🚨 ELD vs. Paper Logs: The Comment Period Is LIVE

This isn’t rumor. It isn’t a TikTok argument. It’s official federal action.

On February 9, 2026, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) formally published the Federation of Professional Truckers’ (FOPT) request for an exemption from the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) mandate in the Federal Register. That publication opens a public comment period. Translation: drivers, carriers, enforcement, and the public now have a direct voice in the record.

What Was Published (Plain English)

Docket: FMCSA–2025–1282

Federal Register Citation: 91 FR 5800

Comment Deadline: March 11, 2026

What’s Being Requested:

An option — not a repeal — allowing professional drivers to use paper Records of Duty Status (RODS) instead of ELDs, while still fully complying with all Hours-of-Service rules. FMCSA didn’t publish this because it was “already settled.” They published it because the request met the legal threshold to be evaluated. That matters. A lot.

What FOPT Is (and Is NOT) Asking For

Let’s kill the nonsense early.

This is NOT:

1. Eliminating Hours-of-Service rules

2. Removing enforcement authority

3. A free-for-all or rollback to the Wild West

This IS:

A request for driver choice. Recognition that paper logs are still lawful, enforceable, and understood nationwide. A challenge to the idea that technology mandates automatically equal safety. FMCSA itself acknowledges that paper logs already exist in regulation for limited-use cases. This exemption asks whether that option can responsibly apply more broadly for professional drivers.

Safety & Accountability (Because That’s Always the Boogeyman)

FOPT’s application doesn’t hand-wave safety. It addresses it head-on:

1. Mandatory education on accurate paper RODS

2. Internal carrier audits

3. Removal from the exemption program for HOS violations.

4. Full enforcement remains in place.

5. Paper logs are not invisible.

6. They are not unenforceable.

7. They are not new.

8. They worked before ELDs existed — and they still work today.

Why This Comment Period Actually Matters

FMCSA is legally required to determine whether granting the exemption would achieve a level of safety equal to or greater than the current rule.

They cannot do that in a vacuum.

If drivers stay silent, only vendors, trade groups, and lobbyists speak.

If drivers comment, the record reflects reality from the seat.

This is how policy actually changes — not through memes, not through outrage, but through formal participation.

https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FMCSA-2025-1282

How to Comment (Do This, Don’t Complain Later)

Go to Regulations.gov

Search FMCSA–2025–1282

Read the notice

Submit a professional, fact-based comment. You don’t need a law degree. You need honesty and experience.

Bottom Line

This isn’t “ELD vs paper” as a bar-stool fight.

It’s a legitimate federal proceeding, now on the record.

FMCSA opened the door.

What happens next depends on who actually walks through it.

📌 Comments close March 11, 2026.

Source

Federal Register Notice: Electronic Logging Device Requirements: Federation of Professional Truckers; Application for Exemption