Hours, Logs & Compliance · Driver Training VideoELD Malfunctions & Paper Log Fallback

The electronic logging device does the paperwork until the day it does not. And the rule is written so that a broken ELD is never a reason your hours stop being recorded. When the screen goes dark, the clock keeps running.

Start by knowing the difference between the two things your ELD will tell you. A data diagnostic event means the device is missing something. A missing required data element, unidentified driving time sitting in the account, a data transfer check that did not complete.

A malfunction is a different animal. That is the device failing at its job, and there are six of them: power, engine synchronization, timing, positioning, data recording, and data transfer. A malfunction sends you to paper.

Here is exactly what you do. Note the malfunction. Give your carrier written notice within twenty four hours. Written, not a phone call you both forget.

Your carrier then has eight days to repair, replace, or service the unit. Eight days from the malfunction or from your notice, whichever comes first. If it needs longer than that, the carrier has to request an extension from FMCSA.

Which means the paper has to already be in the truck before you need it.

And paper logs still have to be real logs. Graph grid, filled in as you go, not reconstructed in the scale house lot. Name, date, carrier, truck and trailer numbers, total miles driven, shipping document number, and every duty status change with the location. Then certify it.

Understand what does not change

Your hours are your hours. Eleven hours driving, the fourteen hour window, a thirty minute break after eight hours of driving time, sixty or seventy hours in seven or eight days. A dead ELD does not buy you a single minute.