What do I do if my ELD is revoked?

Chapter 01

What does it mean when my ELD is revoked?

It means FMCSA found that your ELD model does not meet the federal technical rules for ELDs. So FMCSA took it off its list of registered devices (the ELD technical rules). You may use only an ELD that is on that list (the carrier’s ELD rule). FMCSA moves the device to its Revoked Devices list and emails the industry. It gives carriers up to 60 days to replace it (FMCSA’s August 2026 notice). The device may still turn on and record. That does not matter. To comply with the notice, switch to a registered device.

Here is how that looks in real life. Say you run four trucks, and all four use the same ELD: a tablet app with a small box plugged into the truck. On Thursday, October 15, 2026, FMCSA removes that device from its list. That evening an email from FMCSA lands in your inbox, because you once signed up for its ELD news. You read it on Friday morning, October 16.

The notice is short. It names each device by its name, model number, ELD identifier and provider. It says why: the companies failed “to meet the minimum requirements” of the ELD technical rules. Then it gives two steps. The first one reads: “Discontinue using the revoked ELDs and revert to paper logs or logging software to record required hours of service data.” In plain words, stop logging on the old device now. The second step says to replace it with a device from the registered list before a set date. Your notice says before Tuesday, December 15. Real notices this year follow the same pattern. One sent on August 6, 2026 set October 6 (FMCSA’s August 2026 notice). We could not open that August email directly, so we read it through a reader service. One sent on July 9 set September 8 (FMCSA’s July 2026 notice).

First, make sure it is your device. Names can look alike, so match the ELD identifier. It is a code of six letters and numbers that the provider gives each certified model. Every ELD must show it on the screen or printout it gives an officer. Look for the line “ELD ID”, next to the provider’s name (the ELD technical rules). Your drivers open the inspection screen and read you the code. All four trucks match the notice. You can also look the device up on the ELD revoked list on FMCSA’s ELD website (FMCSA’s Revoked ELDs list). That list shows each device’s status and the date it was removed.

How did this happen without a warning? The rules send the warning to the provider, not to you. The technical rules set the steps (the ELD technical rules). FMCSA first writes to the provider, with its reasons and the fixes it wants. The provider has 30 days to answer. If it does not answer, the device comes off the list. If it answers, FMCSA decides. The provider then has 60 days to make any fixes FMCSA still requires. If it fails, the device is removed. Within 30 days of the removal, the provider may ask FMCSA to review it. Nothing we read says that request pauses your deadline.

FMCSA says that if a provider fixes every problem, it will put the device back on the list and announce it. It also “strongly encourages motor carriers to take the actions listed above now” (FMCSA’s August 2026 notice). So do not wait on your provider’s promises.

Revoked is not the same as broken. A broken ELD follows the malfunction rule. The driver tells you in writing within 24 hours and keeps paper logs. You have 8 days to get the device fixed or replaced (the ELD malfunction rule). That process has a different deadline, explained in what to do when your ELD malfunctions. A revoked device follows FMCSA’s notice and its date. None of the FMCSA notices we read calls a revoked ELD a malfunction.

Chapter 02

What do my drivers use for logs until the new ELD is in?

They keep paper logs or use logging software, and they start now, not at the deadline. FMCSA’s notices tell carriers to stop using the revoked ELD at once (FMCSA’s August 2026 notice). Paper logs are the safe choice, because the rules spell out what a paper log must show (the logbook rule). Every truck should already carry blank paper logs for at least 8 days (the carrier’s ELD rule).

Back to Friday, October 16. You call all four drivers before they roll. Each one stops logging on the app and starts a paper log from that moment. The 8 days of blank logs in each truck will not last until the new devices arrive (the carrier’s ELD rule). So you buy a log book for each driver that same day.

A paper log is a grid for each 24 hours, with four lines: off duty, sleeper berth, driving, and on duty not driving. The driver draws a line for each stretch of time. At each change, he writes the city and State. The page also carries the date, the miles driven that day, the truck and trailer numbers, your company name and your main office address. It shows when the 24 hours start and the total hours on each line. It names the shipping document, or the shipper and what was hauled, and a second driver if there is one. The driver signs it. He keeps the last 7 days with him in the truck and sends you each log within 13 days (the logbook rule).

FMCSA’s notices also allow “logging software”. They do not say what counts. If you are not sure a program qualifies, ask FMCSA at ELD@dot.gov, the address its August 2026 email gives (FMCSA’s August 2026 notice). Or stick to paper.

What about the days just before the switch? An officer looks at today and the 7 days before it (the logbook rule). For your drivers, those earlier days sit in the old ELD. FMCSA’s July 2026 notice tells inspectors what to do before the deadline. They are “encouraged not to cite” drivers for the revoked device. Instead, they should “request the driver’s paper logs, logging software, or use the ELD display as a back-up method” (FMCSA’s July 2026 notice). So leave the old tablet in the cab, charged, for the first week. Its screen shows the days before the paper starts. We found no other FMCSA instruction for those days.

If an inspector still cites a driver for the revoked device before your deadline, ask for a review through DataQs. Attach FMCSA’s notice. The steps are in how to dispute a violation in DataQs. We cannot tell you how the State will decide.

Check the paper logs as they come in. On paper, the driver adds up his own hours, and mistakes are easy. So read each week’s logs against the hours limits. Keep the supporting papers with them: bills of lading, dispatch records, expense receipts, messages from your fleet system and pay records (the supporting documents rule). You keep the logs and those papers for 6 months (the logbook rule).

