Are ELD Stickers Required and Where Should Drivers Display Them on Their Trucks?

Posted by Clay Kraby on
Are ELD Stickers Required?

Question:

Are drivers required to display an “ELD-On-Board” sticker on the outside of their trucks?

Answer:

Many ELD providers, including Pedigree Technologies, supply their customers with stickers that indicate their trucks are equipped with an ELD. Such stickers typically say “ELD on board” or something similar that denotes ELD compliance.

ELD Chrome cab sticker for drivers

For example, ELD Chrome users are provided with stickers like this to put on their cab.

In most cases, ELD providers will give their customers enough stickers to go with each truck they’ve installed an electronic logging device, or ELD. But just because these are readily available does not mean that they are required. In fact, there is no FMCSA requirement to display ELD-compliance trucking stickers or have your trucks indicate that an ELD is in use.

If ELD stickers aren’t required, why would you want to put one on the outside of your cabs? Well, there are a few reasons that you may want to make use of an “ELD-on-board” sticker:

  1. Due to AOBRD users being grandfathered in, there will be a mix of AOBRDs and ELDs in use on the roads until December 2019. This means the potential for confusion as to what type of device is in use on a particular truck. A simple sticker like the one above can help roadside inspectors or enforcement personnel quickly ascertain that the device on board is in fact an ELD and carry out the inspection accordingly.
  2. These ELD stickers aren’t just useful for inspectors. You’ll find that most are branded with the ELD provider’s logo and include their website and support phone number. This means your drivers will know just where to turn in case they need to troubleshoot an issue with their device.
  3. A company that takes the time to apply stickers to each of their trucks is paying attention to detail. That kind of detail suggests that they carry the same detailed approach and leave an impression with inspectors that the company takes compliance seriously.
  4. If you ever find yourself needing to transition to a new ELD provider, these stickers make for a simple way to see which trucks have had new ELDs installed and which ones still need to be transitioned.

So there you have it. “ELD-on-board” stickers are not required by the FMCSA mandate, but applying them to each of your trucks may still be worthwhile.


If you have any other questions about the ELD mandate, reach out to our experts or give us a call at 1.800.470.6581.