If your fleet is subjected to a logbook audit, you will be asked to produce data related to your fleets Hours of Service activities. Historically, fleets were asked to provide printed logbooks for several randomly selected drivers for a randomly selected period of time. If the auditor was satisfied with the provided documents, no further documents were requested.
Today, the law now requires ELD providers to also offer something called a Standard Output File, which replaces the paper logs in the historical scenario. The standard output file contains a complete history of each driver’s logbook records in a digital format. The auditor will ask you to enter a comment or a badge number, then will usually ask you to send it via “web services” (i.e. over the internet) to them. The auditor will access the logs through a program called eRODS. This program turns the digital file into a human-readable logbook, and scans it for common Hours-of-Service violations automatically.
Audit Preparation
To prepare for an audit we recommend that you review all compliance data for problems that could be present in your reports. With VDO RoadLog, you are able to check for violations, unassigned driving, conflicts, certifications, malfunctions, inspections and other data at one easy location under the “ELD” tab on the portal.
On the violations page, make sure there are no violations caused by user error (for example, driver forgot to logout) and then click export to export your violations report.
On the changes tab, you should be sure to review any unaccepted changes that you proposed in your driver’s logs. Make sure your drivers accept the changes to ensure their logs are accurate.
On the Unassigned driving page, you can also export a report to prepare for an audit. You should be sure to annotate any unaccepted or unexplained unassigned driving events.
On the Inspections page, you can prepare to send a standard output file to your auditor via the submission method of their choice.
A Standard Output File is a computer-readable file containing your driver’s logbook activity. During a Roadside Inspection, your Roadlog ELD in-vehicle unit can provide Standard Output File to enforcement via USB or Bluetooth on SOLO units and USB, Bluetooth, or Wireless Transfer on Advanced and Premium systems. Enforcement can upload and see this information in their eRods software during the inspection.
