Overdrive Staff
It didn’t take long for the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance to highlight one of its newest out-of-service violations.
Earlier this week, the alliance of state/federal enforcement and industry announced false-log violations as a result of ELD tampering will be an out-of-service violation, effective April Fool’s Day, citing 49 CFR 395.8(e)(2).
On Thursday, CVSA announced its annual International Roadcheck inspection blitz will be held May 12-14 and place special emphasis on ELD tampering, falsification or manipulation.
During the three-day Roadcheck, inspectors at weigh/inspection stations and pop-up inspection sites primarily conduct the North American Standard Level I Inspection, a 37-step procedure that includes two major parts — an examination of the driver’s operating requirements and an assessment of the vehicle’s mechanical fitness.
For the driver portion of the inspection, inspectors check the driver’s qualifications, license, record of duty status, medical examiner’s certificate, seat belt usage, skill performance evaluation certificate (if applicable), and status in the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse (in the U.S.).
Inspectors also look for signs of alcohol and/or drug impairment.
For the vehicle portion, it’s more than just the biggies: Lights, tires and brakes. Inspectors assess a whole host of components from the coupling devices and driveline/driveshaft components to the driver’s seat and securement of cargo.
Other mechanical components inspected include fuel and exhaust systems, frames, steering mechanisms, suspensions, wheels, rims, hubs and windshield wipers.
A vehicle that successfully passes a Level I or V Inspection without any critical vehicle inspection item violations may receive a CVSA decal, which is valid for up to three months. A valid decal signals to commercial motor vehicle enforcement personnel that the vehicle was recently inspected and did not have out-of-service violations.
For the emphasis on ELD tampering, during Roadcheck inspectors will review the driver’s record of duty status as usual and check for false or manipulated entries, with a focus on ELD tampering.
Inaccurate ELD entries may result from a driver’s lack of understanding of the federal regulations and exemptions, CVSA noted, but in some cases, inaccurate entries are purposefully used to conceal hours-of-service violations, and some records are manipulated to conceal driving time (with no indication the record was edited as required by federal regulations).
Last year, falsification of record of duty status was the second most-cited driver violation, according to CVSA. The false logs violations saw a sizable uptick in issuance last year, according to Overdrive/RigDig analysis published earlier this week.
During Roadcheck in 2025, “false logs” was the No. 4 overall driver violation, and five out of the top 10 driver violations were related to hours of service or ELDs.
Where’s violation risk most likely? It’s instructive to review the intensity of focus individual states’ inspectors put on the hours of service violation category, generally. The map below, charting Overdrive sister company RigDig analysis, illustrates which states issued the most HOS violations as part of their total mix — where the likelihood of hours attention is high.
The vehicle focus for this year’s Roadcheck is improper/inadequate cargo securement, which as any serious owner-operator knows can pose serious risk to the driver and others on the road. Adverse impacts on the vehicle’s maneuverability, unsecured loads falling or becoming dislodged — all can result in roadway hazards and/or crashes, CVSA noted.
Overdrive/RigDig analysis shows a generally less-intense focus on cargo securement among states than hours, yet plenty variability state-to-state, too.
In 2025, CVSA said, 18,108 violations were issued because cargo was not secured to prevent leaking/spilling/blowing/falling, and 16,054 violations were issued for vehicle components or dunnage not being secured.
During Roadcheck 2025, cargo securement was the No. 5 overall vehicle violation across North America.
During the 72 hours of International Roadcheck, data will be collected, and the results will be released later this year.
Mark Murrell
The human toll of a collision should never be underestimated – even if there are no physical injuries, the mental stress can be enormous. However, during that experience, drivers still have responsibilities and need to follow some best practices when it comes to accident scene reporting. One of the ways you can help is by making sure they’re clear on what they need to do after you’ve established that they are safe.
