Answer
An ELD must always be monitoring the motion status of a vehicle, and under two circumstances must create an Automatically Created Duty Status log.
- A vehicle is moving more than 5 MPH (8kph) and must create an Automatic Driving log
- A vehicle is stopped for more than 5 minutes , the ELD must prompt the driver to confirm their intention to continue to Drive or Not. If the driver indicated driving is complete, or does not answer the prompt after 1 minute while the vehicle remains stopped, the ELD will create an Automatic ON log.
This is pursuant to 4.4.1.2 of the Canadian ELD standard and Appendix A to Subpart B of CFR 395 in the USA.
Note: if driver A logs into the Drive app while driver B is assigned to the moving vehicle, the app creates an automatic ON log with driver B
Additional Notes
Geotab"s Cloud ELD solution complies with the above requirements, and does so in a manner to ensure maximum drive time is retained for the driver. Here is an example of a driver who has stopped to make a delivery:
- 12:00 - Vehicle motion stopped
- 12:05 - ELD prompts Driver
- 12:06 - ELD proceeds to create an automatic ON Duty log with a timestamp of 12:00
Resulting logs:
ON-duty log - 12:00
Note: the emphasis above on the timestamp of the Automatic log. Geotab knows the vehicle actually stopped 6 minutes before the trigger to create the automatic log - thus, the log time of that log will be when the vehicle actually stopped. This means that a driver that does many stops during the day will not have their driving time decreased by 6 minutes at every stop, which over the course of even a few stops of the day could add up quickly.
Another example, where the driver changes status from Drive manually, before the 5 minutes:
- 12:00 - Vehicle motion stopped
- 12:03 - Driver selects OFF duty
- 12:05 - ELD proceeds to create ON Duty log with a timestamp of 12:00 (note that in this case, there is not a prompt since the driver is not in D at the time).
Resulting logs:
ON-duty log - 12:00
OFF-duty log - 12:03
Note that in this case, the ON log won't appear until 12:05, when the system reaches the 5 minute requirement.
There is no issue with a driver changing status manually before the ON duty log is created, but the ON duty log will always appear after the 5 minutes, in order to act as the "end" of the driving log. Also, in the event that the ON log is created at the exact same time as a manual log, the system will automatically order the ON log in front of the manual log to ensure there are no issues upon transfer.