Werner Enterprises CEO Derek Leathers says a renewed federal crackdown on noncompliant electronic logging devices is quietly tightening capacity in the truckload freight market. Speaking at the Deutsche Bank Chicago Industrials Summit on August 11, Leathers said the enforcement push is helping drive the freight market's recovery after its longest downturn in recent memory.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has deemed at least 56 ELD models noncompliant so far in 2026, after blacklisting at least 32 devices in 2025. Both totals are well above prior years. Leathers said devices that let carriers manipulate hours of service logs had allowed some trucks to effectively operate beyond legal limits, adding capacity to the market that was not really there.
"The reason the market was so saturated was that 10 trucks were able to behave like 15," Leathers said, explaining that removing noncompliant devices takes out capacity equivalent to a larger number of trucks because carriers can no longer reset logs improperly.
FMCSA overhauled its ELD vetting process in December 2025 and has since stopped nearly 500 new device entrants from reaching the market, according to Leathers. Carriers using a revoked ELD generally get 60 days to switch to a compliant device before facing out-of-service orders. More than 1,000 self-certified ELD providers currently operate in the United States.
The American Trucking Associations and the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance have both called for third-party certification of ELDs to reduce falsification of logbook data, which was the second most cited driver violation during the CVSA's 2025 International Roadcheck inspection blitz.
Source: Transport Topics - https://www.ttnews.com/articles/werner-ceo-eld-purge