An ELD Company Is Manipulating Truck Driver Logs, and Someone Is Going to Get Hurt

An electronic logging device, or ELD, is installed in a commercial truck to record how long a driver has been on the road. Not every truck has them – any truck manufactured before 2000 won’t have the system in place; neither will certain types of vehicles or short-haul trucks – but most commercial vehicles used for long-haul trucking have these devices.

ELDs are supposed to ensure that commercial drivers (and the companies which employ them) follow the federally-mandated Hours of Service (HOS) rules. HOS rules “refers to the maximum amount of time drivers are permitted to be on duty including driving time, and specifies number and length of rest periods, to help ensure that drivers stay awake and alert.” These rules were implemented for safety reasons: fatigued truck drivers are dangerous drivers, and companies can and do often push their drivers to the brink when it comes to delivering goods.

This is why a recent investigation by Freightwaves, a price reporting agency that deals exclusively with the global freight market, is so disturbing. Per their findings, “industry insiders are accusing some ELD vendors of exploiting flaws in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s technical specifications to let trucking companies and their drivers add ‘ghost co-drivers’ to skirt hours-of-service rules.”

What’s a ghost account/driver?

A ghost account is a “dummy” account created within a truck’s system that allows a company to “prevent unassigned driving time from building up in the system.” For example, say a company wants to run a road test for a new driver. The “ghost driver” would be logged into the system so that the ELD wouldn’t record the new driver’s road test as actual logged miles. There are perfectly legal reasons to use a ghost account – but avoiding HOS violations isn’t one of them.

How some ELD vendors are using their software to add more driver time

What ELD Rider is doing, according to Freightwaves, is creating fake drivers as a way to get around the HOS rules. A trucker told Freightwaves the following story (with corroborating video) about his experience with the ELD vendor:

Recently, a driver using ELD Rider software recorded a ghost co-driver being added to his device within 15-20 minutes after the driver contacted the company to request more hours….

At the time the U.S. driver contacted the ELD Rider representative in Serbia, the driver, who didn’t want to be named for fear of retaliation, had no drive time left on his clock and only 12 hours remaining on his 70-hour cycle before he was required by FMCSA to take a 34-hour reset.

[…]

He later received a call from ELD Rider confirming that the representative had edited the log to add a co-driver, often referred to as a ghost driver. The video then pans to the driver logging back into his device, showing that he now had almost 10 hours of drive time left in his day and around 68 hours remaining on his cycle before he must take 34 consecutive hours off duty before driving again.

This behavior, Freightwaves reports, has been going on since 2019.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is conducting an investigation, but it is likely to take a long time; ELD Rider is owned by LionEight LLC, which was once owned and operated by LionEight TMS LLC, but has been since sold off to Darex Solutions. In short, determining ownership and liability may be complicated, and the FMCSA has only just begun to ramp up its enforcement efforts against companies which skirt their regulations.

What are the Hours of Service rules?

Per the FMCSA website, the HOS regulations are determined by whether a vehicle is carrying freight or passengers:

PROPERTY-CARRYING DRIVERS	PASSENGER-CARRYING DRIVERS
11-Hour Driving Limit May drive a maximum of 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty.	10-Hour Driving Limit May drive a maximum of 10 hours after 8 consecutive hours off duty.
14-Hour Limit May not drive beyond the 14th consecutive hour after coming on duty, following 10 consecutive hours off duty. Off-duty time does not extend the 14-hour period.	15-Hour Limit May not drive after having been on duty for 15 hours, following 8 consecutive hours off duty. Off-duty time is not included in the 15-hour period.
30-Minute Driving Break Drivers must take a 30-minute break when they have driven for a period of 8 cumulative hours without at least a 30-minute interruption. The break may be satisfied by any non-driving period of 30 consecutive minutes (i.e., on-duty not driving, off-duty, sleeper berth, or any combination of these taken consecutively).
60/70-Hour Limit May not drive after 60/70 hours on duty in 7/8 consecutive days. A driver may restart a 7/8 consecutive day period after taking 34 or more consecutive hours off duty.	60/70-Hour Limit May not drive after 60/70 hours on duty in 7/8 consecutive days.
Sleeper Berth Provision Drivers may split their required 10-hour off-duty period, as long as one off-duty period (whether in or out of the sleeper berth) is at least 2 hours long and the other involves at least 7 consecutive hours spent in the sleeper berth. All sleeper berth pairings must add up to at least 10 hours. When used together, neither time period counts against the maximum 14- hour driving window.	Sleeper Berth Provision Drivers using a sleeper berth must take at least 8 hours in the sleeper berth, and may split the sleeper berth time into two periods provided neither is less than 2 hours. All sleeper berth pairings must add up to at least 8 hours.
Adverse Driving Conditions Drivers are allowed to extend the 11-hour maximum driving limit and 14-hour driving window by up to 2 hours when adverse driving conditions are encountered.	Adverse Driving Conditions Drivers are allowed to extend the 10-hour maximum driving time and 15-hour on-duty limit by up to 2 hours when adverse driving conditions are encountered.
Short-Haul Exception A driver is exempt from the requirements of §395.8 and §395.11 if: the driver operates within a 150 air-mile radius of the normal work reporting location, and the driver does not exceed a maximum duty period of 14 hours. Drivers using the short-haul exception in §395.1(e)(1) must report and return to the normal work reporting location within 14 consecutive hours, and stay within a 150 air-mile radius of the work reporting location.	Short-Haul Exception A driver is exempt from the requirements of §395.8 and §395.11 if: the driver operates within a 150 air-mile radius of the normal work reporting location, and the driver does not exceed a maximum duty period of 14 hours. Drivers using the short-haul exception in §395.1(e)(1) must report and return to the normal work reporting location within 14 consecutive hours, and stay within a 150 air-mile radius of the work reporting location.

Summary of Hours of Service Regulations – Last updated: Monday, March 28, 2022

For the past couple of years, HOS regulations have been waived for certain industries because of the pandemic; the country needed goods, and the supply chain was in tatters. (Those waivers have since expired.)

How does an ELD work?

ELDs are hardware; they connect directly to the truck and record how many hours a driver is behind the wheel. They also record data like braking, stops, speed, location, and so forth. Any company which is required to provide records of duty status (RODs) regarding hours or service must have ELDs installed in their fleet.

ELDs record and send this data directly to the fleet/company owner, who can use it to ensure their drivers are on track to deliver goods on time. It’s supposed to keep drivers (and others) safe, but companies often use these devices to keep a close watch on their employees – a fact that has caused more than one trucker to complain about them.

How ELD data can be used in a Georgia truck accident case

Because ELDs log valuable data aside from just hours of operation, they can provide key insights into your truck accident case. Harris Lowry Manton LLP uses this information to show negligence. For example, if the ELD shows that the driver was speeding and then braked hard right before the crash, we can use that to show a jury why it was the driver’s actions that are to blame. Perhaps the driver was distracted or falling asleep at the wheel; either way, it speaks of liability.

If a driver’s logs are manipulated, however, the case will be more complicated. Now, a third party – the ELD vendor – may share liability along with the truck driver and the trucking company. This is why you want an experienced injury lawyer on your side as soon as possible. Our attorneys in Atlanta and Savannah have secured millions of dollars on behalf of our clients who suffered injuries related to trucking and trucker negligence. We have the resources and skills to handle this complex litigation, and we won’t back down to insurance companies.

Harris Lowry Manton LLP fights for injury victims in Savannah, Atlanta, and across Georgia. To schedule a free consultation with a truck accident attorney from our firm, please call us or fill out our contact form.