How recap hours work (the short version)
Under the FMCSA's 70-hour/8-day limit, property-carrying drivers may not drive after accumulating 70 on-duty hours in any 8 consecutive days (you can still do non-driving work — but it keeps counting against your cycle). The window rolls: at the end of each 24-hour log day — midnight home-terminal time for most carriers, though your carrier designates the boundary — the day that's now 8 days old falls out of the count, and whatever you worked that day comes back to you. Those returning hours are your recap hours — you "get back tomorrow what you worked 8 days ago."
That's why two drivers with the same 65 hours used can be in totally different shape: one worked 12 hours eight days ago and wakes up to 12 fresh hours; the other took that day off and gains nothing at midnight. The projection table above does this rolling math for the week so you can plan loads instead of doing arithmetic at a truck stop. For the full explanation with worked examples, see How Recap Hours Work.
Frequently asked questions
Do off-duty and sleeper hours count against the 70? No — only driving and on-duty-not-driving time count toward the cycle.
What's the 60/7 cycle? Carriers that don't operate every day of the week run 60 hours in 7 days instead. Flip the selector above and the calculator handles it.
When does a 34-hour restart make sense? When the hours coming back over the next few midnights are too thin to keep you loaded. Run the calculator — the note under the projection compares your recap pace against a full reset.