Ensuring the integrity of electronic records is critical to promoting safety on the nation’s roadways, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. (U.S. Department of Transportation)
The trucking industry is sharing information about how to spot the sophisticated new tampering of electronic logging devices and taking steps to remove bad actors from behind the wheel.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which mandates time limits on driving and rest breaks to prevent fatigue, is working alongside the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance to thwart these electronic record falsifications.
“FMCSA is aware that some drivers attempt to falsify their electronic records of duty status using various methods. Such activity is a violation of federal regulations that guide ELD use,” a spokesperson told Transport Topics. “Ensuring the integrity of electronic records is critical to our mission of promoting safety on the nation’s roadways. That’s why we’ve provided comprehensive training to both federal and state enforcement officers to help them detect and address falsification.”
FMCSA has strong partnerships with state agencies to stay informed on emerging tampering techniques and take actions — up to and including removing noncompliant ELD devices enabling falsifications, the spokesperson added.
“As enforcement officials have become more adept at identifying violations, we’ve observed a rise in detected instances of falsification in recent years. When a driver is found to have falsified their hours-of-service records, they may be cited, placed out of service immediately and could face additional penalties or fines,” FMCSA emphasized.
TT’s Seth Clevenger and Mike Senatore unpack the trends, surprises and shake-ups that define this year’s Top 100 for-hire carriers. Tune in above or by going to RoadSigns.ttnews.com.
American Trucking Associations also is backing efforts to crack down on phony ELDs.
Dan Horvath, ATA chief operating officer, said ATA will continue to work through its federation and the enforcement community to ensure fraudulent ELD providers “are expeditiously removed.” ATA also supports efforts for roadside inspections to have necessary tools to identify falsified records.
“While we believe that some of this can be identified during roadside inspections, we also believe that this also includes greater scrutiny of motor carriers through the safety audit and compliance review process — especially during New Entrant Safety Audits,” Horvath added. “We need to ensure that new entrants coming into our industry receive the proper vetting to keep bad actors from entering our industry in the first place.” FMCSA has New Entrant Safety Assurance Programs for U.S. and Canada-based motor carriers seeking to begin interstate commerce.
Jeremy Disbrow, CVSA roadside inspection specialist, stressed CVSA’s proposed new out-of-service criteria for ELD tampering won’t impact law-abiding drivers but only those who intentionally modify their record of duty status to gain unlawful driving time.
“With ‘traditional falsifications,’ drivers may occasionally make an incorrect entry unintentionally. This is why the inspector must prove the driver was over hours at the time of the inspection before declaring them [out of service],” Disbrow said. “However, in the ELD tampering, a person must intentionally go into the device and move driving time to another category. In doing this, they must also modify the automated sequence ID codes within the device and falsify their supporting documents [shipping papers, receipts, etc.] to match the [record of duty status] to avoid detection.”
