What is RODS (Records of Duty) in Trucking?

RODS is an acronym and stands for records of duty status. As a part of the required Hours of Service rules for carriers, it is a driver-maintained log of any of the driver’s status changes, whether driving or stopping (for any variety of reasons). In the event they are pulled over by a DOT roadside inspector, drivers must be able to pull up records/logs for the past seven days, with some exemptions for certain short-haul truckers.