How To Make Sure If Your ELD Provider Is Compliant

The ELD regulations is a complicated document outlining very specific requirements on how the ELD system will work on your vehicle. Moreover, to be compliant in the United States your system needs to be only self-certified. Meaning, as long as the system meets the ELD standards the system is compliant. There is no independent body to certify the system (in the USA), therefore the system provider can modify their systems and make it more convenient but they will not be compliant. If your system provider is giving you features that others are not, it is always good to check if their system is compliant. 

First this you should look at to see if a system is compliant is to check the governing bodies website: 

For the USA, the mandate is governed by the FMCSA. You can find a list of compliant providers here. The full list of certified Canadian ELD’s can be found here. 

The next step would be to check if they are advertising any features that may not be compliant. Here are some advertised features you should look out for to spot non-compliant ELD systems:

1. Allowing you to start driving without logging into the system:

If your system allows you to start driving without logging into the system or if the system allows you to drive without assigning your self to a vehicle, it may not be compliant. The ELD mandate requires all records of the vehicle to be recorded. If a driver does not log in, then the system will automatically generate an unidentified driver on the system. 

2. Allows you to change the driving record trigger to greater than 5 mph:

The ELD mandate states that status should automatically change to “Driving” when the vehicle starts moving. The threshold for the trigger can be set up to 5 MPH. If a system allows the trigger to be set greater than 5 MPH, it is not compliant.

3. Allows the driver logs to be changed by the administration without approval from the driver: 

According to the ELD mandate, any changes to the driver log must be verified the by owner of the logs. If an ELD system allows someone at the back office to make changes to the ELD log and does not require driver verification then the system is not compliant. 

4. Allow drivers to edit their duty status time or delete errors:

The ELD mandate clearly states that drivers are not allowed to delete any errors in the logs. All logs must be recorded. If a system allows the drive to delete certain records, then the system is not compliant. A compliant system will record all driving times. Automatic system generated time cannot be edited or changed in any way. If a system allows the driver to assign certain times to another person that is not a co-driver, the system is not compliant. 

There are many ELD providers out there in the market. We recommend always making sure that the ELD provider is fully compliant. We at GPS Tracking Canada have been partnered with Geotab and have sold their Geotab Drive Cloud ELD platform for over 4 years. Geotab has more than 1.5 million GPS tracking units in the field and is the exclusive provider of vehicle telematics to the Government of California and the United States Federal Government. Therefore, you can be assured that Geotab will always be compliant with any regulations regarding vehicle telematics and ELD.