Until now, officials have taken a “softer” approach to enforcing the regulation as carriers adjusted to the new ELD technology.  In many cases, only warnings have been issued for noncompliance.  When enforcement action was taken, it couldn’t include out-of-service orders or impacts to the carrier’s CSA score.

It all changes on April 1.

As of that date, you could face fines or an out-of-service order for any of the following violations:
• Not having an ELD in the truck (or not having an ELD that’s registered with the FMCSA).
• Not being able to produce digital or paper copies of your logs when requested by an enforcement official.
• Falsifying logs by utilizing the incorrect duty status or exemption.  

For full compliance, the following must also be on hand:
• The ELD user manual.
• Step-by-step instructions on how to transfer data to enforcement officials.
• A step-by-step guide on managing ELD malfunctions, as well as how to manually record hours of service data if needed.
• Blank records of duty graphs so that drivers can manually track their duty status and other required information for at least eight days.  The FMCSA allows you to keep paper logs for up to eight days during an ELD malfunction.