The following excerpts are from the general requirements for ELDs. Scope of regulatory requirement should be reviewed and information provided to the driver resource during orientation and recurrent safety/training sessions.
MOTOR CARRIER RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Established driver accounts must not contain driver’s license number or Social Security number as user name or any part thereof.
2. Ensure that the driver’s license number is valid and corresponds to the driver using the ELD account.
3. Driver Identification
a. First and last name as reflected on the driver’s license.
b. Unique ELD user name assigned by motor carrier
c. Valid driver’s license number and issuing authority
4. In vehicle information
a. User’s manual
b. Instruction to provide transfer of ELD information to authorized safety official(s)
c. Supply of blank driver records
DRIVER RESPONSIBILITIES
Driver must provide the information the ELD requires as prompted by the ELD and motor carrier. Upon request by certified law enforcement/compliance officers the driver must produce, and transfer from an ELD, the driver’s hours-of-service records in accordance with the instruction sheet provided by the motor carrier.
SPECIAL DRIVING CATEGORIES §395.28
A motor carrier may configure an ELD to accept a driver entry indicating authorized personal use (PC) and/or yard movement, which is considered off-duty. When driving under special driving categories the driver must indicate the category before the start of the status and deselect the category upon completion of the status. When prompted by the ELD, the driver must annotate the ELD record describing the activity.
A motor carrier may configure an ELD to indicate “driver exempt from ELD” requirement. EX: 100 air-mile exempt driver, assigned to a vehicle equipped with an ELD, would log into the vehicle under the exempt status and annotate the ELD record with “100-mile exempt driver.
ELD RECORD SUBMISSIONS, EDITS, ANNOTATIONS, AND DATA RETENTION §395.30
1. Driver must certify each day’s record by selecting “Agree” immediately following the statement “I hereby certify my data entries and my record of duty status for this 24-hours period are true and correct.” Certification must occur immediately after the final required entry has been made or corrected for the 24-hour period.2. Corrections, additions and remarks may be added to the ELD record, but must be electronically certified by the driver. The ELD will prompt for all required data, and all required data must be provided by the driver.
3. A motor carrier is not permitted to alter, erase, or permit or require alteration or erasure of the original information concerning driver’s hours of service or the source data streams used to provide such information.
4. Carriers must retain original ELD information (on the device, or on a separate back-up system) for at least six months, along with the associated required supporting documents. Paper copies of documents do not need to be retained if they have been scanned. Carriers must ensure the ELD
information is stored with appropriate security, to protect driver privacy. Carriers must also provide drivers with access to the records, on request, for a period of six months.
5. Effective December 18, 2017, enforcement officials may request access to hours-of-service documentation by data transfer.
NON-AUTHENTICATED DRIVER LOGS §395.32
Upon logging into an ELD the driver must review any unassigned driving time and; assume any records that belong to the driver under the driver’s account, or indicate that the records are not attributable to the driver. The motor carrier must ensure that all unidentified driving is reviewed and annotate why the driving is unassigned, or assign to the appropriate driver to correctly reflect the driver’s hours of service. Unassigned driving time is commonly referred to as “Miles without Hours.”
ELD MALFUNCTIONS AND DATA DIAGNOSTIC EVENTS §395.34
Upon recognition, or notification of an ELD malfunction the driver must report such recognition, or notification, to the motor carrier within 24-hours, and:
1. Driver must construct a graph-grid paper log for the current duty day and for the previous 7 consecutive days. Continue to construct a graph-grid paper log for each duty day until the ELD malfunction is corrected.
2. Motor carrier must, within 8 days, of discovery of malfunction, or driver notification (whichever occurs first), restore the ELD to compliance or effect replacement.
a. Extension may be requested FMCSA Division Administrator for the State of the motor carrier’s principal place of business within 5 days of malfunction awareness.
DRIVER ACCESS TO RECORDS §395.36
Driver must have access to ELD records that are available or exist, and are automatically retrievable, through the ELD operated by the driver. Additionally, the motor carrier must provide access to and copies of the driver’s own ELD records unavailable under automatic retrieval for a period of six months.
