# Geotab ELD Compliance: Everything Fleets Need to Know How the Geotab ELD works, what it enforces, how it handles the US and Canadian rules, what a driver sees in Geotab Drive, and what a fleet has to do itself — because a certified device does not make a fleet compliant on its own. Source: https://www.highpointgps.com/resources/geotab-eld-compliance-guide By Israel Margulies, CEO & Founder — published 2026-09-18, updated 2026-09-18 ## What the Geotab ELD Is The Geotab ELD is the GO device in the vehicle plus the Geotab Drive app on a phone or tablet, with an hours-of-service ruleset assigned to the driver in MyGeotab. The device supplies the engine-tied movement, location and odometer data the regulation requires; the app is where the driver logs in, changes duty status, certifies logs and presents the record at roadside; MyGeotab is where the carrier assigns rules, reviews logs, handles edits and pulls the records an auditor asks for. It is self-certified and listed on the FMCSA's ELD registry for the United States, and third-party certified for Canada's mandate, which is the requirement north of the border. Both matter: a device that is compliant in one country is not automatically compliant in the other, and a cross-border fleet needs both. ## What It Enforces Once a ruleset is assigned, the app counts the driver down: driving time left, time left in the on-duty window, when the required break is due, hours remaining in the cycle. It warns before a limit is reached rather than recording the violation after. Movement is detected from the engine, so a driver cannot be in off-duty status while the truck is rolling — the app switches to driving, which is the behaviour the regulation exists to guarantee. Rulesets are per driver, not per fleet. A carrier running under both the US property-carrying rules and the Canadian cycles assigns each driver the set that matches their operation, and a driver who crosses the border can be moved between them. Exceptions and special categories — personal conveyance, yard moves, the adverse-driving extension, the short-haul exception — are enabled per driver in MyGeotab, and none is on by default. ## What a Driver Sees and Does The driver logs into Geotab Drive at the start of the day, confirms the vehicle, and completes the pre-trip DVIR if the fleet uses it. Through the day the app shows the current status and the remaining hours. Status changes the driver makes — on duty, off duty, sleeper — take a tap; driving is set automatically from the engine. At the end of the shift the driver certifies the day's log, and at roadside the app produces the record for transfer or display exactly as the officer requests. Edits are where discipline lives. A driver can annotate and propose edits; a carrier can suggest them; the driver has to accept them; and the original record is never overwritten. An inspector or auditor can see the edit history, which is why a fleet's edit rate is one of the first things a compliance review looks at. ## What the Fleet Still Has to Do A certified ELD is a tool; compliance is a practice. The carrier still has to assign the right ruleset to every driver, keep six months of logs and supporting documents, review unassigned driving time — movement recorded when nobody was logged in — and assign it or annotate it, resolve malfunctions within the regulation's eight days, and train drivers on the app, on their rights at roadside and on what the special categories are for. The failures inspectors find most are exactly these: unassigned driving left piling up, a driver with the wrong ruleset for the trip, personal conveyance used to advance the load, and a malfunction nobody noticed. MyGeotab's exception rules can flag each of them; a fleet that sets those rules up and looks at them weekly is doing the part the device cannot. ## FAQ ### Is the Geotab ELD certified in both the US and Canada? Yes. It is on the FMCSA ELD registry for the United States and third-party certified under Canada's ELD mandate. A cross-border fleet needs both, and Geotab provides rulesets for each. ### Do I need a tablet, or will a phone work? Either. Geotab Drive runs on Android and iOS phones and tablets. The GO device does the vehicle-side logging; the phone or tablet is the driver's interface and the roadside display. ### What is unassigned driving time in Geotab? Movement the GO device recorded while no driver was logged into Geotab Drive. The regulation requires the carrier to assign it to the right driver or annotate why it is unassigned; leaving it to accumulate is one of the most common audit findings. ### Can a carrier edit a driver's log in Geotab? A carrier can propose an edit, but the driver has to accept it, and the original record is preserved with the edit history. Nothing is overwritten, which is what the regulation requires and what an inspector checks. ## Sources - [FMCSA: ELD registry](https://eld.fmcsa.dot.gov/List) - [Transport Canada: Electronic Logging Devices](https://tc.canada.ca/en/road-transportation/commercial-vehicle-safety/electronic-logging-devices)