Nine more ELDs died on April 14, 2026. If you bought a clone in Q1, that was the first bill

What the notice actually said

If your 2026 started with a cheap ELD Facebook ad, April 14 was the first invoice. FMCSA’s language is nearly copy-paste across these bulletins because the legal mechanism is the same. Only the identifiers and the calendar change. This page is the nine-device list from the February 13, 2026 newsroom piece — not the fourteen and not the five.

Nine devices left the registered list. ELD365 and Global are among the names the agency published. Carriers had 60 days. After April 14, 2026, inspectors were to cite 395.8(a)(1) and place the truck out of service. During the window, the usual grace on no-RODS and not-registered citations applied, with paper or software logs as the bridge.

Appendix A to Part 395 is the technical spec. Fail it, leave the list. A software ELD is not a loophole; it still has to be on the current registered list. A clone that looks like a name-brand unit in a cupholder is how shops learn this lesson twice.

Why keep a passed date on the blog? Because people still buy clones, and because the later lists used the same script. History is the warning label. If a vendor says their unit “was only on the nine-device thing,” check today’s list. Relisting happens. Hope is still not a device.

What it changes on Monday

We will not put a $199 no-name unit in a 2026 Volvo, and we will not dispatch a lease-on truck whose logger died on April 14. Dispatch confirms the device before the truck takes freight. See why the registration process tightened if you want the process story, and the fourteen-device list if you are mixing spring calendars.

Monday’s owner-operator conversation is the identifier on the dash versus the live registered list. A software product is fine only if that product is on the list today. A clone that “worked in March” is not an argument after April 14.

The motor carrier whose USDOT is on the door pays — not the Facebook seller, not the driver who thought they saved $150. We would rather delay a start than explain an OOS on a cheap box. Owner-operator terms say the logger is part of onboarding for a reason.

If you already swapped in Q1, keep the receipt and the new identifier in the file. If you did not, this page is why shops stopped taking “it’s basically Motive” as an answer.

What we will — and will not — do

We will check the box before we dispatch, and we will pass on a truck whose logger is a memorial to a revoked list. We will not run paper as a lifestyle after a grace window that already closed.

We will not confuse April 14 with May 4 or with the later five-device date. Same mechanism, different identifiers. The list is the source, not our memory of a headline count.

Confirm the device at +1 (847) 702-8181 before you ask for a load. Buy the registered list. Do not buy the ad.