ELD Compliance Guide: What the ELD Enforces and What Fleets Still Do

ELD compliance comes from three parts working together: the GPS tracking device in the vehicle, the ELD app on the driver's phone or tablet, and an hours-of-service ruleset assigned to each driver in the High Point GPS platform. With High Point GPS, a Geotab partner, that ELD app is Geotab Drive. The device supplies the engine-tied movement, location and odometer data the regulation requires. The driver uses the app to log in, change duty status, certify logs and show the record at roadside. In the High Point GPS platform, the carrier assigns rules, reviews logs, handles edits and pulls the records an auditor asks for.

For the United States, the ELD is self-certified and listed on the FMCSA's ELD registry. For Canada, where the mandate requires third-party certification, Geotab Drive is certified by COMDriver Tech and listed with the status Active. Transport Canada's List of electronic logging devices shows every device certified for use in Canada; search it by vendor, certification number or ELD identifier to confirm an entry's status. A cross-border fleet needs both, because a device that complies in one country does not automatically comply in the other.

Once you assign a ruleset, the app counts the driver down: driving time left, time left in the on-duty window, when the required break is due, and hours remaining in the cycle. It warns the driver before a limit is reached, instead of only recording the violation afterward. The ELD detects movement from the engine, so a driver cannot sit in off-duty status while the truck is rolling. The app switches to driving, which is the behaviour the regulation exists to guarantee.

You assign rulesets per driver, not per fleet. A carrier running under both the US property-carrying rules and the Canadian cycles gives each driver the set that matches their operation, and can move a driver who crosses the border from one set to the other. Exceptions and special categories (personal conveyance, yard moves, the adverse-driving extension, the US short-haul exception) are switched on per driver in the High Point GPS platform. None of them is on by default.

At the start of the day, the driver logs into the driver app, confirms the vehicle and completes the pre-trip DVIR if the fleet uses one. During the shift the app shows the current status and the hours remaining. On duty, off duty and sleeper each take a tap, and the engine sets driving automatically. At the end of the shift the driver certifies the day's log. At roadside, the app produces the record for transfer or display in whatever form the officer requests.

Discipline shows up in the edits. A driver can annotate and propose edits, and a carrier can suggest them, but the driver has to accept any change, and the original record is never overwritten. Inspectors and auditors can see the full edit history, so a fleet's edit rate is one of the first things a compliance review looks at.

A certified ELD gives you the tool, and your fleet still has to run the practice. The carrier has to assign the right ruleset to every driver and keep six months of logs and supporting documents. It has to review unassigned driving time (movement recorded when nobody was logged in) and either assign it or annotate it. Malfunctions must be repaired within eight days under the US rule, or within 14 days under the Canadian rule (or when the driver returns to the home terminal, if a planned trip runs longer). Drivers need training on the app, on their rights at roadside and on what each special category is for.

The failures to watch for are these: unassigned driving left to pile up, a driver on the wrong ruleset for the trip, personal conveyance used to move the load forward, and a malfunction nobody noticed. The platform's exception rules can flag each of these. A fleet that sets those rules up and reviews them every week covers the part the device cannot.

These are the checks a carrier runs in the High Point GPS platform each week to cover what the device cannot, with the report or rule behind each one.

In MyGeotab you switch personal conveyance and yard moves on driver by driver: open People > Users & Drivers, select the driver, and turn on the exemptions that apply on the HOS Settings tab. Geotab records personal conveyance as an off-duty event and a yard move as an on-duty event, and neither counts as driving time. Once enabled, the driver starts and stops the category from the exemptions on the HOS screen in Geotab Drive. A maximum personal conveyance distance per day can be set for the whole database in System Settings or for each driver, and the driver's setting takes precedence. For Canadian drivers, Geotab caps it at 75 km per day and then takes the driver off personal conveyance automatically. Geotab's setup guide lists the Yard Move exemption as available to US customers only.

In the United States, FMCSA guidance allows personal conveyance only when the carrier has relieved the driver of all work, though the truck may be laden. Driving from a motel to a restaurant or moving to the first safe place to rest after unloading qualifies; bypassing rest stops to get closer to the next pickup, or driving to the terminal after a delivery, does not. Carriers can set tighter limits, such as a distance cap or a ban while laden.

Canada's Commercial Vehicle Drivers Hours of Service Regulations keep personal use out of on-duty time only if the vehicle is unloaded, trailers are unhitched, it is not used for the carrier's business, the distance stays within 75 km in a day, the odometer is recorded at the start and end, and the driver is not under an out-of-service declaration. A driver who forgets to select a category cannot later edit the driving event into it, FMCSA says; the driver annotates the record instead.

A phone app that tracks location with the phone's own GPS is not an ELD. FMCSA requires an ELD to be integrally synchronized with the engine, meaning it captures engine power status, vehicle motion, miles driven and engine hours automatically, and it states that GPS data cannot substitute for that engine data. An app can be the ELD only when it connects to the engine's electronic control module bus and meets the technical specifications, and a phone or tablet used that way must be mounted in a fixed position the driver can see from the seat. With Geotab Drive, the Geotab device installed in the vehicle supplies the engine data.

Next, check the lists. In the US, providers self-certify and register each ELD model with FMCSA; models that fail the requirements move to a revoked list, and carriers then have up to 60 days to replace them. In Canada, an ELD must be certified by a third-party body accredited by the Minister of Transport, so look for an Active status on Transport Canada's list. That list shows four Geotab, Inc. entries certified by COMDriver Tech, two for Android and two for iOS, all Active.

Then test the roadside workflow and the carrier controls. In Geotab Drive, a US driver enters the officer's transfer code and sends the logs by web services or email, a Canadian driver enters the officer's email address and presses Transfer (Canada), and Compliance print shows the logs on screen where coverage is poor. Geotab's compliance guide describes a report where the carrier sets what counts as excessive personal conveyance, and it advises checking unidentified driving logs every day.

Open each driver's HOS settings and confirm the ruleset, which exemptions are switched on and the personal conveyance distance limit, then compare them with your written personal conveyance policy. Turn off any exemption a driver has no reason to use.

High Point GPS is a Montreal fleet telematics company and Geotab partner. We install Geotab devices with professional installers across Canada and the United States, set up Geotab Drive rulesets, exemptions and exception reports for your operation, and support your drivers and office staff in English and French. Use the free quote form on this page: select Get a free quote and tell us about your fleet.