Major ELD Outage Disrupts Thousands of Drivers and Carriers

Minnetonka, MN – Thousands of drivers and carriers are once again being disrupted by a major electronic logging devices (ELD) outage.

PeopleNet’s on-board ELD devices operating on its g3 system began experiencing “rebooting” issues as the clock struck midnight on January 1 GMT (which is December 31, 2019 at approximately 7 p.m. EDT), according to a Trimble Transportation company spokesperson.

Truckers quickly began reporting the problems such as slow log-ins and other malfunctions, which has led to customer support wait times as high as four hours.

A company representative explained the problems were caused by a “discrepancy between the GPS satellite time and the g3’s internal clock.”

The outage is being described as a “repeat of Y2K.”

Essentially, the devices had an operating range between 2007 and 2019.

When the calendar rolled into 2020, the servers could no longer recognize the date of the affected ELDs.

Diagnostic notification messages began appearing on the devices’ displays which read,

This device is not functioning as an ELD. Paper logs may be required as back up. Check manual for instructions.

As of Friday morning, a recorded message from the company says a “fix” has been identified, but “customer action is required to completely resolve the issue.”

A company representative says an email has been sent to customers containing the “resolution steps.”

For drivers not affected by the outage, a spokesperson says “you may notify your carrier, and if permitted by your carrier, you may continue to drive.”

Since the outage began, many drivers have taken to social media indicating they are back on paper logs.

Michael Vanidestine, an over-the-road trucker at Wisconsin-based Ecklund Logistics, is one such driver.

In a recent Facebook post he fumed, “Thanks a lot PeopleNet… you should be held 100% liable for any fines that occur due to your incompetence.”

Vanidestine feels the situation “could have been 100% avoided.”

Another affected driver, Connie Billings, whose Facebook profile says she drives for Tennessee-based Morristown Drivers Services, took to social media and got straight to the point.

“This new elog system is going to put us out of business, I think,” she predicted.

This is the second major ELD outage in the last couple of months.

In November, Transportation Nation Network (TNN) first reported Omnitracs experienced a software service failure during a scheduled GPS rollover (update to its mapping, position application, etc.).

The failure “forced the units to stop responding,” TNN was told by a company representative.

Among a host of issues, drivers’ logs from the previous seven days were wiped out and some drivers reported the date on their units reverted back to as far as March of 2000.

It took Omnitracs close to a week to return most customers to its ELDs.

However, it is unclear how quickly Trimble will be able to resolve the issues for those affected.

Stay logged on to TransportationNation.com for the latest on this developing story.