Chapter 03

How do I keep the records from the old ELD?

Save them now, as files you control, before you leave the old provider. You must keep your drivers’ logs and supporting papers for 6 months (the logbook rule). You must also keep a backup copy of the ELD records for 6 months, on a device separate from the original (the carrier’s ELD rule). The rules we read do not require a provider to keep your account open after you leave. The duty to keep the records is yours.

On Monday, October 19, you sit down at the office computer and log in to the old provider’s system. Every registered ELD must be able to produce its records as a standard data file. It must do this for chosen drivers, trucks and dates within the last 6 months (the ELD technical rules). So you ask it for files for each of your four drivers and each truck, back to April 19. If the system will not give them to you, ask the provider in writing and keep a copy of your request. The ELD recorded more than the driver’s duty status. Each entry holds the date, the time, the location, the engine hours and the miles. It also shows who drove which truck, for which company (the rule on what an ELD records).

Then you pull the unidentified driving records for each device. That is driving the ELD caught while nobody was logged in. You must keep those for 6 months too (the rule on unidentified driving).

You save everything twice: on the office computer and on a separate drive. You do not edit or delete anything in the old records. The rules forbid changing or erasing the original information (the ELD records rule). If a driver asks for a copy of his own records during those 6 months, you must give it (the driver access rule). And when an official asks, you must hand over ELD records in electronic form (the carrier’s ELD rule).

The rules we read do not require the new ELD to take in the old records. So for a while, your history lives in three places: the old files, the paper logs and the new device. An auditor can ask to see any of them. The rest of the files an auditor may want are in the list of records to keep.

Chapter 04

How do I move my drivers to the new ELD before the deadline?

Choose a device that is on FMCSA’s registered list. Set up an account for each driver, and put the new instruction sheets in every truck. Then teach each driver to send his logs to an officer. Finish well before the date in the notice. From that date on, a carrier and driver still on the revoked ELD break the rule FMCSA calls “No record of duty status”. The driver is put out of service (FMCSA’s August 2026 notice).

On Monday, October 26, you choose the new device. People search for an “ELD approved by FMCSA”, but FMCSA does not approve devices. Each provider tests and certifies its own model, and FMCSA lists it (the ELD technical rules). FMCSA’s own list says it does not endorse any device (the FMCSA ELD list). We do not recommend brands. Whatever you pick, find it on the list and write down its ELD ID. A device on the list today can be removed later too.

The new boxes arrive on Monday, November 2. For each driver, you create an account. It carries his first and last name as on his license, his license number and the State that issued it. You give him a username of your choosing. It must not be his license number or his Social Security number (the carrier’s ELD rule). You make an account for yourself as office staff too. Everyone uses their own account every time. The device is set up and kept calibrated the way its provider says. If a driver uses a tablet, it is mounted in place, where he can see it from the driver’s seat.

Each truck then gets its packet (the carrier’s ELD rule). It holds a sheet on how to send the records to an officer and a sheet on what to do if the ELD breaks. It also holds blank paper logs for at least 8 days. You no longer need the ELD user’s manual in the cab. FMCSA dropped that on July 22, 2026 (the rule FMCSA published in June 2026). Checklists that still demand it are out of date. Each driver practices sending his logs once, following the sheet, because an officer can ask for exactly that (the ELD driver rule).

You switch two trucks during home time that week and two the next. By Friday, November 13, all four trucks run on the new ELD. For the first 7 days on it, each driver keeps his paper logs in the truck. An officer still checks today and the 7 days before (the logbook rule). The last paper logs reached you on November 13, so you keep that pile at least until May 13, 2027. On the first log-in, the new device may also show driving that nobody claimed. The driver reviews it. For whatever is left, you must note a reason or assign it to the right driver (the rule on unidentified driving). That is its own job, explained in unassigned driving and ELD edits.

What if a truck misses the date? FMCSA treats it as running with no ELD at all, and its notices point officers to CVSA’s out-of-service rules. CVSA is the group of enforcement agencies that writes those rules. Its public announcement from 2018, which FMCSA still links, gives the picture (CVSA’s announcement). A driver hauling freight without a registered ELD is put out of service for 10 hours. He may then finish the trip on paper logs, with a copy of the inspection report. If he is sent out again without a proper ELD, he is put out of service again. The one exception is driving back empty to your base to get one. CVSA adds that every ELD violation counts in your safety scores, which most people call CSA scores. CVSA sells the full rules, so we could not check today’s version.

A new company faces one more risk: the new entrant safety audit, which FMCSA gives new carriers. There, failing to require logs is an automatic failure once it shows up in 51% or more of the records checked (the audit failure rule). The whole list is in the automatic audit failures.

As of September 2026, keep two facts in mind. First, the 60 days come from FMCSA’s notices, not from the written rules. The removal steps in the rules cover only the provider, so FMCSA sets your date in each notice (the ELD technical rules). Second, it keeps happening. FMCSA removed devices in February, May, June, July and August of 2026 (FMCSA’s February 2026 notice, FMCSA’s ELD news page). Two things we could not check: what FMCSA counts as logging software, and what the “Self Revoked” status on its list means for carriers. So keep your email on FMCSA’s ELD news list, and look up your device when you hear a rumor.

If you want help coordinating the switch and keeping your ELD records and notices in order all year, here is what we offer.