The day has finally come. The long-awaited ELD mandate is here and it’s important to keep up-to-date and know what’s required of you! This blog has some useful pieces of information to help you prepare for your transition to electronic logging devices (ELDs).
With BigRoad, You’ve Got Options
If you installed your BigRoad DashLink before December 18, 2017 (today), you’ve got two choices:
1) Keep Running As An AOBRD
Right now, your DashLink is running as an automatic onboard recording device (AOBRD), which is compliant with the ELD mandate under the AOBRD grandfather clause. You can continue to run your DashLink as an AOBRD until December 16, 2019 before you have to transition to an ELD. You do not need to do anything right now if you choose this option.
2) Transition To ELDs
Today, you can choose to transition your DashLink from an AOBRD to an ELD by turning on ELD functionality. This is done from the BigRoad Web App and complete instructions can be found here. ELD functionality is enabled on a vehicle-by-vehicle basis. Once you transition a vehicle to ELD, you can’t change it back to AOBRD or electronic log.
If you do not currently have an AOBRD installed and being used in your vehicle, you do not qualify to run an AOBRD at this point. You need to run DashLink as an ELD in order to be compliant with the ELD mandate.
Planning On Transitioning to ELD?
We’ve put together some information to help you manage your transition to ELDs. Before you turn on ELD functionality, make sure you’ve reviewed our ELD resources and know the answers to these commonly asked questions.
What Are the Main Differences Between an AOBRD
and ELD?
We’ve written a lot of material about the differences between AOBRDs and ELDs, but it’s worth covering again here. Basically, an ELD displays more information about your driver’s day and allows very limited editing. An AOBRD displays less information and does allow for some editing. We’ve written a detailed blog post about these differences that you can read here.
How Does The AOBRD Grandfather Clause Impact Trucks
Added As Of Today?
As we mentioned before, if you had our DashLink running in your vehicles before today, it was running as an AOBRD. You can choose to do nothing and keep running it as an AOBRD until December 16, 2019. Or, you can choose to turn on ELD functionality and run DashLink as an ELD. The decision is up to you.
But, as of today, any new vehicles added to your fleet must be added as ELD vehicles in order to be compliant. You can find more details about turning on ELD functionality on a truck-by-truck basis here. As well, if you purchase our DashLink ELD today or later, it will be running as an ELD.
This may result in a mixed fleet – with some vehicles running AOBRDs (installed before today) and some vehicles running ELDs (installed today or later). Drivers can switch between AOBRD and ELD vehicles. They will just sign out of the first vehicle on the BigRoad Mobile App before signing into the second one. This will result in the driver having both AOBRD and ELD logs, which will look different from one another. However, running a mixed fleet is manageable if this is what you choose to do. You may also choose to switch all vehicles over to ELDs to maintain consistency. This is completely up to you.
How Do I Complete A Roadside Inspection With An ELD?
Completing a roadside inspection with our DashLink ELD is really easy. You can choose to allow the officer to do an on-screen inspection, or send your logs via email, fax, web services, or to a printer. There are some differences between inspecting an AOBRD log vs. an ELD log, so we’ve created some helpful training material for you to reference. You can find a detailed how-to document on our website that shows how to complete an inspection with DashLink ELD.
What Do I Need To Keep In My Truck?
The ELD mandate does require you to keep some materials in hard copy in your vehicle or have access to them online. We wrote a helpful blog to outline these materials, which you can find here. 
In short, you need to have:
- Online access or a printed copy of an inspection and malfunction guide – the BigRoad Driver Card
- Online access to a detailed user manual – you can find BigRoad’s version here
- At least 8 days of blank paper logs (or 14 if you’re in Canada)
Where Can I Find ELD Training Material?We’ve created a lot of helpful training materials for our DashLink ELD, which can all be found on this ELD Materials page. This includes information about how to install your DashLink ELD, how to add a new truck to your fleet, and how to turn on ELD functionality. Take a look now if you have questions about using DashLink ELD!
What Will Happen If I Don’t Have An Engine-Connected Device In My Vehicle Right Now?
If you don’t qualify for an exemption from the ELD mandate, you need to have an engine-connected device in your vehicle as of today. If you installed our DashLink in your vehicle before today, you can choose to continue running it as an AOBRD until December 16, 2019. If you installed our DashLink ELD today or later, you must run it as an ELD.
If you don’t have an engine-connected device in your vehicle, you will receive a documented violation during a roadside inspection, and possibly a citation and fine.
How Can BigRoad Help?
You should all have ELDs up and running in your vehicles as of today. But if you don’t, we can help you! Contact us to book a free demo and see DashLink ELD in action.