How Long Do I Keep ELD Records?
ELD records must be kept for six months. Here is what that covers, why backups matter, and what happens if you can't produce the logs in an audit.
An auditor can ask for your logs going back six months. If you can't produce them, that's a violation, and it's the kind of gap that turns a routine review into a bad one. Keeping your ELD records is not busywork. It's the proof that your hours of service hold up.
How Long Do I Have to Keep ELD Records?
Six months. A motor carrier must retain drivers' records of duty status (RODS) and the supporting documents for six months. This comes from 49 CFR 395.8(k)(1). The FMCSA states it plainly: ELD RODS data and supporting documents are kept for six months.
That six-month window is a rolling one. On any given day, you should be able to pull the last six months of records.
What Counts as a Supporting Document?
Supporting documents are the records that back up what the driver logged. These include things like bills of lading, dispatch records, expense receipts, and fuel records that show where the driver was and when.
The ELD data shows the duty status. The supporting documents confirm it. You keep both for six months.
What About Unidentified Driving Records?
You keep those for six months too. Unidentified driving is time the ELD recorded when no driver was logged in. Maybe a tech moved the truck in the yard, or a driver forgot to log on.
Those records don't disappear because no one claimed them. The carrier has to retain them as part of its hours of service records, and you should review them and assign or annotate them where you can.
Should I Keep Backups?
Yes. The regulation sets the floor at six months. Good practice goes a step further. Keep a backup copy of your ELD data so a hardware failure or a provider problem doesn't wipe out records you're required to produce.
This matters most when you switch ELD providers. The retention clock does not reset when you change vendors. You still owe six months of history, so pull and store your old data before you cut ties with the old provider.
What Happens If I Can't Produce the Records?
You're exposed. Missing or incomplete records during an audit or investigation count against you, and they can drive up your CSA scores under the Hours of Service Compliance category. Records you can't find are treated like records that don't exist.
The Simple Version
Keep your ELD RODS, your supporting documents, and your unidentified driving records for six months. Back them up. Take your data with you when you change providers.
Other FMCSA records have their own timelines, so when a deadline is on the line, verify the specific requirement with FMCSA. For ELD records, six months is the number to remember.
Dotra keeps your ELD records and supporting documents in one place for the full six months. When an audit comes, everything is ready.
