Read the GHOSTRUCK Act here: GHOST TRUCK ACT
AIST Consulting
What Is the GHOSTRUCK Act?
According to the bill’s official description, the legislation would amend federal transportation law to restrict who may edit or annotate ELD records.
While the full legislative text has not yet been publicly released, current descriptions indicate that the proposal would:
- Allow edits or annotations to ELD records only if the individual making the change is physically located within North America.
- Maintain the existing requirement that drivers approve any modifications made to their logs.
At this stage, many implementation details remain unknown.
Questions surrounding enforcement, penalties, definitions, exemptions, and compliance procedures have not yet been answered.
Why Is This Being Proposed?
Supporters of the bill argue that a significant amount of logbook manipulation occurs through individuals located outside the United States.
According to public statements from lawmakers and industry groups, concerns include:
- Hours-of-Service records being altered improperly
- Drivers operating beyond legal limits
- Reduced accountability when log edits originate outside U.S. jurisdiction
- Competitive disadvantages for carriers that follow compliance requirements
Several major industry organizations have expressed support for the legislation, including:
- American Trucking Associations (ATA)
- Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA)
- Truckload Carriers Association (TCA)
- Freight Transportation Association (FTA)
- National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA)
- National Tank Truck Carriers (NTTC)
The Bigger Question: Who Controls Compliance?
While discussion around the bill has largely focused on overseas dispatch operations, the broader issue may be larger than geography.
At its core, the proposal raises a fundamental compliance question:
Who is responsible for ensuring the accuracy of driver logs?
Current regulations already require driver approval before edits become official.
However, if future legislation adds location-based restrictions on who may initiate those edits, fleets may need to reevaluate internal processes surrounding:
- Dispatch operations
- Safety departments
- ELD administration
- Log auditing procedures
- Driver oversight
For some carriers, those processes may already be handled domestically.
For others, the operational impact could be more significant.
Safety Managers May Be Asked to Do More
This proposal also highlights a trend we’ve discussed in previous newsletters.
Across multiple areas of trucking compliance, regulators appear to be moving toward increased accountability, verification, and traceability.
If legislation like the GHOSTRUCK Act advances, safety managers could find themselves carrying additional responsibility for:
- Monitoring ELD edits
- Verifying who made changes
- Documenting approval workflows
- Auditing HOS records
- Ensuring internal compliance controls are functioning properly
In many fleets, safety managers have already become the final checkpoint between a compliance issue and a violation.
Could future legislation expand that role even further?
It’s a question worth considering.
What Fleets Should Be Watching
Because the full bill text has not yet been released, several key questions remain unanswered:
- How will “physically located in North America” be verified?
- Will penalties apply to carriers, individuals, or both?
- How will enforcement agencies investigate violations?
- Will existing third-party service providers be affected?
- What documentation requirements may be introduced?
Until those details become available, speculation is unlikely to provide meaningful answers.
What carriers can do, however, is ensure that current ELD and HOS practices remain compliant under existing regulations.
Why This Matters Beyond ELDs
Whether this bill ultimately becomes law or not, it reflects a larger trend in transportation enforcement.
Regulators and lawmakers continue to focus on:
- Hours-of-Service compliance
- Driver accountability
- Electronic record integrity
- Verification and auditability
- Carrier oversight responsibilities
As technology becomes more integrated into compliance systems, the expectation that carriers can demonstrate control over their processes continues to grow.
For many fleets, the challenge is no longer simply maintaining records.
It’s proving that those records can be trusted.