Some of those driver responsibilities include stopping and securing the cargo and reporting the incident to the authorities. However, one of the things that sometimes gets missed is how much a driver should document for the company’s own files (and the insurer’s) so that the event can be understood by everyone who gets involved later. With that in mind, here is a documentation cheat sheet you can use when developing a response plan for your drivers to follow.
Note: This covers a small (but extremely important) requirement when a crash occurs, but it shouldn’t take priority over other obligations the safety manager or crash response team has – including finding out if the driver is okay, notifying loved ones, and so on. Consult with your executive team or legal counsel for a fuller view of these responsibilities.
Reinforce with your drivers that they should record:
Basic information
This may seem too basic to be needed, but remember that the event will be pieced together later on by people who were not there, so having your driver get even the most basic information down can be crucial:
- Driver information should include their name, address, phone number, date of birth and license number, expiration date, and state or province of issue.
- Carrier information should include their DOT or CVOR number, insurance policy details, company name, address, and phone number.
- Vehicle info includes the year, make and model, color, unit numbers for the tractor and the trailer, and plate numbers.
- And don’t forget to include the time and location of the event!
Incident details
A standard accident report will ask for information like the make, model, and color of the other vehicles involved, as well as personal information about the other drivers and any passengers. It will also help if your driver can write down, while the memory is still fresh, an account of vehicle movements during the incident, including direction, points of impact, traffic signals, and vehicle movements such as making a turn, backing up, skidding or weaving, and more. Note: it will also be important to detail your driver’s own status, including on-duty status and driving hours, distance traveled on the current trip, speed at the time of the incident, and any warning signals they gave or witnessed, such as brakes, indicator lights, horn, etc.
External factors
People looking at the incident much later on (especially insurers) will be keen to know about the road conditions at the time of the incident. Be sure your drivers take note of its physical condition, like how wet or slippery it is, the presence of debris or other obstacles, its grade, curve, and whether the road has potholes or cracks. They should also take note of the traffic conditions – were people trying to merge, was there a railway crossing, was traffic heavy or light, and what was the posted speed limit? Make sure they describe the weather conditions, including how sunny or dark it was, whether there was fog, sleet, or other precipitation, and, in case of darkness, what the road lighting was like.
Legal and other players
While the police may be busy collecting information themselves, it’s important for the driver to take down details about the authorities involved—including badge numbers, who contacted them, the agency the police belong to, whether anyone was charged, and what the charge was (as well as arrests, if any). There will also likely be towing and cleanup vehicles present – make sure to keep detailed notes on these! Unscrupulous towing companies will sometimes exaggerate the number of vehicles present or the time spent, so making clear notes about this can help later on if there is a dispute about exaggerated fees.
Photograph…everything?
The point of all of this is that more information is better when it comes to figuring out what happened. But even if everything else is written down in great detail, there may be some critical scene information that’s not on this list. Encourage your drivers to take photos of the scene (respectfully, of course). Even just a panoramic shot of everything can sometimes reveal details that might have otherwise been missed or forgotten.
Again, this is not to suggest that worrying about documenting the scene of a crash should take precedence over looking out for your driver’s well-being. But navigating a crash incident is a bit of a long game—you’ll be dealing with stakeholders sometimes for years after the fact, so if you can help your drivers remember everything they need to do once they are safe, you’ll be able to deploy resources more effectively when you’ve got the information you need.
Doug Marcello
While politicians debate tariffs and tax policy, a hidden “lawsuit tax” is quietly inflating prices on groceries, consumer goods, and everything that moves by truck—which is nearly everything.
America’s litigation system has turned commercial trucks into “18-wheel ATMs.”
The “hit a truck, get a check” mentality isn’t just hurting trucking companies—it’s hitting your wallet every time you shop.
The Numbers Tell the Story
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been tracking this crisis:
47% — That’s how much trucking insurance rates increased from 2010-2020.
$529 billion — Total U.S. lawsuit costs in 2022, representing 2.1% of our entire GDP.
7.1% — Annual growth in lawsuit costs from 2016-2022. Compare that to inflation (3.4%) and GDP growth (5.4%). Lawsuit costs are growing faster than the economy itself.
