Feds issue rule requiring electronic driver logs for the trucking industry

The Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has adopted a final rule requiring motor carriers to install electronic logging devices in all trucks.

The devices are meant to ensure compliance with rules limiting the hours drivers can be on the road in order to reduce fatigue-related accidents.

Announced Thursday (Dec. 10), the rule means motor carriers will have to replace the traditional paper logs, which are based on the honor system, with electronic onboard recorders that track driving time automatically.

“This automated technology not only brings logging records into the modern age – it also allows roadside safety inspectors to unmask violations of federal law that put lives at risk,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in a press release. 

The rule gives truck and bus drivers using paper logbooks two years to install electronic logging devices, affecting about three million drivers. The FMCSA says the rule will result in a net benefit of more than $1 billion by reducing paperwork and increasing the efficiency of roadside law enforcers. It says the rule will save 26 lives and prevent 562 injuries.

The rule includes provisions meant to protect drivers from harassment resulting from information created by the devices. It also sets specifications for the devices. Smart phones and other wireless devices can be used as long as they meet technical specifications.

The change has been sought by the American Trucking Associations as well as the Arkansas Trucking Association, both of which have argued that motor carriers using the ELDs are placed at a competitive disadvantage against paper-using companies who can break the rules and not get caught.

“Today is truly a historic day for trucking,” American Trucking Associations President and CEO Bill Graves said in a press release. “This regulation will change the trucking industry – for the better – forever. An already safe and efficient industry will get more so with the aid of this proven technology.”

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which represents independent drivers, has opposed the rule.