AOBRDs must be replaced with ELDs by Dec. 16

Truckers using automatic on-board recording devices to record their hours have a little more than a month to switch over to an electronic logging device.

When the ELD mandate went into effect in December 2017, motor carriers using AOBRDs before the final rule’s effective date were grandfathered in for two years. As of Dec. 16, motor carriers who were using an AOBRD must have a regulation-compliant ELD.

AOBRDs served as a simpler version of an ELD. The technical specifications for an AOBRD were less stringent.

According to FMCSA, a “grandfathered” AOBRD is a device that a motor carrier installed and required its drivers to use before the ELD compliance date of Dec. 18, 2017.

Many of the trucks currently equipped with AOBRDs are from large fleets who required their drivers to use a device to record the hours of service before the ELD mandate went into effect. However, some small carriers and owner-operators also had their trucks equipped with AOBRDs.

“If you had an AOBRD before 2017, you were allowed two extra years before you had to update to an ELD,” Jill Thorne, of OOIDA’s Business Services Department, told Land Line Now. “That two years is now expiring.”

FMCSA is not expected to extend the deadline for motor carriers to use AOBRDs.

Old trucks still exempt

While AOBRDs will no longer be allowed in lieu of ELDs, Thorne reminded truckers that this will not affect the exemption for trucks with engines predating the 2000s. Those trucks will still not be required to install an ELD or an AOBRD.

“The wiring and computer systems (for trucks predating 2000) aren’t as sophisticated,” Thorne said. “They can’t handle an ELD.”

However, all trucks with an engine model 2000 or newer will be required to have an ELD beginning Dec. 16.

You can listen to more about that the transition from AOBRDs to ELDs below.

Editor’s note: Trucks with engines predating the 2000s will still not be required to install an ELD or AOBRD. The original version of this story included a typographical error.

Other ELD coverage by LandLine.media reporters

• One of the largest ELD manufacturers in the country, Omnitracs, experienced an outage over the weekend, forcing drivers to revert to paper logs until the problem can be fixed.
• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published the final fatal crash numbers for 2018, revealing an overall reduction. However, fatalities involving large trucks reached a 30-year high during the first full year of the ELD mandate.