An Electronic Logging Device (ELD or E-Log) is a piece of electronic hardware attached to a
commercial motor vehicle
A commercial vehicle is any type of motor vehicle used for transporting goods or paying passengers.
The United States defines a "commercial motor vehicle" as any self-propelled or towed vehicle used on a public highway in interstate commerce to t ...
engine to record driving hours. The driving hours of commercial drivers (
truck
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...
and
bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
drivers) are typically regulated by a set of rules known as the
hours of service
Hours of Service (HOS) regulations are issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and govern the working hours of anyone operating a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) in the United States. These regulations apply to truck dr ...
(HOS) in the United States and as
drivers' working hours
Drivers' working hours is the commonly used term for regulations that govern the activities of the drivers of commercial goods vehicles and passenger carrying vehicles. In the United States, they are known as hours of service.
Within the Europea ...
in Europe. The Commercial Vehicle Driver Hours of Service Regulations vary in Canada and the United States.
An ELD monitors a vehicle’s engine to capture data on whether the engine is running, whether the vehicle is moving, distance driven, and duration of engine operation.
[What is an electronic logging device (ELD)?](_blank)
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Previously, paper logs or electronic on-board recorders
An electronic on-board recorder (EOBR) is an electronic device attached to a commercial motor vehicle, which is used to record the amount of time a vehicle is being driven. This is similar to the tachograph, and is the American equivalent of the ...
(EOBR) were used for hours of service tracking. While recorder logs improve the accuracy of the data, the lack of a consistent data format meant that the logs needed to be regenerated to an equivalent hardware ("paper") format for review and enforcement. The Record of Duty Status (RoDS) definition within the ELD legislation provides a consistent format for enforcement personnel to review, so the ELD Mandate was created.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is an agency in the United States Department of Transportation that regulates the trucking industry in the United States. The primary mission of the FMCSA is to reduce crashes, injuries and f ...
(FMCSA) announced the Final Rule of the ELD mandate, and ELD regulations being implemented in several phases with a compliance date of December 18, 2017. Fleets already equipped with loggers or recorders had until December 2019 to ensure compliance with the published specifications.
Before the final rule of the ELD mandate was announced, fleets used the Automatic On-Board Device (AOBRD), a much simpler version of the ELD device that did not provide fleets with many features. For instance, ELDs provide a standardized format and transfer process for roadside inspections, have more sophisticated location tracking, and enable drivers to accept or reject edits made to their driving logs – all of which are required under the ELD mandate.
References
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Road haulage