FMCSA investigators are given a training manual — over 1,000 pages long — that provides step-by-step instructions for performing audits, finding violations, and issuing penalties. Included are instructions for weeding out ELD falsification. Follow these steps — taken from the FMCSA’s own how-to manual — to audit for false ELD records like a pro:
Consolidated Electronic Field Operations Training Manual (eFOTM) version 9.7.pdf
Go beyond the regulations! Review login/logout activity and any adjacent, unassigned driving time. This can reveal whether the driver has used another driver’s login to get additional hours or has not logged in properly to avoid violations.
- Check the location where the driver went on duty or began driving and make sure it matches the location where the driver earlier went off duty or into the sleeper. If the locations differ and there’s no co-driver, the log may be false.
- Check whether all non-driving periods began and ended in the same location by comparing beginning and ending odometer readings. If they differ but the driver’s log indicates a non-driving status, the driver may have falsified the log if no other drivers were present.
- Look for off-duty driving (personal use) and ensure that it meets the FMCSA’s personal-conveyance guidelines. Check odometer readings for excessive use of personal conveyance, as defined under company policy.
- Pay close attention to edits. Review the driver’s annotations and verify the edits were justified. Check the edited records against the unedited originals. Look for any edits of on-duty time to off duty or sleeper berth, which could allow the driver to exceed the 60/70-hour limit.
- Review your ELD back-end system settings to make sure no thresholds were customized to any value not allowed in the regulations. For example, the speed threshold at which a vehicle is “in motion” can be no more than 5 mph. (Contact your ELD vendor if a setting doesn’t look compliant.)
- Review any ELD malfunctions and data diagnostic events to identify possible tampering, and make sure malfunctions have been repaired.
- Compare any available supporting documents and reports to the logs to verify that they are accurate. Pay special attention to any time that was logged off duty but which was actually spent performing an on-duty activity (refer to the definition of “on-duty time” in 395.2).
