Since the early days of electric logging devices, when they were known as automatic on-board recording devices, Tom Cuthbertson has been there. 

During his distinguished career at Qualcomm, (known as Omnitracs since 2014 and bought by Solera in 2021), he served on advisory committees that helped shape both the U.S. and Canadian ELD mandates. More recently, he has provided consulting and ELD testing services to motor carriers and suppliers. 

Eight years after the initial roll-out of the U.S. mandate requiring nearly all truck drivers to use ELDs to monitor hours of service, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is taking steps to combat a rise in ELD cheating and fraud. 

That includes a new vetting process announced in December to close a loophole that allows new entrants to self-register noncompliant devices, or re-register devices that had been revoked.

Cuthbertson said he is unfortunately not surprised by the ELD issues that have surfaced in the United States. “We were going to get here sooner or later,” he said in an interview with trucknews.com.

Cuthbertson defended the many years of work by the trucking industry, technology suppliers, and government representatives in developing the ELD mandate. “Many smart people worked on this with the best intent to help the industry and to promote safety,” he said.

Similar to the ongoing crackdown on truck-driving training schools, some ELD bad actors are intentionally exploiting FMCSA’s self-certification registry, he said. In other cases, well-intentioned engineers have inadvertently exacerbated the problem by developing software without fully understanding the scope of the regulation or the complexities of trucking. 

‘White label’ ELDs creating a unique problem

Particularly concerning to Cuthbertson is what he calls “white label” ELDs. These are noncompliant devices that are developed and self-registered, and then relabeled with different names, even though they are essentially the same product. 

These “chameleon” ELDs are part of the reason FMCSA’s self-certification registry surpassed 1,000 devices, making it more challenging to uncover and remove noncompliant devices. 

For fleets and drivers unsure about their ELDs, Cuthbertson said excessive device editing should be a red flag. There are legitimate reasons to edit, such as when a driver forgot to switch from off-duty to on-duty status. However, a compliant ELD should not allow editing drive time or logging it as personal conveyance.

“If you make drive time disappear or reduce drive time, you are noncompliant, period,” Cuthbertson said. 

How did we get here?

As the ELD mandate was being finalized in the United States, there were not 1,000 devices to choose from, but instead about seven leading providers. 

Cuthbertson said a third-party certification system, similar to what was later adopted in Canada, was recommended. The FMCSA had to weigh that suggestion against concerns about ensuring a sufficient supply of affordable ELD options for the more than 3 million commercial drivers in the United States. 

The initial cost for ELD manufacturers to obtain third-party certification in Canada is estimated at $40,000-$50,000, with an annual cost of $10,000 thereafter. If a similar system had been implemented in the United States back in 2017, the economics could have created a significant challenge.

“They were very cautious about how much the ELDs would end up costing,” Cuthbertson said of FMCSA’s decision. 

Where are we heading?

Cuthbertson said he does not believe launching a third-party certification program in the United States is realistic at this stage. It would be too difficult to manage, and raises too many questions about how to certify devices already in service. 

Instead, he recommends FMCSA focus on the electronic record of duty status (eRODS), the software used by law enforcement to review files transferred from ELDs to view a driver’s hours.

In Canada, drivers must be able to provide an eRODS file covering a 14-day period. Having a supplier provide a comprehensive eight-day file that can be run through FMCSA’s File Validator would be a quick way to check data integrity. 

Using the File Validator is not mandatory, but it is a step suppliers should take to self-certify properly, Cuthbertson explained. “Requiring this with any new entrant and for significant upgrades to current vendors is not an insurmountable task,” he said. 

Cuthbertson added that greater emphasis on unidentified drive time is warranted, as it is a key focus of FMCSA enforcement audits. “Adding this into the vetting process would make things much better,” he said. 

The right person to create positive change

Cuthbertson said his previous work with FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs, when he was with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, has him optimistic about the future. Barrs was confirmed as the full-time administrator in October. 

“He listens and doesn’t just take things at face value,” Cuthbertson said. “I think he’s going to start moving it in the right direction and will try to resolve this.”

Cuthbertson noted statistics show that in 2025, the FMCSA revoked about 70 ELDs for noncompliance, and another 280 self-revoked rather than attempting to comply with the mandate. 

Just before 2025 ended, the FMCSA removed four more ELDs from the registry for failing to meet minimum regulatory requirements. The devices were from Top Tracking System, Midwestern Logistics, and two by Forward Thinking Systems.

Motor carriers using these devices have until March 1 to replace the revoked ELDs with a compliant model.