Got Questions? ELD and Telematics

Q. What are the different types of ELD malfunctions?

A. Like any other device, it is expected that electronic logging devices (ELDs) will likely malfunction on occasion. There are a number of reasons why. Following is an overview of the more common reasons an ELD may malfunction:

• Power compliance malfunction: In this instance an ELD is not powered for “an aggregated in-motion driving time of 30 minutes or more” during a 24-hour period across all drivers.
• Engine synchronization compliance malfunction: This failure occurs when ECM connectivity to any required data source such as engine power status, miles driven, engine hour, etc., is lost for more than 30 minutes during a 24-hour period aggregated across all drivers.
• Time compliance malfunction: An ELD that is unable to meet the “underlying compliance requirement to record Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), where ELD time must be synchronized with UTC, not to exceed an absolute deviation of 10 minutes at any time.”
• Positioning compliance malfunction: This occurs when the ELD is unable to obtain a valid position measurement within five miles of the truck moving and during a 60 minute period.
• Data recording compliance malfunction: This happens when the ELD can’t record or retain events or can’t retrieve recorded logs that aren’t kept remotely.
• Data transfer compliance malfunction: This failure occurs if the operation of the data transfer mechanism is in the unconfirmed data transfer mode during three consecutive monitoring checks

If the driver notices a malfunction, he or she must provide written notice of the malfunction to the carrier within 24 hours. They also must reconstruct the record of duty status (RODS) for the current 24-hour period and the previous 7 consecutive days, and record the data on graph-grid paper logs. The driver must continue to prepare RODS until the ELD is back in compliance.