The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance has issued a revision to its North American Standard Inspection Program, Inspection Bulletin 2026-02, which provides guidance for determining a false record of duty status (RODS) as outlined in 49 CFR § 395.8(e)(1) or reengineered, reprogramed or tampered RODS where the electronic logging device (ELD) does not accurately record or retain required data as outlined in 49 CFR § 395.8(e)(2).

This new guidance, effective April 1, 2026, is intended to help an inspector determine when to place the driver out of service per the CVSA North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria.

The guidance notes that RODS have been found to be altered or shifted up to several days, with no indication in the event details that there was any change to the RODS. The only way inspectors find these altered RODS is by comparing supporting documents to the RODS. In these cases, it is not possible to determine the time, duration and location of the driver’s rest breaks.

In other cases, the driver does not log into the ELD and might drive the vehicle while in sleeper-berth status, which shows as unidentified driving.

A third scenario is where the carrier or driver creates a fictitious driver ELD account to reassign driving time or allow drivers to log in to the device using fraudulent credentials. Any fraudulent use of driver credentials is an unauthorized alteration of the ELD.

The guidance states, “Inspectors should rely on the driver interview and make every effort to support the OOS violation through motor carrier contacts and the collection of supporting documentation.”

For standard false RODS, where it is possible for the inspector to determine when the falsification occurred, and the driver is not over hours at the time of inspection, these false RODS should be cited under § 395.8(e)(1), and the driver should be allowed to proceed. If the driver is over the HOS limits at the time of inspection, the driver should be cited under § 395.8(e)(1) and placed OOS until such time as eligibility to drive is re-established.

For drivers whose RODS have been reengineered, reprogrammed or tampered with and the ELD does not accurately record or retain required data, and it is not possible for the inspector to determine when driving occurred, the inspector should cite a § 395.8(e)(2) violation and place the driver OOS for 10 consecutive hours.

CVSA’s International Roadcheck scheduled for May 12-14 will include ELD tampering as a point of emphasis.