The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance has announced that it will delay putting drivers out of service for Electronic Logging Device violations for the first three months of the mandate.

The CVSA announced the news on Monday, August 28th.

Although drivers will not be placed out-of-service for violating the ELD mandate in the first three months, officers will still enforce the law and issue citations.

According to the press release by the CVSA:

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) congressionally mandated ELD compliance deadline is still set for Dec. 18, 2017. On that date, inspectors and roadside enforcement personnel will begin documenting violations on roadside inspection reports and … will issue citations to commercial motor vehicle drivers operating vehicles without a compliant ELD.

Then:

Beginning April 1, 2018, inspectors will start placing commercial motor vehicle drivers out of service if their vehicle is not equipped with the required device.

The release also states that trucks with automatic onboard recording devices (AOBRD) that were “grandfathered” in during the mandate may use those devices until the following year, December 16th, 2019.

The press release continues by saying that:

The CVSA Board of Directors, in consultation with FMCSA and the motor carrier industry, agreed that the phased-in approach to implementation of the ELD requirements … will help promote a smoother transition to the new ELD requirement.

Setting an April 1, 2018, effective date for applying the ELD OOSC will provide the motor carrier industry … with time to adjust to the new requirement before vehicles are placed out of service for ELD violations.

These delays do not affect the out-of-service criteria for other hours of service violations.