
Northbound on I-65 coming out of the Nashville, Tenn., Cherokee Marine Terminal, trucker David Bell had a feeling he was going to get pulled in by the Kentucky State Police at their scale just across the state line in Simpson County near Franklin, Ky. Why? Because âI came by here today without an ELD,â Bell noted, though he hasnât been even keeping a logbook very often over the last year, hauling the second truck in a two-truck owner-operator operation leased to Aetna Freight Lines of Ohio.
Bellâs typical three trips between the river terminal, hauling steel on a flatbed with a Conestoga-type set-up, and Bowling Green, Ky., keep him within the 100 air mile short haul exception to the hours of service. The only time heâs required to keep a logbook is on the occasion he runs out of Nashville to Memphis, which might happen twice a month, three times at most.
It wasnât his lack of an ELD that he had to worry about today â problems with the trailer brakes, however, sidelined the trucker for longer than heâd hoped when he got the pull-in indicator at the weigh station.

Bell and the 2005 G&T Trucking Freightliner Columbia he drives marked the third inspection of the morning for Sergeant Jason Morris of the Kentucky State Police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement unit, on a day he hoped to get in as many as 13 inspections to count toward the total 32 annually he needs to keep up his CVSA credentials. Morris works in the public affairs unit of the state police and spends much of the year doing outreach to trucking companies, members of the general public and others about safety and enforcement.
Too often, he says, time gets away from him for his inspections and he spends several days in Simpson County finishing out the total.
Among those first three power units, none was utilizing an ELD. The first was a combination tractor-trailer run by an owner-operator whoâd waited until just two weeks ago to finally put in an order for an ELD to comply with the mandate. Two weeks later, the unit had apparently shipped, but the trucker had not been home to retrieve it. The trucker said he âwas told by the ELD maker that he could use a piece of paper that showed heâs ordered the ELD and that would make it OK,â Sergeant Morris says, but thatâs not the case. âThis isnât something we concocted last night,â referencing the long advance period of years since the ELD mandate was issued as a final rule, likewise the more than six months since the last step in the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Associationâs legal challenge to the rule concluded.

That driver wasnât the only one who was in similar straits at the scale house this morning. Toronto-area headquartered Renson Transport company driver Issac Allen was not yet utilizing an e-log system the fleet had begun to equip its trucks with, noting that heâd not yet been supplied a login or told how the device was used. The company âshould have done it a month ago,â he said, though he wasnât much worried about it, given officers in many states around the nation are in the same position as he is and are still getting used to a new system.
That first violation, for instance, that Sergeant Morris was documenting for not having an ELD system: encoding the violation wasnât even an option for him in the stateâs central computer system, as it hadnât yet been updated to reflect the new ELD violations. He got on the phone to headquarters in state capitol Frankfort to see when that might be an option. For the time being, he said, it wasnât going to happen, though he suggested it could be in place by the end of the day.
Kentucky is one of many states who have chosen not to issue citations (which come with a court summons/associated fine) for ELD mandate noncompliance, too, in the interim period between now and April 1, 2018, when the CVSA out-of-service criteria for ELDs will be enforced. Among others now operating under such a soft-enforcement policy whoâve responded to Overdrive queries on the matter are Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.
Captain Chris Turner of the Kansas Highway Patrol notes that FMCSA âonly put out the violation codeâ for ELD-related violations in the central enforcement system a week ago. âWe wonât even really be writing the warning,â or documenting the violation in inspection reports, âuntil a few weeks from now. Thereâs going to be a learning curve, and I think most states are trying to err on the side of caution.â
In Minnesota, an approach is being taken that is in one way contrary to that of Kansas and other states adopting no-cite policies before April 1. Captain Jon Olsen there notes the decision to issue a citation is being âleft to the individual officer.â At once, he adds, âwe all realize this is a monumental change for the CMV industry, and people have waited until the last minute in hopes that something would have changed. Given that, I donât anticipate you will see inspectors from Minnesota scratching out criminal citations [Monday] to drivers for failing to comply with the ELD mandate. Conversely, if a driver is stopped in February or March and has no ELD as required, has some falsification issues, and etc., I can certainly see and support one of our inspectors giving a criminal citation to the driver for failing to comply with the ELD requirement.â
Many other states (for an updated list, scroll to the bottom of the post at this link) echoed Olsenâs sentiment in noting they would leave the decision to cite to officers from ELD Day 1. Those among such states whoâd responded to Overdrive queries to date include California, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming.
In at least one of those that arenât writing citations, for now a little tough love is on offer as âencouragement.â At the scale house counter in Kentucky this morning, an inspector could be heard asking a driver if he was utilizing an ELD â he wasnât. The reality â he hadnât bothered to plug it in yet, given expectation of soft enforcement and no actual training from his fleet to speak of as yet. As he exited to get his truck and pull it into the scaleâs inspection barn, the officer noted he had better plug the ELD in before he pulled the truck around.
Shaking his head later out by his truck and powering up a tablet heâd been given to pair with the ECM plug-in device, the driver, who declined to be named for this report, said simply, âIâd better roll down there. I think heâs mad at me.â
Truckers report business as usual as enforcement begins
Respondents to an Overdrive query posted to Facebook this morning reported mostly smooth sailing as the ELD mandateâs enforcement date took effect. Some noted their continued obstinance to the mandate, such as Duff Nelson, who simply stated, âIâm not going to do e-log. Iâm staying on paper.â Others railed about their issues with the mandate, which have been well documented on Overdrive in recent months and years. Many expressed a sentiment along the lines of âScrew your ELD!â
Some reported an uptick in enforcement personnel, while other commenters noted a perceived dip in truck traffic.
Commenter Amanda James Marshburn said she saw at the I-35 Kansas-Oklahoma border that enforcers were âchecking every truck for ELD.â Woodrow Caudle reported a rash of police on U.S. 287 in Texasâ Dallas County, but didnât say they were checking for ELD compliance, necessarily. âCame down U.S. 287 from Amarillo to Wilmer, Texas, and Dallas County Sheriffs were sitting in the northbound scales on I-45,â he said.
Jason Pies reported âtruck traffic is definitely down across SD so far today. Not the usual volume of truck traffic.â Mat VanderHeiden responded, saying heâd notice the same in Iowa. Commenter Jason Severson said he ânoticed that also,â but didnât report his location.
Others, meanwhile, chided their trucking peers, relaying a common refrain. âDonât see what all the fuss is about â the driving regulations have not changed,â said Jim McWilliam.
âAll you people that donât like ELDs is because you canât cheat on two or three log books now,â said Michael Shelton.
âAdapt and overcome. The way of the outlaws is gone,â said commenter Thomas Plummer II.
Many commenters, however, reported business as usual. âNormal day in Florida,â said Michael Royster, which was followed by âNormal day in Nebraska,â and âNothing yet in Cali,â from other readers.
Gwen Lutes, with a little humor, said, âNothing different than the norm happening today. Still running 11/14 as usual. Just logging by push of a button rather than getting the crayon out.â
âJames Jaillet