$4,207 — What every American household pays annually as a “lawsuit tax.”
The Perryman Group dug even deeper in their 2023 study, isolating the excessive lawsuit costs—the amount above what a reasonable legal system should cost:
$342.9 billion in excessive lawsuit burden nationally.
$3,965 per household in costs that simply shouldn’t exist.
Why This Hits Your Grocery Bill First
Here’s what most people don’t realize: lawsuit abuse hits food prices hardest.
The Federal Highway Administration estimates that every $1 of agricultural products requires 14.2 cents in transportation services—compared to 9.1 cents for manufactured goods and about 8 cents for mining products.
Food depends on trucking more than any other sector.
When nuclear verdicts and runaway settlements drive up insurance costs, trucking companies pass those costs forward. And those costs land on your dinner table.
The Bottom Line
Affordability is the defining political issue of 2025.
Every candidate, every policy proposal, every economic plan is being measured against one question: Will this lower costs for American families?
Any serious conversation about affordability must include lawsuit reform.
You can’t fix inflation while ignoring the litigation tax embedded in every product that travels by truck.
Safety Often Revolves Around Regulations, Inspections and Compliance Scores; While Essential, They Rarely Tell the Full Story
Aidyn Kanagat
In the U.S. freight industry, safety is often framed around regulations, inspections and compliance scores.
These measures are essential, but they rarely tell the full story. For many fleets — especially small and midsize carriers — true safety performance is shaped long before an inspection occurs. It develops through everyday decisions, communication practices and leadership habits that influence how drivers operate on the road.
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations establish minimum standards for safe operations. However, compliance alone does not automatically translate into reduced risk. Many carriers meet regulatory requirements and still experience preventable incidents, near-misses or driver turnover tied to safety-related stress. In practice, many fleets only begin addressing these issues after seeing the same minor problems repeat across multiple drivers or terminals. The difference often lies in whether safety is treated as a checklist — or as a core operating mindset.
Moving Beyond Compliance
One of the most effective shifts fleets can make is redefining compliance as a baseline rather than a finish line. Instead of focusing only on passing inspections, safety-focused fleets examine how work is actually performed day to day. This includes reviewing minor operational errors and near-miss situations — not just recordable incidents.
Near-miss reviews help identify patterns in decision-making, fatigue, equipment handling or communication before those issues escalate into reportable events. Fleets that normalize these conversations tend to resolve risks earlier and with less disruption.
Training as a Conversation
Many carriers still rely on onboarding as their primary training touchpoint. While initial orientation is important, safety culture strengthens when training becomes an ongoing process.
Short safety briefings, periodic refreshers and practical discussions based on real-world scenarios help reinforce expectations. Drivers are more receptive when training focuses on situations they actually encounter — load securement challenges, weather-related decisions or time-pressure scenarios — rather than generic rule recitations. These challenges tend to surface most often during peak seasons, weather disruptions or periods of tight capacity, when pressure on drivers increases.
Some fleets have found success by involving experienced drivers in peer discussions or mentoring roles. When safety guidance comes from fellow drivers, it often carries greater credibility and encourages engagement rather than resistance.
Clear Communication
Today’s freight operations are increasingly multilingual and multicultural. This diversity strengthens the industry but can also introduce communication challenges if expectations are not clearly defined.
Fleets that invest in simplified instructions, visual checklists and consistent follow-up tend to reduce misunderstandings. Clear communication standards — regardless of language background — help ensure accountability and alignment across the operation. When drivers fully understand expectations, cultural differences become an asset rather than a safety risk.
Counseling Drivers
Another effective strategy is shifting from a purely corrective approach to a coaching mindset. When safety issues arise, successful fleets focus on understanding the cause rather than assigning immediate blame.
Counseling conversations that explore why a decision was made — time pressure, unclear instructions, fatigue or equipment limitations — often lead to more durable behavior change. Drivers who feel supported rather than penalized are more likely to raise concerns early and engage in safer decision-making.
