ELD recommendations please

VDO Roadlog

 

I'm using Zonar elog and like it so far.

 

I've seen it listed for wireless version for $595 and installation kit for $54

 

You can buy the paper quite reasonable at Walmart but you have to rewind half the roll of paper on to another roll so it will fit in the machine.
Inspections are hilarious when you see the look on the inspectors face when he tells you to transfer your logs to the dot site and you tell him yours can’t do that but it prints.
He then says ok and you literally print a 14 ft cash register receipt and then bundle it up in a pile and then hand it to him.
He then looks at about a foot or two of the tiny writing on the 14 foot tape then says screw it your good to go.
I personally believe they have some viewing software that helps them find violations easier with the electronic file transfer method.
With the VDO tape they have to look the old fashioned way and writing is tiny and they really don’t like to put the time in scrutinizing the whole 14 feet.
It’s also quite awkward dealing with a 14 foot tangled mess.
If you are against elds as I am but you have to get one I highly recommend the VDO for its simplicity but the entertainment value is also well worth the money.

 

I've got the Garmin. $250 for the plug-in available at truck stops everywhere, and no monthly fees. Been a couple minor hicups along the way, but by far one of the most inexpensive and widely available options. Some of their newer GPS will work without the need for a cell phone, but my dēzl570 isn't one of them. I'm nowhere near "tech savy", and I'm figuring it out easy enough...

Problem I have with waiting for a device to ship due to supply issues, is if there is an issue you only have a week to have it fixed. If there is a 3 month backorder, you aren't going to be compliant.

 

That's one of the hicups. I was inspected for the 1st time since losing my exemption this week, and it is a "local transfer" type device, meaning USB or Bluetooth. I run a dedicated tablet for the ELD, so at first the officer wanted me to bluetooth to my phone so I could email it to him. I really don't care to do that, but whatever. My phone wasn't connecting, so he got his phone. Same issue...try pairing it in inspection mode and it'd give the code, match it up on both devices, and then it'd get hung up and never connected. Spent a good hour messing with the stupid thing. I even tried the USB drive that I use to back up the data (every week it says "data needs to be backed up" or something like that, so I keep a USB drive on my key ring to do just that.) Instruction sheet just says it needs to be formatted a certain way (which was the 1st thing I did when I bought the USB drive)...but it turns out, for inspection mode it needs to be a secure or encrypted or something to that effect USB drive...something NOTHING in the paperwork mentions.

Anyway, eventually he just looked things over on the tablet and told me that it really needs to be able to transfer data. I can create a report and email the data from the tablet (Garmin wanted me to do that so they could see what was going on), but I'm not sure that would work during an inspection. I'm waiting to hear back from Garmin concerning the inability to pair with the officer's device...spent abbout a half hour on the phone with them the next day making sure the software and firmware were up to date and making a note of the tablet I'm using as well as the reports generated by the ELD...we'll see how it all turns out.