The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has added a new Hours of Service (HOS) violation to the Safety Measurement System (SMS). The SMS stores the data that is ultimately used to arrive at the CSA BASIC scores. This new violation carries a normal severity of 3 in the Hours of Service BASIC.
395.24D: ELD cannot transfer ELD records electronically
The cause of the failure could be driver unfamiliarity with the process, connectivity issues, or a device malfunction. Regardless of the cause, it will be considered a violation. This is not normally an out-of-service violation, but it could escalate to that if the driver were also unable to display or print the ELD records. In that situation, the violation would be §395.8(a), no record of duty status when required, and the driver would be placed out-of-service for 10 hours.
One motor carrier reported that the cause of the violation their driver received was because he had taken his tablet ELD into the scale house. At that point the tablet was unable to connect with the truck and the information could not be downloaded. This motor carrier advised their drivers to stay with their truck to ensure connectivity.
When conducting ELD training for drivers, it would be best to have a hands-on exercise that simulates the interaction between the roadside inspector and your driver. Also stress to the driver that they must have ELD operating documentation available. Failure to produce that would be a violation.
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