One Omnitracs user reported technical issues with their ELD unit on Monday, though Omnitracs says the issue did not affect its hours-of-service or e-logging applications. Smartphone-based ELD provider KeepTruckin acknowledged nearly a day-long technical issue, due to a spike in user volume on Monday. Those issues have been resolved, however, the company says.Though most prominent electronic logging device manufacturers reported no disruptions in service as the ELD mandate took effect Monday, more than one ELD supplier was reported to have temporary service outages most of the day due to the wave of new users coming online.
KeepTruckin, one of the larger suppliers of smartphone-based e-log systems, said the spike in users on December 18 caused its service to remain inaccessible most of the day. It reported at 6 p.m. Monday that its systems were back online, however.
KeepTruckin user Brian Elston of Stout Transportation told Overdrive early Monday that “both their dashboard [and] driver KeepTruckin accounts have been offline and unavailable,” following a weekend rollout of an update to the KeepTruckin system.
In a statement to Overdrive, KeepTruckin said it beefed up its server capacity in preparation for a rush of new accounts, but that the volume of new users was greater than anticipated. “The request volume spiked far beyond expectations, due to the extremely high number of users connecting for the first time,” the company said. The disruptions were mostly isolated to new users, it said, and that “drivers who have already logged into the KeepTruckin app and connected to their ELD can continue to log their hours as they normally would.”
The company posted a notice to Facebook on Monday afternoon saying it had fixed the technical problems. “We have resumed operations with much better performance. We are still serving a huge backlog of requests, but are getting through them as quickly as we can,” it said on Facebook.
Likewise, telematics and ELD provider Omnitracs was reported to have technical issues, some noted by a reader, Jenny Martin. “We have them installed and we were set up and have been using them” ahead of the mandate, Martin told Overdrive. “Today, the first day of the mandate, we cannot access our account online. When we call into customer support they just have an automated message acknowledging the issue.”
Omnitracs told Overdrive the issues did not affect its e-log application. “Omnitracs is currently not experiencing any issues with its electronic logging devices. We are currently working to resolve a technical issue with our customer portal which is unrelated to” its ELD product. “The ELD mobile app has not been nor will be impacted by this,” the company said Monday afternoon.
Rand McNally also reported no issues with its ELD hardware and software. “We have experienced higher-than-usual calls due to the start of the mandate – and expect them to continue through the week. Rand McNally has not experienced any system crashes or outages,” the company said.
Alicia Bedard, head of marketing for smartphone-based ELD provider BigRoad, said it too has “seen a huge spike in in business and activiations over the past few days,” but that the company is “managing well and our systems are in good shape.” Bedard says BigRoad is working quickly to get its new users online, noting, “all hands are on-deck taking calls and responding to emails to help. We’re just dealing with volume at this point.”
One20, maker of the F-ELD application, said its number of users quadrupled on Monday. The surge in users did not affect the company’s service, it says. “No major outages or crashes to report, just an influx of users mostly not ready to onboard properly as they haven’t tried to get everything set up until today. The app is working great and while support is getting a lot of calls and emails, we aren’t experiencing any technology issues.”
Note: Overdrive has queried other prominent ELD suppliers about their service on the initial day of the ELD mandate’s enforcement. Their responses will be added to this story once available.
