To help prevent fatigued driving and ensure compliance with hours-of-service rules, most regional and long-haul commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers are required to use approved electronic logging devices (ELDs) to keep track of their time.
These requirements apply to motor carriers and drivers that operate property-carrying and/or passenger-carrying commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) in interstate commerce.
With a few exceptions, motor carriers must ensure that each of their CMV drivers is using an ELD to keep track of their time. ELDs must be selected from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) list of self-certified ELDs appearing on the agency’s website.
Both motor carriers and drivers have responsibilities under the ELD rules.
Motor carrier responsibilities. The motor carrier must manage ELD accounts, including creating, deactivating, and updating accounts, and ensure that properly authenticated individuals have ELD accounts with appropriate rights.
A unique ELD username must be assigned to each user account with the required user identification data, and the motor carrier must ensure that all that information entered to create a new account is accurate.
The ELD user account assigned by the motor carrier to a driver must include the following data elements:
The driver’s license number or Social Security number must not be used as, or as part of, the username for the account created on an ELD.
The ELD user account assigned by the motor carrier to support personnel must include the individual’s first and last name, as reflected on a government issued identification, and a unique ELD username selected by the motor carrier.
Drivers and support personnel must log into the ELD system using their proper identification data, and the ELD must be calibrated and maintained in accordance with the provider’s specifications.
If a driver uses a portable ELD, it must be mounted in a fixed position during the operation of the CMV and visible to the driver when the driver is seated in the normal driving position.
The motor carrier must ensure that its drivers possess onboard a CMV an ELD information packet containing the following items:
The motor carrier must retain for six months a back-up copy of the ELD records on a device separate from that on which the original data are stored.
The driver’s ELD records must be retained in a manner that protects the driver’s privacy.
When requested by an authorized safety official, a motor carrier must produce ELD records in an electronic format either at the time of the request or, if the motor carrier has multiple offices or terminals, within the time permitted per 390.29.
Driver responsibilities. Drivers must input their duty status by selecting one of the following categories:
Drivers must manually input the following information in the ELD:
Drivers must manually input or verify the following information on the ELD:
On request by an authorized safety official, drivers must produce and transfer from an ELD their hours-of-service records in accordance with the instruction sheet provided by the motor carrier.
Data automatically recorded. The ELD must be connected (“integrally synchronized”) to the engine of the vehicle so that driving time can be automatically recorded. The ELD must automatically record the following data elements:
These data elements are recorded by the ELD when there is a change of duty status. When a CMV is in motion and there has not been a duty status change or another intermediate recording in the previous one hour, the ELD automatically records an intermediate recording that includes the data elements.
If the intermediate recording is created during a period when the driver indicates authorized personal use of a CMV, the data elements, engine hours, and vehicle miles will be left blank and location will be recorded with a single decimal point resolution approximately within a ten-mile radius.
The ELD provides a function for recording the driver’s certification of the driver’s records for every 24-hour period. When a driver certifies or recertifies the driver’s records for a given 24-hour period, the ELD records the date, time, and driver identification data elements.
When an authorized user logs into or out of an ELD, the CMV’s engine is powered up or shut down, or the ELD detects or clears a malfunction or data diagnostic event, the ELD records certain data elements.
Special driving categories. A motor carrier may configure an ELD to authorize drivers to indicate that they are operating a CMV for personal use or yard moves. A driver operating under one of these categories must select the applicable category before the start of the status and deselect it when the status ends, and when prompted by the ELD, annotate the ELD record describing the driver’s activity.
Record review and submissions. The driver and the motor carrier must ensure that the driver’s ELD records are accurate.
Drivers must review their ELD records, edit and correct inaccurate records, enter any missing information, and certify the accuracy of the information.
Drivers must submit their certified ELD records to the motor carrier. If any edits are necessary after the driver submits the records to the motor carrier, the driver must recertify the record after the edits are made.
Edits. A driver may edit, enter missing information, and annotate ELD recorded events. When edits, additions, or annotations are necessary, a driver must use the ELD and respond to the ELD’s prompts.
The driver or support personnel must annotate each change or addition to a record.
In the case of team drivers, if there was a mistake resulting in the wrong driver being assigned driving-time hours by the ELD, and if the team drivers were both indicated in each other’s records for that period as co-drivers, driving time may be edited and reassigned between the team drivers following the procedure supported by the ELD.
On review of a driver’s submitted records, the motor carrier may request edits to a driver’s records of duty status to ensure accuracy.
A driver must confirm or reject any proposed change, implement the appropriate edits on the driver’s record of duty status, and recertify and resubmit the records in order for any motor carrier proposed changes to take effect.
A motor carrier may not request edits to the driver’s electronic records before the records have been submitted by the driver.
Edits requested by any person other than the driver must require the driver’s electronic confirmation or rejection.
A motor carrier may not coerce a driver to make a false certification of the driver’s data entries or record of duty status. A motor carrier must not alter or erase, or permit or require alteration or erasure of, the original information collected concerning the driver’s hours of service, the source data streams used to provide that information, or information contained in any ELD that uses the original information and hours-of-service source data.
Malfunctions. In case of an ELD malfunction, the driver must do the following:
When the driver is inspected for hours-of-service compliance during an ELD malfunction, the driver must provide the authorized safety official the graph-grid paper log or electronic logging software as manually prepared.
If a motor carrier receives or discovers information concerning the malfunction of an ELD, the motor carrier must take actions to correct the malfunction of the ELD within eight days of discovery of the condition or a driver’s notification to the motor carrier, whichever occurs first.
Driver access. Drivers must be able to access their own ELD records. A motor carrier must not introduce a process that would require the driver to go through the motor carrier to obtain copies of the driver’s own ELD records if such records exist on or are automatically retrievable through the ELD operated by the driver.
On request, a motor carrier must provide the driver with access to and copies of the driver’s own ELD records.
Exceptions. A motor carrier may require a driver to record their record of duty status manually, rather than using an ELD, if the driver is operating a CMV: