by the VIN on its registration. The Truck Information Guide, page 34, lists the same three groups. The ELD mandate page covers each case, and the FMCSA registered device list is where a device is checked.
The Nebraska farm carve-outs
This is the part of the statute with no federal twin. Three subsections do the work, and they reach different sets of drivers.
Farm trucks at 16 tons or less. Subsection (5) says the regulations adopted in subsection (3) do not apply at all to farm trucks registered under section 60-3,146 with a gross weight of 16 tons or less. No Part 395, no ELD.
Intrastate farm trucks above that weight. The same subsection lists parts that do not apply to drivers of farm trucks registered under 60-3,146 and operated solely in intrastate commerce: all of Part 391, section 396.11, and section 395.8. Section 395.8 is the record-of-duty-status section, the one that carries the ELD requirement. The Part 395 hours limits stay on for these drivers. The log requirement does not.
Planting and harvest hauls within 150 air miles. Subsection (10) says Part 395, as adopted in subsections (3) and (9), does not apply to drivers transporting agricultural commodities or farm supplies for agricultural purposes during planting and harvesting season when:
- the commodities move from their source to a location within a 150 air-mile radius of the source;
- farm supplies move from a wholesale or retail distribution point to a farm or other place of use within 150 air miles of that point; or
- farm supplies move from a wholesale distribution point to a retail distribution point within 150 air miles.
Separately, subsection (6) takes covered farm vehicles out of Part 395 altogether, along with Part 382, Part 391 subpart E, and Part 396.
Traps worth knowing
The season condition is in the statute, and the State Patrol guide leaves it out. The Truck Information Guide's page 33 summary of the agricultural exemption lists the 150-air-mile hauls without the planting and harvesting season wording, and adds a livestock line of its own. The statute's subsection (10) is the text that binds, and it names the season.
Farm plates do not lift the clock above 16 tons. A driver of a heavier intrastate farm truck is free of section 395.8 but still owes the 12, 16 and 70 or 80 hour limits in subsection (9), unless a subsection (10) haul applies. Dropping the device does not drop the hours.
Configure the device to Nebraska's limits. An ELD left on the federal property ruleset will flag the 12th hour of driving and the 15th and 16th hours on duty, all legal for a Nebraska intrastate driver. Ask the vendor whether it offers a Nebraska intrastate ruleset before the first load.
One interstate load changes the rule. The Nebraska limits cover intrastate commerce. A driver who takes a load across a state line is back on the federal 11, 14, and 60 or 70 figures for that work.