Datasmart ELD, Logo

(951) 514-9792

Monday-Friday, 9a-5p PST

Para Español al (951) 445-7382

Monday-Friday, 9a-5p PST

UNDERSTANDING THE MAP 21 MANDATE

This is not the 30 year old AOBRD standard! FMCSA 395.20 § is the latest standard required of drivers on December 18, 2017 and must track every mile a commercial vehicle is used with automatic transitions triggered from the engine diagnostics port. 

ELD versus AOBRD. What's the difference? AOBRDs Meet FMCSA’s § 395.15 Regulations not the new § 395.20 standard. 

An Automatic on-board recording device (AOBRD) is  an electric, electronic, electromechanical, or mechanical device capable of recording driver's duty status information accurately and automatically as required by § 395.15. The device must be integrally synchronized with specific operations of the commercial vehicle in which it is installed and, at a minimum, must record:

Engine Use
Road speed
Miles driven
Date and Time

AOBRD’s are defined in § 395.2 and regulated in § 395.15.  These regulations were introduced in 1988 and are nearly 30 years old.  The systems that implement  AOBRD technology tend to be based on older technology and will become obsolete on December 18, 2017.  

ELDs Meet FMCSA’s 395.20 Regulations

Last year in the ELD Mandate, FMCSA introduced a new class of devices, Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs), that are defined in § 395.20 regulations.  These new devices are required to be used by drivers who are subject to record of duty status (RODS) regulations by December 18, 2017.


ELDs represent the latest in technology and are much more sophisticated than the soon to be outmoded AOBRDs.  Among other things ELDs must be integrally synchronized with the engine on a commercial vehicle and must capture:

Engine power status
Vehicle motion status
Total miles driven
Total engine hours
Engine power status
Vehicle speed
Vehicle location

ELDs are more advanced than AOBRDs and are required to automate the capture of RODS data automatically at each duty status change, every 60 minutes while the vehicle is in motion, at engine power-on and off events, and at the beginning and end of personal use and yard moves.  In addition, ELDs must be capable of automatically transferring RODS data to FMCSA and must monitor themselves for diagnostics and malfunctions.

DataSmart ELD implementation uses an Android or iOS device that connects wirelessly to a dongle or telematics device that is connected the vehicle bus.  To meet the vehicle monitoring requirements, vehicle data is streamed continuously from the vbus device to the Android or iOS mobile device.  The mobile device processes this information on a background thread, performs the necessary calculations, presents the information to the driver using the familiar grid chart, and synchronizes it with back office servers that run on Amazon Web services.

Don't trust your existing supplier to provide a magic software update to bring your fleet into ELD compliance in 24 months. All of the hardware has changed in 30 years and so have your trucks. DataSmart ELD assures your fleet's ELD compliance.

  • Certification: ELD vendors must self-certify by running each of the 318 tests in the FMCSA’s test suite

  • Easy to Install: Motor Carriers, support personnel, or drivers need to be able to install the device, have it configure itself, login, and start driving. Installation must be easy. DataSmart provides a complete, user installed solution out of the box.

  • Full set of Driving Rules: Drivers need US, Alaska, Canada, Texas Intrastate, California Intrastate, Property and Passenger, 60 hours 7 days, 70 hours 8 days, etc. DalataSmart ELD covers them all including the "5th line" for Oil and Gas and Construction exemptions.

  • FMCSA’s Exemptions and Exceptions: including Adverse Driving Conditions, Emergency Conditions, Oil Field Operations, 100/150 Mile Short Haul Exemption, Twenty Four Hour Restart, Once Per Week 16 Hour Driving Window, and Agricultural Exemption.

  • Low Hardware Costs: For a motor carrier or an owner operator an ELD is expense. Saving money is important and low cost matters.

  • Low Operational Costs: ELDs must be efficient to minimize the amount of data sent over expensive data plans and to reduce monthly operational expenses.

  • Violation Warnings: Although it was removed from the final version of the ELD regulations, every driver should insist that the ELD vendor provide violation warnings before a violation occurs. Drivers must know before a violation occurs and must have advance warning to prevent the violation. DataSmart ELD supports driver warnings with changing display colors from Green to Amber to Red when a change of status must occur before a violation.

  • Back Office Portal: FMCSA requires that Driver Logs be retained for 6 months and that log data be available for an audit for the same 6 months. To meet this requirement requires a Back Office that is accessed through a portal. The DataSmart ELD portal can show the daily driver log for hundreds of drivers for any given day in the last six month with a couple of key strokes. FMCSA audits take hours, not days.

  • Workflow: The ELD must support the driver’s workflow and be intuitive as the driver starts his day, is assigned a vehicle and load, performs his DVIR, starts driving, stops for break, makes delivers, and is assigned dock work, etc.

  • Integrated DVIR Management: The ELD solution should provide integrated § 395.11 compliant DVIRs since they are also required for compliance.

  • Canadian Rules: When a driver crosses the border between the USA and Canada the ELD should automatically transition to the appropriate country’s driving rules. The DataSmart ELD maintains dual databases to comply with the Canadian 14 day system.

  • IFTA fuel tax: By providing accurate state mileage reporting the ELD can save owner operators time, money, and hassle out of their fuel tax reporting. DataSmart ELD includes IFTA compliance at no additional cost.
  • Back Office Integration: DataSmart ELD combines with Motor Carrier IT systems, Time Keeping system, Exporting of Driver Hours to IT Planning Systems, exporting of vehicle mileage to maintenance systems, etc.

  • Mobile ELD support: When the ELD functionality is implemented on a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet it is very convenient to assign devices to drivers. If drivers move between trucks, the DataSmart ELD supports mobile operation to enable drivers to seamlessly connect and disconnect from vehicles. DataSmart ELD also supports up to six co-drivers for slip seat operation.

  • Security by Role, Terminal, or Job Function: For enterprise deployments there needs to be multiple levels of security and filtering to prevent unauthorized use. For example, the supervisor at the Denver terminal needs visibility to his drivers and to any drivers with loads heading to his terminal. But he should not have visibility into the San Diego terminal. DataSmart ELD can customize your solution to fit any size motor carrier.

Easy Access to Information
Same menu when viewed as a dashboard browser on a mobile device. Geofences can be used as restricted areas, arrivals and departures at a jobsite or delivery address. Send notifications via email or text. Review maintenance, note engine-on events, record top speed, and idle time. Maximize productivity of your fleet.

Fleet Overview
Vehicles can be color coded and bookmarks can be created for easy searching. Map layers can be changed to enhance visibility and de-clutter the screen. The Search list allows you to search by tags and categories such as weight class or vehicle make and model.

Asset Details
Track your vehicles with breadcrumbs trails. Create heatmaps to see patterns over longer periods. Track and graph OBD engine performance parameters, see DTCs (Diagnostic Trouble Codes) in real time.

Reports
Generate Reports, filter by date, driver and vehicle

Geofences and Places
Create Circular or Polygon Geofences, or import SHP files (the worldwide standard) by tagging your geofences. Receive alerts and dashboard data for ingress or egress. We have created geofences for every state and county in the US.

Forms and Data
Customizable forms with running commentary to add context. Help us target your vertical markets!

Alerts and Notifications
Trouble tickets, incident reports, assignable to key personnel with running commentary. Reports on new alerts and assignments. Notifications as emails and text messages.