Watch Now


CVSA confirms hard enforcement of ELD transition

No grace period for AOBRD users. Credit: Jim Allen/FreightWaves

Taking its cue from federal regulators, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) confirmed it will begin fully enforcing the electronic logging device (ELD) rule on Dec. 17, with no “soft enforcement” grace period.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) previously has stated there will be no grace period allowed for carriers that have been allowed to “grandfather in” to the ELD mandate — which went into effect on Dec. 18, 2017 — by having purchased and installed an automatic onboard recording device (AOBRD) before that date.

While FMCSA allowed for a three-month grace period – until April 1, 2018 – before it began placing trucks out of service for not having ELDs, CVSA inspectors will be providing no such leniency for the grandfathered AOBRD-ELD transition, the agency stated on Dec. 2.

“If a commercial motor vehicle driver is required to have an ELD and the vehicle is not equipped with a registered compliant ELD, the driver is considered to have no record-of-duty status,” CVSA stated. This also will apply to drivers still using an AOBRD after the Dec. 17 deadline.


CVSA, which is tasked with enforcing FMCSA regulations through roadside inspections, pointed out that according to the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria, “a property-carrying driver who does not have a record of duty status in his or her possession when one is required will be declared out of service for 10 hours and a passenger-carrying driver without a record-of-duty status when one is required will be placed out of service for eight hours.”

FMCSA mandated ELDs to make it easier to track, manage and share record-of-duty status as well as to improve highway safety and reduce crashes. The agency found that trucks equipped with ELDs had a 53% lower driving-related HOS violation risk and a 49% lower non-driving-related HOS violation risk than non-equipped trucks.

Unlike smaller fleets and independent owner-operators that made up the bulk of those buying ELDs to meet the 2017-18 deadlines, those grandfathering in to the rule have been predominantly large trucking companies that typically operate an average of 50 to 100 trucks.

According to the most recent FreightWaves survey, in partnership with CarrierLists and EROAD, only about 2% of carriers are still running AOBRDs ahead of the Dec. 17 deadline. This number has stayed the same the past several weeks, as revealed in prior surveys, signaling that most of the holdouts will wait until the last minute to make the switch.


43 Comments

  1. Val

    This ELD take’s too much control for drivers.. We are no robots and i think many drivers will left trucking business because is not freedom and too much government.

  2. Wallace

    A ELD can’t tell if you are tired and it forces driver to drive knowing they’re tired!!! I can’t rest with this thing in my truck!!! Too much government!!!

  3. Keith

    The federal government think truck drivers need a baby sitter, all they have done is force driver’s to run against the clock. Everytime the government gets involved in anything they fuck it up.

  4. Gearjammer25/8

    Sounds like we have real issues. Old timers got nutin to loose! If young Greta can make a difference some old gear jammer can too! Power to the people. Still flipping those loose leafs enjoying the ride 🖕🏾

  5. Karen Able

    We are professional Tucke driver, we need no ELD to tell how to do a job. most driver have had more than one training to drive truck, ELD you say it is
    safed, and all truck driver in truck business say this is B.S. It is unsafe for the truck driver and the North American people, ELD TELL THE DRIVER WHEN TO GO TO SLEEP, AND WHEN TO AWAKE, THAT NOT GOOD FOR US AS TRUCK DRIVER OUR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, WE DON’T NEED A CERFER AND WE ARE NOT ROBOT WITH A TRUE ON OR OFF SWITCH, ELD IS NO GOOD FOR TRUCK BUSINESS/ TRUCKER NEED TO GO ON ( STRIKE ) I BEEN DRIVING 22-YR. AND A WOMAN.

  6. Ted Wright

    My Co. Has had an ELD for approximately 2 years it has cut my pay by 30% on top of the 30% loss when Obama got elected and never recovered. I can’t wait for CA minimum wage to hit 15$ per hr I’ll go to work for McDonald’s and make more money than I do now in less hrs.

Comments are closed.

John Gallagher

Based in Washington, D.C., John specializes in regulation and legislation affecting all sectors of freight transportation. He has covered rail, trucking and maritime issues since 1993 for a variety of publications based in the U.S. and the U.K. John began business reporting in 1993 at Broadcasting & Cable Magazine. He graduated from Florida State University majoring in English and business.