Omnitracs says 99.9% of malfunctioning ELDs now working properly

The CEO of Omnitracs says that all drivers who were forced to revert to paper logs due to an outage that affected an undisclosed number of the company’s electronic logging devices can begin using the devices again.

“I am pleased to report that 99.9% of all active MCP devices are now transmitting messages and logs containing required compliance information,” Omnitracs CEO Ray Greer wrote in a letter published Wednesday night on the company’s website. “Therefore, Omnitracs recommends all drivers return to electronic logs, as many impacted fleets already have.”

Greer said Omnitracs planned to push an additional update to the devices Wednesday, which would “increase the frequency of communication with the back-office by (two times), which we believe will return performance to pre-event status.”

The letter also states that the company is “in regular communication with the FMCSA and will continue to keep them updated.”

One of the nation’s largest ELD manufacturers, Omnitracs announced on Sunday that a “GPS rollover event” affected the company’s MCP telematics units. Other units – including the IVG, Android XRS and Roadnet devices – were not affected.

The company advised drivers to switch to paper logs because the malfunction meant customers could not access accurate time and location data on some devices.

Required paper log switch

In the event of an ELD malfunction like this one with Omnitracs devices, federal regulations require drivers to switch to paper logs, said Tom Crowley, with OOIDA’s Business Services Department.

“If a driver has any idea that it is malfunctioning and the malfunctioning light has come on, then they need to switch over to using paper logs,” Crowley said in an interview with Land Line Now on Monday. “All drivers are supposed to carry a supply of paper logs with them as part of the ELD requirements.”

Crowley says drivers must be able to recreate the previous seven days on their logs. He said beyond the eight-day grace period, the FMCSA requires carriers to file an extension request to allow the use of paper logs beyond the grace period.

“FMCSA has a real narrow window for what (carrier) options are,” he said. “Their options are basically get it fixed within the eight days or request that extended exemption.”

Crowley said drivers must depend on their carrier filing that exemption request after the eight-day window.

“They have to rely on their carrier, that their carrier has requested that exemption or they could find themselves potentially put out the service side of the road,” he said.

Land Line Now News Anchor Terry Scruton contributed to this report.

To hear a discussion of the Omnitracs outage, listen to this Land Line Now podcast.