AI ELD
Feb 11, 2026
Every carrier is told they “need an ELD”. Once the hardware is plugged in and drivers are logging hours, it is easy to feel like the compliance box is checked.
In practice, this looks different. Most fleets run standard ELD setups that record data, but stop there. No one is actively watching that data. As a consequence, problems build up quietly until a DOT officer or FMCSA auditor points them out.
This article covers real situations as examples for:
A standard ELD setup looks like this:
The problem here is time and attention. Most fleets do not have a safety department that watches the system 24 hours a day. Even during office hours, that team is busy with accidents, hiring, paperwork, training, and customer pressure. A lot of “small” problems simply never get looked at.
There is usually a big part of the day when nobody is monitoring the fleet at all, and even during the rest of the day, many events are missed because there is too much work and not enough eyes on the screen.
With ELD monitoring, the fleet has:
This lets a fleet keep growing without hiring a safety team big enough to sit on the dashboard around the clock.
When no one is consistently watching ELD events, it is usually not the big crises that slip through at first. It is small, repeated problems that gradually turn into a risk.
Several patterns that show up again and again when fleets rely only on a standard, unmonitored ELD setup:
On paper, all of this is stored inside the ELD. In reality, it sits there until an officer, auditor, or lawyer pulls the data and asks the hard questions.
The following example shows what happened when a carrier used a bad ELD service in the past.
A driver had an ELD disconnect. When the device went out of sync, the clock in the app no longer matched reality. The driver was near the end of their 14-hour shift and kept driving, believing they were still in a safe window.
The system did generate a notification. The safety department, however, was busy with other work and nobody noticed that warning. Nobody called the driver. Nobody checked why that unit suddenly had a problem.
DOT pulled the truck for an inspection, checked the logs, and saw a driver running out of hours with a device that had disconnected. The outcome:
The core issue was not that the ELD could not log the problem. The problem was that nobody had the time or responsibility to react to that information before an officer did.
On the other hand, the following example is about a case where ELD monitoring changed the story completely for one of our clients.
A driver had completed their off-duty rest at a truck stop and was about to start the day. As they eased out of the parking spot, the ELD unplugged. It turned out that the cable was loose and lost contact just as the truck started to move.
Because the fleet was on a monitored plan, the monitoring team saw the disconnect immediately. They did not wait for a weekly report or an audit. Within a few minutes, they:
A few miles later, that same driver was pulled over for an inspection.
If he had still been driving with an unplugged ELD, the inspection would have been unpleasant and expensive, just like the earlier case. Instead, the logs were clean, and the inspection was routine.
Here, the monitoring fee was not an abstract cost. It clearly avoided one specific event that would likely have cost more than a month or more of monitoring for the whole fleet.
Good ELD monitoring is not a vague idea. It becomes good when a well-organized monitoring team leads it and follows a concrete set of priorities.
First, the priority is ELD connection status:
These are handled as a top priority because they directly affect HOS compliance. A truck that is moving with no valid logging is a truck that is headed toward trouble.
Second, the monitoring team must watch HOS limits:
Drivers do not always realize how close they are to a limit, especially when they are tired or rushing to meet a deadline. Monitoring can warn them before they cross the line, not after.
Third, monitoring should keep an eye on speed limits and speeding behavior:
Speeding tickets are expensive on their own. Repeat offenses are even more costly in terms of insurance, risk, and how the company is viewed during inspections. Our expert noted that more and more drivers feel pressure to rush as customer deadlines get tighter and time feels shorter.
Without monitoring, that pressure simply goes unchecked.
Monitoring has two parts: detection and response.
Many of the events that monitoring detects are already violations or are about to become violations. That shows the time between detection and action directly affects how big the problem becomes.
Fast reactions make the change:
If nobody reacts for hours, the driver may continue driving in violation, and the fleet is exposed until someone outside the company forces the issue.
In other words, the value of monitoring is not just that someone notices a problem. It is that they notice and begin working on it within minutes.
Not everything that happens on the road is the truck driver’s fault.
In case of harsh braking, a sudden turn, or a swerve to avoid something, the first reaction inside many safety teams is to look at the driver, because the driver is the person behind the wheel.
Video changes that.
With dash cams paired with ELD monitoring, safety teams can see what really happened:
This matters most in accidents and crashes. In those moments, video evidence can show that the truck was not at fault, help protect the carrier from lawsuits, and help prevent insurance rate hikes after a claim.
Some driver behavior can be inferred from ELD data alone, but video fills in the gaps. Once dash cam monitoring is added, safety teams can see:
Combined with ELD information, this gives carriers a much clearer picture:
The monitoring team can flag these patterns, and safety can focus on coaching and interventions instead of hunting for events across multiple systems.
Not every operation has the same needs, but there are several fleet profiles where monitoring makes particular sense. Monitoring is especially useful for:
In these cases, monitoring lets the existing safety staff focus on other work, knowing that someone is watching the ELD side of the operation around the clock. The trucks are looked after all the time, not just when the office is open.
Many carriers feel that their standard ELD setup is “good enough”. They know the devices are installed, and logs can be produced if someone asks. The idea of paying extra for monitoring can feel optional until they see the ELD cost numbers.
These are very concrete figures when talking about return on investment:
From this point of view, one avoided violation can save more than the cost of monitoring for an entire fleet for more than a month. Even if that is true only a few times per year, the monitoring fee looks small compared to what it prevents.
This is before counting the value of:
For fleets that think their current ELD use is enough, the real question becomes:
How many violations, fines, inspections, or claims need to be avoided before monitoring pays for itself?
It often only takes one.
In essence, there are two options for all fleets:
As you add dash cams and more advanced telematics, the volume of data will not go down. If anything, there will be more to look at.
You probably already collect the data, but you are not getting the most out of it. Understanding this is the first step towards growth. Contacting AI ELD, experts in A-class monitoring setup, is the next step.