The Federal Motor Carrier Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Monday announced what it called a "complete overhaul of the vetting process for Electronic Logging Devices" after reports of blatant tampering and fraud surfaced earlier this year.
FMCSA hopes to ensure "non-compliant devices are blocked before they ever reach FMCSA’s Registered ELD list" with its new vetting process. That "more rigorous" vetting process "is part of a broader Department initiative to strengthen road safety for American families while cutting costs for truck drivers and carriers," according to the agency.
FMCSA had previously hinted to Overdrive that some reform was coming on the ELD front following reports of ELD tampering, with some vendors cold-calling carriers offering to help them cheat hours regulations.
FMCSA hopes to close the loopholes that allowed noncompliant devices to become registered.
The agency outlined these features of the new-and-improved ELD vetting process, now going beyond the simple self-certification ELD vendors had previously been able to make of their devices' compliance to include:
- Initial Review: Verification of contact information, technical specifications, and device images.
- Fraud Detection: Cross-checking new applications against active, inactive, revoked, and in-process lists.
- New Application Categories, outlined below.
The four new categories will correspond to the stage at which any device sits in the process:
- Approved applications have met all necessary requirements.
- Information requested is a pending-status category for devices where further information have been asked for before approval.
- Further Review: This category requires an additional internal assessment and may need additional documentation from the applicant.
- Denied: These applications do not meet the standards for approval.
FMCSA admitted that under "the previous system, it was easier to register non-compliant devices or re-register devices that had been revoked, leading to repeated revocations and costly, inconvenient replacements for carriers."
The updated process "closes this loophole, giving carriers and drivers a greater peace-of-mind that the ELDs they purchase are accurate, reliable, and compliant," FMCSA said.
“American families deserve to feel safe sharing a road with semi-trucks, and we want truck drivers to have the best tools to maximize those safety precautions,” said FMCSA Administrator Derek D. Barrs. “By strengthening our review process for ELDs, we are ensuring the industry can rely on trusted equipment and that hardworking drivers are prioritizing their health and well-being, so they are best prepared to keep driving America’s economy forward.”
FMCSA recently revoked the certifications of five ELDs, and has regularly removed devices over the last few years. Yet many of those ELD service providers Overdrive has spoken to said the device had simply gone off market. Others said they had met with FMCSA and met the technical specifications and were surprised by the revocation.
One ELD researcher contacted Overdrive in September and shared what she described as an easy way for roadside inspectors to catch ELD cheats in action.
[Related: 5 more ELDs lose certification from FMCSA]
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, which recently voted to add a section to the North American Out of Service Criteria (OOSC) for ELD tampering, supported the move.
CVSA "is in favor of any additional oversight for ELDs and looks forward to the implementation of the administration’s new ELD vetting process," said CVSA Roadside Inspection Specialist Jeremy Disbrow. "We applaud the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s efforts to strengthen road safety and improve the process to help eliminate ELDs that may be prone to tampering."
