Rand McNally ELDs working out kinks following ‘cyber incident’

Following a “cyber incident” last week, Rand McNally has been busy working to make its electronic logging devices fully operational.

Rand McNally announced on Nov. 30 that its ELDs were working again, but OOIDA received reports from several truck drivers throughout the week who said they were still experiencing problems with the devices. The most frequent issue reported was being unable to certify and edit the logs, which is necessary for compliance.

“The DriverConnect platform is operational for drivers,” a Rand McNally spokesperson said. “However, some drivers have reported issues certifying, editing logs.”

Rand McNally said on the afternoon of Thursday, Dec. 3, that it was reaching out to some of those drivers to help resolve the issue.

The company said that drivers with difficulties certifying and editing their logs should make sure that they are logged out of the application to force any pending data to the back end of the portal. If the driver receives a prompt to “certify logs” as they log out, Rand McNally said they should select “cancel,” which will allow them to sign out.

“Once the data has transferred, they can log back in, certify, edit, and be rolling as usual,” Rand McNally said.

Last week was when OOIDA began receiving calls from several members reporting problems with their Rand McNally ELDs. On Wednesday, Nov. 25, Rand McNally confirmed that a cyber incident was affecting Rand McNally’s hosted and network systems.

Rand McNally said its ELDs resumed functionality on Nov. 30.

“Shortly after midnight (early morning Nov. 30), Rand McNally’s DriverConnect platform became available and operational for drivers,” the company stated on Monday, Nov. 30. “As a result, drivers using the ELD systems are compliant, able to view, edit, and certify logs as well as provide them in the event of a roadside inspection.”

The Rand McNally website is running with limited functionality, but it does include a link for drivers needing assistance.

The company said it has been keeping the FMCSA informed about its progress.

Rand McNally also said that it has no indication that its customer data was affected.

For truckers still having problems with their ELDs, the solution is to go old school and use paper logs.

“The first thing you need to do is construct some sort of letter to your carrier, even if it’s you, just documenting that there is an ELD malfunction, what the ELD malfunction was, and from that moment you have eight days,” Adam Kleinschmidt of OOIDA’s Business Services, said last week. “Before you can get that fixed, you can run paper logs.

“If it’s going to take longer than that eight days to fix, you can file for an extension through FMCSA and the way that you do that is essentially the same thing you’re putting in that letter of what it is and you’re going to send that letter to FMCSA. They’ll make a determination. You want to start working on doing that as quickly as possible, just in case.”

The FMCSA’s ELD support page can be found here. Truckers can also get help filing an extension by filling out the form here. LL