HOS new rules

The answer to your question depends on what you did before you started your shift. As was mentioned above, your 14 won't get extended to 3 AM unless your 5-hour break was preceded by a break of at least 7 hours and less than 10 hours.

My answer is based on news articles and posts written here. If it were the case that you could do a full 10-hour break and then have this apply: first 2+ break during work shift extends 14 by the amount of that break, then that's how the rule would have been described. Based on everything I've read, the FMCSA was not content to simply extend the 14 by the amount of the first 2+ break. Instead, to make sure they lived up to their reputation for sheer lunacy, for the 14 to be extended requires that you have a bona fide split sleeper berth 7+-2+ or 2+-7+ scenario.

As I pointed out above, I think you can easily get around this nonsense by merely dropping down to on-duty for one minute to convert a 10+ break into a 7+ one.

At this point I suspect the rulemakers at the FMCSA are passing around a bottle of tequila laughing their behinds off while they deliberately make up silly rules so they can be entertained by all the confusion that results. It's either that or they're all dumb as a rock.

 

That is, once your 2+ break has been completed, go in and edit your 10+ break by changing one minute of off-duty (or sleeper berth) to one minute of on-duty instead.

 

I finally went to federalregister.gov:

Hours of Service of Drivers

and looked at the new rule. Here is the exact wording:

Sleeper berth requirements have been modified "to allow drivers to take their required 10 hours off-duty in two periods, provided one off-duty period (whether in or out of the sleeper berth) is at least 2 hours long and the other involves at least 7 consecutive hours spent in the sleeper berth. Neither period counts against the maximum 14-hour driving window."​

I'm still thoroughly mystified how they could overlook that the revision lets a lesser-rested driver extend his/her 14 when a better-rested driver isn't able to, but with that said, it's slightly more understandable to me now after reading the actual revision, because it's so easy and natural to just say, as they did, that "Neither period counts against the maximum 14-hour driving window." and leave it at that without noticing the little oopsie it introduces.

To know what they mean by the word "period" (in "Neither period counts against the maximum"), all you have to do is go to the previous sentence, where they describe the two periods as follows: "one off-duty period (whether in or out of the sleeper berth) is at least 2 hours long and the other involves at least 7 consecutive hours spent in the sleeper berth." (emphasis mine) It's very clear they are saying it's the whole period that does not count against the 14 in each case (as opposed to just a portion of a period that completes 10 full hours).

 

I really have to thank you for your reflection on this and you said all that with a passion.
I think it is best to leave 14 hour clock extension alone for now, at least until we know more, because those law enforcement people may not bother themselves with too much interpretation of what FMCSA stated and the very second they see red exclamation mark on a ELD the will just write a ticket.
Logically, any 14 hour click extension deafets the very purpose of its being in the first place.
Since they allowed 7/3 split then only 7 hours in the sleeper seems logically sound to extend the clock. If you could extend the clock by any period of more than 2 hours, then it would be so much easier to get rid of it completely.

 

Think I figured it ... Old 8/2 split.

Run off 7 of your 14, take 2 off ... 9 hours into your 14

Work 3, take 8 in the sleeper.

You get back the 2 on the 14 you didn't use. Plus the 7 you worked and the 2 you took off duty for total of 11 available. The 2 off duty doesn't count against the 14.

But if you work 7, then take 8 in the sleeper. The 14 stopped. You have 7 left on the 14.

Work 2 and then take 2 off. You've burned 4 of the available 7. You get back the 7 before the sleeper and the 3 you haven't burned for a total of 10 ... The 14 keeps ticking during the break. The 2 off duty counts against the 14.

With the new rule the 2 after the 8 won't count against the 14. You'll have 12 instead of 10.

The confusion is in the terminology of "doesn't count" vs "stop".

The 8/7 stops the 14. The 2/3 doesn't count against the 14, when coupled with an 8/7, regardless of when you take it relative to the 8/7.

But then, I've already been wrong once. If this is also, I'll think of something else and go for the trifecta.

 

So if you did a 5 and a 7 you could take 12 off the clock not just 10? That is what I'm getting.

 

I've been playing around with the HOS tool the FMCSA put up on their website, and they even have a preset example of a split using these new regulations. ELD - Educational Tool for Hours of Service

I've even made it work with a situation where you sleep 5, and it just extends your 14 by 5, as long as you either go off duty at the end for 10 or sleep for 7.

 

This is what I thought the rule was supposed to be.

So if I start my shift and drive however many hours and then take 3 hours off, the 14 is extended by 3 hours as long as at the end of that period you take at least a 7 hour break.

Is that correct?

 

Based on the wording it's pretty clear that yes, both of the total breaks do not count against the 14. So yes, you'd get 12 off the clock for a 7 plus a 5.