This April 1, the full enforcement of the electronic logging device, or ELD, mandate kicked in — including the assigning of CSA points and the issuing of out-of-service citations for drivers who are not using an ELD compliant logging device.

Its crucial drivers understand how to operate the Vnomics system, how to use the roadside inspection menu and understand what documentation must be within the cab at all times.

During an Inspection

When a driver is stopped, an enforcement officer will require that hours-of-service (HOS) data from the ELD be transferred to the officer. To ensure the transaction goes as smoothly as possible, drivers need to know how to transfer the HOS data to the officer and that they have their instruction sheets on hand.

Select the “ROADSIDE INSPECTION” tab located on your home screen.

Within the roadside inspection menu, you have three choices to provide your HOS data to the officer.

Editing Drive Time

The biggest point with ELDs is that users cannot edit drive time; however, if drivers need to make edits of any kind, devices have an annotation feature — basically an electronic sticky note – for that purpose. In a rare event where a malfunction occurs, which results in an HOS violation in your log, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) stipulates that the driver annotate the violation on their log. “Details in the annotation can assist enforcement in determining whether the driver is compliant and the malfunction caused the hours of service violation. If there are no annotations, the enforcement officer has nothing but a regulation violation to review.”

EXAMPLE: The device left you on the drive line when you were at home. (This needs to be annotated).

In Cab Required Items

Drivers are required to have the following items within the cab at all times:

• The ELD user manual
• Instruction sheet for transferring HOS records to safety officials
• Instruction sheet on reporting ELD malfunctions and recordkeeping procedures during ELD malfunctions
• A supply of paper logs for at least eight days, in case of ELD malfunction

If you are stopped and asked for any of these items and you cannot produce them, it would then be considered a violation in which a CSA point would be assigned to you and the company.

REMEMBER: If you’re in a rental or your system cannot display your previous days, then your terminal will need to print your recap for you to have on hand. You are required to carry the previous seven days’ worth of logs.