Safety as a Business Advantage
Over time, the business impact of a safety-first culture becomes measurable. Fleets often see fewer operational disruptions, improved driver retention and more predictable performance. Customers benefit from reliability and reduced claims exposure.
In an environment of rising costs and regulatory scrutiny, safety should not be viewed as an expense. It is a strategic investment that supports long-term resilience, operational stability and public trust.
Conclusion
Trucking plays a critical role in the economy, and safety remains central to its sustainability. Carrier owners and fleet leaders influence safety outcomes every day — through leadership tone, communication practices and routine operational decisions.
For fleets looking to strengthen performance, focusing on safety culture remains one of the most effective and practical strategies available. It protects drivers, supports compliance and builds a foundation for long-term success.
Alex Lockie
ELD tampering has become such a widespread phenomenon that sales agents are cold calling motor carriers offering “ELD editing” and authorities are drafting a new inspections bulletin to combat the “dangerous trend,” according to trucking owner-ops and enforcement communities.
Owner-operator Ilya Denisenko recently got a cold call from a company called AVN Logistics Group. Denisenko said it promised “services such as ELDs, dispatching, oversize permits and e-log editing.”
Contacted by Overdrive about the last of those services, a rep at AVN first said they could add driving time to a driver’s ELD after the driver had run out of hours. Later, however, they insisted the AVN operation was performing strictly legal edits.
Similarly, dispatcher Hector Adrien Esquivel Rodriguez got an unsolicited call from a company called Logbook Hub that advertises on Facebook that it can “FIX your logbook” for $30 a week. Rodriguez posted a video to YouTube that featured him asking this question to the company: “Let’s say I don’t have any more time, I already used my 14 and my 11, and I need to run one more hour. Can you help?”
“Yes, totally,” the voice on the other end of the line responds, saying they have a number drivers can text and a team will edit the logs for them “24/7, no holidays.”
According to Rodriguez, “this company damages the industry, and they are a risk for the people on the road.”
Rodriguez and Denisenko aren’t alone in flagging such out-of-bounds activities. Since the ELD mandate came into play in late 2017, this sort of e-log tampering has grown in prominence so much so that inspectors are contemplating new enforcement mechanisms. The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance of law enforcement and industry stakeholders has seen the uptick, and it’s ready to act.
Jeremy Disbrow, CVSA’s Roadside Inspections Specialist, explained what inspectors are seeing now. “Per the ELD technical specifications, driving time that is detected by the ELD cannot be reassigned to a non-driving duty status,” he said. “Additionally, any edits that are made to the record must show they were edited so the edits are identifiable to safety officials. What inspectors are finding with increased frequency are records of duty status (RODS) that are being completely altered with no indication they were edited at all.”
This has created a problem for inspectors, as instead of showing a one-time lapse in HOS records, these new entirely fabricated ELD reports show wildly divergent activity.
“In many instances, the ELD entries that are shown to inspectors are inaccurate by hundreds or thousands of miles when compared to verified source documents, such as shipping papers, scale receipts, etc.,” said Disbrow. “When entire days or multiple days are completely falsified by manipulating the ELD data, inspectors have no way to identify when the driver was actually driving or resting, making it impossible to determine whether they have their required rest or available driving time.”
As Disbrow noted, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s ELD mandate device specifications in 2017 required that log records can’t be edited without evidence of such editing being left behind in a driver’s record in the device. Yet FMCSA doesn’t actually test the code and hardware for each individual ELD in its device registry, all of which initially self-certified that they follow the rules.
Today, there are more than 1,000 ELD models on FMCSA’s device registry.
The kinds of tampering described above have become become something of an open secret, according to watchers. Disbrow said when inspectors interview drivers about ELD tampering, some common themes emerge. Here’s how he described a typical scenario:
“The motor carrier tells the driver to contact them when they run out of available time to drive,” he said. The motor carrier then “contacts a third party who is able to quickly alter the records to eliminate any violations.” The scenario lines up with what the Logbook Hub rep told Rodriguez.
