‘What do I do if my ELD doesn’t work?’

It’s Day One of the electronic logging mandate. OOIDA HQ is already fielding calls from frustrated drivers who say their ELD doesn’t work.

The ELDorMe’s Monday Information Facebook group is running a thread of posts where drivers are reporting problems with their devices. Some are even taking screenshots of their ELDs not working.

At least one ELD maker, KeepTruckin, has issued a response to problems drivers are having with their devices.

Our engineers are actively working on resolving any downtime customers may be experiencing. We will provide you another update in the next 1 – 2 hours.

— KeepTruckin (@KeepTruckinInc) December 18, 2017

As of Monday afternoon, KeepTruckin’s website was also down.

(Editor’s Note: As of Monday evening, KeepTruckin sent out a tweet saying they had resolved the issues. Their website was also operating as of Tuesday morning.)

UPDATE: We have resumed operations with much better performance.

— KeepTruckin (@KeepTruckinInc) December 19, 2017

Doug Morris, OOIDA’s director of safety and security operations, says drivers experiencing technical difficulties should continue to record their hours of service the old-fashioned way.

“The rule does require drivers to have paper logs available just for this reason,” Morris says. “So, just make sure you have paper logs available because we know there will be problems.”

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration previously announced that drivers running without an ELD won’t be ordered out-of-service or receive a violation until April 1, 2018. However, last week, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance said that drivers who do not have the devices installed by today may still face fines and citations at the state level.

There’s another complicating factor if an ELD is out of order for the short- or long-term. If a driver can’t access logs for previous seven days of logs on a failing device, they have to recreate them on paper.

Dale Watkins supervisor of OOIDA’s Regulatory and Compliance department, says drivers who may have been using the device prior to today’s enforcement deadline will be on the hook to recreate their previous week’s hours.

“If a driver just went electronic today, they’re still required to have their last seven days (of logs) on paper,” he says. “If they’ve been playing with these things for the last couple weeks, and they can’t pull up the old logs because the device isn’t working, they need to stop and recreate their past seven days’ logs.”

But what if the technical issue persists longer than eight days? Watkins says the motor carrier can request a temporary extension from FMCSA. The request must be made in writing to the agency’s division administrator in the state where the carrier is domiciled.