Truck Trip Driving Time & ETA Estimator
Enter your trip miles and departure time. We work out the driving time and a legal-hours arrival estimate — with 30-minute breaks and 10-hour rests built in, not one impossible non-stop drive.
How this estimate works (the model)
Driving time = trip miles ÷ your average speed. Any buffer you choose is added to that driving time.
- Driving is planned in shifts of at most 11 driving hours.
- Inside a shift, a 30-minute break is added after every 8 cumulative driving hours.
- Between shifts, a full 10-hour rest is added before driving resumes.
This is a planning estimate, not a promise: weather, traffic, shipper/receiver delays — and the 14-hour duty window and 60/70-hour weekly limits, which this simple planner does not simulate — can all push arrival later. For exact hour-by-hour HOS clocks, use our HOS Limit Estimator in the Trucking Mind Tools section.
General planning information only. Always plan from your ELD and current conditions; never drive past your legal hours to hit an estimated arrival time.
Why trip time is not just miles divided by speed
Dividing the miles by your speed gives you driving time only — and a real truck trip never runs as one unbroken drive. Federal hours-of-service rules break it up: a driver may drive at most 11 hours in a shift, must take a 30-minute break after 8 cumulative hours of driving, and needs 10 hours off duty between shifts. A 750-mile run at a 60 mph average is 12 hours 30 minutes of driving, which is already more than one legal shift. The estimator above simulates the trip the way it actually unfolds, from your departure time, and returns a real arrival date and time instead of a hopeful guess.
How this trip planner works
Pure driving time is trip miles divided by your average speed, and you can add a buffer of 10% or 15% on top for fuel stops, traffic and loading time. The planner then drives the trip forward from your departure in shifts of at most 11 driving hours. Inside a shift, a 30-minute break is inserted after every 8 hours of driving, whenever more driving follows. Between shifts, a 10-hour rest is inserted. Two examples show the shape of it: 600 miles at 60 mph is 10 hours of driving in a single shift, one 30-minute break, and a 16:30 arrival from a 06:00 departure. The same departure with 750 miles runs 12 hours 30 minutes of driving across two shifts, with one break and one 10-hour rest, arriving at 05:00 the next day. All durations are worked out in whole minutes, so an arrival time never shows an impossible figure like “5 hours 60 minutes”.
Average speed: pick a number you can actually hold
Cruising at 65 on the interstate is not the same as averaging 65 door to door. Fuel stops, weigh stations, towns, terrain and traffic all pull the average down. On mixed routes, most trucks honestly average 45 to 55 mph; on a clean interstate run, 55 to 60. Two Texas lanes show why the choice matters. Dallas to Houston is about 240 miles: at a 55 mph average that is roughly 4 hours 22 minutes of driving — inside one shift, with no 30-minute break triggered. Dallas to El Paso is about 635 miles: at the same 55 mph average it is about 11 hours 33 minutes of driving, which is over the 11-hour shift limit, so the trip needs two shifts, a break and a 10-hour rest — plan on a next-day arrival, not a heroic same-day push. If in doubt, plan with the slower average and let the buffer absorb the surprises, not the other way round.
What this estimator does not cover
It does not simulate the 14-hour duty window or the 60/70-hour weekly limits — those are worked out in the HOS Calculator, which tells you how much of your window and your week you have left before you leave. It also cannot see weather, roadworks or a shipper who keeps you waiting; waiting time you can claim back is a separate question, worked out with the Detention Pay Calculator. Treat the arrival time as a plan built on the numbers you gave it, not a promise.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to drive 600 miles in a semi truck?
At a 60 mph average, 600 miles is 10 hours of driving. With the mandatory 30-minute break after 8 driving hours, the trip takes about 10 hours 30 minutes door to door and fits in a single shift — a 06:00 departure arrives at about 16:30 the same day.
When does a truck driver have to take a 30-minute break?
After 8 cumulative hours of driving time. The break must be at least 30 minutes and can be spent off duty, in the sleeper berth, on duty not driving, or in any combination of those. A driver may not drive again after the 8-hour mark until the break is taken.
How many miles can a truck driver cover in one day?
The legal ceiling is 11 hours of driving in a shift. At realistic average speeds of 50 to 60 mph, that works out to roughly 550 to 660 miles of driving in a day — less once stops, traffic and a slower route average are honest about it, which is why this planner asks for your average speed instead of the speed limit.
Does this estimate include rest breaks and overnight rests?
Yes. The simulation inserts a 30-minute break after every 8 driving hours inside a shift and a full 10-hour rest between shifts, and the arrival time, total elapsed time, and the counts of shifts, breaks and rests are all shown in the result.