In some ways, this kind of thing isn’t exactly new. ELD cheating has been around as long as ELDs themselves. Paper logs, too, have long injected a kind of “honor system” into HOS regulations. But this new brand of tampering isn’t any kind of honor system, nor is it like ghost logs, where one driver has two ELDs, one under a fake name to look like a co-driver.
Today’s problem looks to have hit industrial scale, aided and abetted by businesses purpose-built to help motor carriers evade HOS regulations.
“This type of tampering cannot happen unintentionally. It is not a simple error in a record of duty because a driver accidentally made a mistake,” said Disbrow. “This type of tampering is conducted, often by third parties outside of the U.S., on devices that do not meet the technical specifications in the federal regulations.”
These third parties are “completely fabricating the record to show a compliant ELD file without any violations, and in many cases, even falsify electronic supporting documents to match the ELD file,” which gives inspectors real trouble, he said. As of about a year ago, he added, there had been some “isolated reports of inspectors encountering this type of tampering,” yet over the past year, “as inspectors have learned of these techniques, there have been many more instances uncovered across the country.”
CVSA has been passing that information around among inspectors, industry and FMCSA “to help minimize the impact of this dangerous trend,” he said. CVSA’s Driver-Traffic Enforcement Committee “took two important steps to help curtail fatigued driving as a result of ELD tampering.” The first step is the new inspection bulletin “that explains the difference between a typical false entry in a record of duty status, such as a driver claiming off-duty time while fueling their vehicle, and an ELD file that has been manipulated.”
The second was a CVSA committee vote “to add a section to the North American Out of Service Criteria (OOSC) for ELD tampering,” Disbrow added. Currently OOS language for false entries “requires an inspector to prove that the driver would have exceeded the 11, 14, 60 or 70-hour rules at the time of the inspection if the record was not falsified.”
That language “will not change,” but with the dawn of a new era of ELD tampering, “entire days are often manipulated making it impossible for inspectors to determine when actual driving or rest periods occurred,” as noted above. In those instances, “the committee suggested to add an OOS violation to the OOSC which would automatically place the driver OOS until they obtain the required rest.”
The change in the OOSC won’t come quickly, however. CVSA membership will have a final vote on the topic near the end of the year, and the OOSC is annually updated in April. This year, CVSA made the emergency move to add English language proficiency back to the OOSC by June 25, but Disbrow didn’t mention any such effort on the ELD-tampering front. “If it is added to the OOSC, the bulletin,” as is usual, “will be released prior to April 1, 2026, to prepare enforcement and industry for the change,” said Disbrow.
Disbrow acknowledged that some among Overdrive‘s readers “will be concerned about a new OOS condition being added,” but clarified that “this type of tampering will not be a problem for any carriers that are trying to be compliant. This type of tampering is completely intentional and often requires the carrier to pay a third party to ‘scrub’ their logs of any violations.”
FMCSA didn’t respond to questions about what the agency might be doing in response to CVSA’s alerting them to the new trend in ELD tampering, yet FMCSA does semi-regularly remove ELDs from the approved-devices registry. Disbrow said CVSA was “working closely with law enforcement to uncover these tactics and sharing information with FMCSA.”
Disbrow also mentioned something of a “revolving door” problem with the bad actors on ELD registry. “FMCSA maintains the list of approved ELDs that have self-certified,” he said, yet as FMCSA becomes “aware of non-compliant devices, they conduct investigations and revoke these non-compliant devices when appropriate. Unfortunately, some of these companies start over under a new name and the process repeats itself.”
It remains unclear if FMCSA has acted on CVSA-shared information on the tampering issue.
Disbrow concluded with a focus on bedrock safety outcomes, emphasizing that this type of tampering could open carriers and drivers up to major criminal and civil liabilities, particularly in the event a crash.
