AOBRD phaseout under ELD rule could pose challenges for fleets and vendors

From Transport Topics.

Nearly all motor carriers subject to the federal electronic logging device mandate have complied with that regulation, but another significant transition remains for fleets still using older e-log systems that predate the ELD rule, industry experts said.

The mandate, which went into effect a year ago, requires most long-haul trucking companies to record drivers’ hours of service with ELDs instead of paper logbooks.

But the rule also allowed early adopters of e-logs to continue using their existing systems, classified as automatic onboard recording devices, or AOBRDs, for two additional years.

Many fleets that already had installed AOBRDs chose to take advantage of that two-year grandfather period rather than migrating immediately to ELDs, but that exemption is set to expire Dec. 16, 2019.

Carriers still running AOBRDs have until that date to update those systems to an ELD platform, and that transition “will probably not be painless” for fleets and vendors, analyst Clem Driscoll said here Nov. 27 at TU-Automotive’s annual Connected Fleets USA conference.

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