“While it may be tempting to tamper with an ELD to gain some extra driving time, the violations that may follow are frankly the least of anyone’s concerns,” he said. “The larger issue is the criminal and civil liability that will follow in the event of a collision, not to mention the potential injuries or loss of life from the collision. This trend is nothing short of fraud and false information, and the liability to the motor carrier or driver during a lawsuit or criminal trial is a far bigger concern.”
Alex Lockie
ELD tampering has become such a widespread phenomenon that sales agents are cold calling motor carriers offering “ELD editing” and authorities are drafting a new inspections bulletin to combat the “dangerous trend,” according to trucking owner-ops and enforcement communities.
Owner-operator Ilya Denisenko recently got a cold call from a company called AVN Logistics Group. Denisenko said it promised “services such as ELDs, dispatching, oversize permits and e-log editing.”
Contacted by Overdrive about the last of those services, a rep at AVN first said they could add driving time to a driver’s ELD after the driver had run out of hours. Later, however, they insisted the AVN operation was performing strictly legal edits.
Similarly, dispatcher Hector Adrien Esquivel Rodriguez got an unsolicited call from a company called Logbook Hub that advertises on Facebook that it can “FIX your logbook” for $30 a week. Rodriguez posted a video to YouTube that featured him asking this question to the company: “Let’s say I don’t have any more time, I already used my 14 and my 11, and I need to run one more hour. Can you help?”
“Yes, totally,” the voice on the other end of the line responds, saying they have a number drivers can text and a team will edit the logs for them “24/7, no holidays.”
According to Rodriguez, “this company damages the industry, and they are a risk for the people on the road.”
Rodriguez and Denisenko aren’t alone in flagging such out-of-bounds activities. Since the ELD mandate came into play in late 2017, this sort of e-log tampering has grown in prominence so much so that inspectors are contemplating new enforcement mechanisms. The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance of law enforcement and industry stakeholders has seen the uptick, and it’s ready to act.
Jeremy Disbrow, CVSA’s Roadside Inspections Specialist, explained what inspectors are seeing now. “Per the ELD technical specifications, driving time that is detected by the ELD cannot be reassigned to a non-driving duty status,” he said. “Additionally, any edits that are made to the record must show they were edited so the edits are identifiable to safety officials. What inspectors are finding with increased frequency are records of duty status (RODS) that are being completely altered with no indication they were edited at all.”
This has created a problem for inspectors, as instead of showing a one-time lapse in HOS records, these new entirely fabricated ELD reports show wildly divergent activity.
“In many instances, the ELD entries that are shown to inspectors are inaccurate by hundreds or thousands of miles when compared to verified source documents, such as shipping papers, scale receipts, etc.,” said Disbrow. “When entire days or multiple days are completely falsified by manipulating the ELD data, inspectors have no way to identify when the driver was actually driving or resting, making it impossible to determine whether they have their required rest or available driving time.”
As Disbrow noted, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s ELD mandate device specifications in 2017 required that log records can’t be edited without evidence of such editing being left behind in a driver’s record in the device. Yet FMCSA doesn’t actually test the code and hardware for each individual ELD in its device registry, all of which initially self-certified that they follow the rules.
Today, there are more than 1,000 ELD models on FMCSA’s device registry.
The kinds of tampering described above have become become something of an open secret, according to watchers. Disbrow said when inspectors interview drivers about ELD tampering, some common themes emerge. Here’s how he described a typical scenario:
“The motor carrier tells the driver to contact them when they run out of available time to drive,” he said. The motor carrier then “contacts a third party who is able to quickly alter the records to eliminate any violations.” The scenario lines up with what the Logbook Hub rep told Rodriguez.
In some ways, this kind of thing isn’t exactly new. ELD cheating has been around as long as ELDs themselves. Paper logs, too, have long injected a kind of “honor system” into HOS regulations. But this new brand of tampering isn’t any kind of honor system, nor is it like ghost logs, where one driver has two ELDs, one under a fake name to look like a co-driver.
Today’s problem looks to have hit industrial scale, aided and abetted by businesses purpose-built to help motor carriers evade HOS regulations.
“This type of tampering cannot happen unintentionally. It is not a simple error in a record of duty because a driver accidentally made a mistake,” said Disbrow. “This type of tampering is conducted, often by third parties outside of the U.S., on devices that do not meet the technical specifications in the federal regulations.”
These third parties are “completely fabricating the record to show a compliant ELD file without any violations, and in many cases, even falsify electronic supporting documents to match the ELD file,” which gives inspectors real trouble, he said. As of about a year ago, he added, there had been some “isolated reports of inspectors encountering this type of tampering,” yet over the past year, “as inspectors have learned of these techniques, there have been many more instances uncovered across the country.”
CVSA has been passing that information around among inspectors, industry and FMCSA “to help minimize the impact of this dangerous trend,” he said. CVSA’s Driver-Traffic Enforcement Committee “took two important steps to help curtail fatigued driving as a result of ELD tampering.” The first step is the new inspection bulletin “that explains the difference between a typical false entry in a record of duty status, such as a driver claiming off-duty time while fueling their vehicle, and an ELD file that has been manipulated.”
The second was a CVSA committee vote “to add a section to the North American Out of Service Criteria (OOSC) for ELD tampering,” Disbrow added. Currently OOS language for false entries “requires an inspector to prove that the driver would have exceeded the 11, 14, 60 or 70-hour rules at the time of the inspection if the record was not falsified.”
That language “will not change,” but with the dawn of a new era of ELD tampering, “entire days are often manipulated making it impossible for inspectors to determine when actual driving or rest periods occurred,” as noted above. In those instances, “the committee suggested to add an OOS violation to the OOSC which would automatically place the driver OOS until they obtain the required rest.”
The change in the OOSC won’t come quickly, however. CVSA membership will have a final vote on the topic near the end of the year, and the OOSC is annually updated in April. This year, CVSA made the emergency move to add English language proficiency back to the OOSC by June 25, but Disbrow didn’t mention any such effort on the ELD-tampering front. “If it is added to the OOSC, the bulletin,” as is usual, “will be released prior to April 1, 2026, to prepare enforcement and industry for the change,” said Disbrow.
Disbrow acknowledged that some among Overdrive‘s readers “will be concerned about a new OOS condition being added,” but clarified that “this type of tampering will not be a problem for any carriers that are trying to be compliant. This type of tampering is completely intentional and often requires the carrier to pay a third party to ‘scrub’ their logs of any violations.”
FMCSA didn’t respond to questions about what the agency might be doing in response to CVSA’s alerting them to the new trend in ELD tampering, yet FMCSA does semi-regularly remove ELDs from the approved-devices registry. Disbrow said CVSA was “working closely with law enforcement to uncover these tactics and sharing information with FMCSA.”
Disbrow also mentioned something of a “revolving door” problem with the bad actors on ELD registry. “FMCSA maintains the list of approved ELDs that have self-certified,” he said, yet as FMCSA becomes “aware of non-compliant devices, they conduct investigations and revoke these non-compliant devices when appropriate. Unfortunately, some of these companies start over under a new name and the process repeats itself.”
It remains unclear if FMCSA has acted on CVSA-shared information on the tampering issue.
Disbrow concluded with a focus on bedrock safety outcomes, emphasizing that this type of tampering could open carriers and drivers up to major criminal and civil liabilities, particularly in the event a crash.
“While it may be tempting to tamper with an ELD to gain some extra driving time, the violations that may follow are frankly the least of anyone’s concerns,” he said. “The larger issue is the criminal and civil liability that will follow in the event of a collision, not to mention the potential injuries or loss of life from the collision. This trend is nothing short of fraud and false information, and the liability to the motor carrier or driver during a lawsuit or criminal trial is a far bigger concern.”
