If you own your truck, you already know the ELD isn't optional. What trips people up is the detail: which device counts, how hours-of-service actually work, and who's on the hook for compliance when you're leased on to a carrier.

Here's the honest, no-fluff version.

Do owner-operators need an ELD?

In almost every case, yes. If you drive a commercial truck across state lines and are required to keep records of duty status, the federal ELD mandate applies to you. An electronic logging device connects to your engine and automatically records driving time, so you're not filling out paper logs by hand.

There are narrow exceptions, mostly for trucks with engines older than model year 2000 and certain short-haul operations. For the typical owner-operator running a modern sleeper, an ELD is required.

Hours of service, in plain English

The ELD enforces the rules, but you still need to understand them. The core federal limits for property-carrying drivers:

  • 11-hour driving limit — you can drive up to 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty.
  • 14-hour window — you can't drive beyond the 14th hour after coming on duty, even if you take breaks.
  • 30-minute break — required after 8 cumulative hours of driving.
  • 60/70-hour limit — you can't drive after 60 hours on duty in 7 days, or 70 in 8 days.
  • 34-hour restart — take 34 consecutive hours off to reset your weekly clock.

Two flexibility tools worth knowing: the sleeper-berth split (splitting your 10 hours off into qualifying segments) and the short-haul and adverse-conditions exceptions. Learn them cold — they're the difference between a legal reset and a violation.

Who's responsible for compliance when you're leased on?

This is where the structure of your business matters. There are two general paths in trucking:

Running under your own authority

If you hold your own DOT/MC authority, compliance is entirely on you — your ELD setup, your HOS records, your DOT audits, your safety rating. It's freedom, but it's also every piece of paperwork landing on your desk.

Running leased-on under a carrier's authority

When you lease on to a motor carrier, you run under their DOT/MC authority. You still drive your own hours and your ELD still records your duty status, but the carrier handles the compliance backbone — the authority, the filings, the billing, the safety systems that keep the operation legal.

To be clear: with ARI, this is the only model. ARI is a motor carrier, not a broker. You lease on and run under ARI's authority — you don't run your own authority through ARI. That's the trade: you give up carrying your own MC number, and in exchange the compliance and back-office weight comes off your shoulders.

How ARI keeps your logs and compliance simple

Because you're running under ARI's authority, the compliance side is built for you instead of dumped on you.

  • ELD included at roughly $30/week — no scrambling to source and self-certify a device.
  • Apportioned IRP plates available across all 48 states (about $70/week), with IFTA handled on the plate program, so your fuel-tax reporting isn't your Sunday-night problem.
  • Dispatch that respects your clock — with no forced dispatch, you choose loads and home time around your legal hours, not the other way around.

Your dispatcher — who never handles more than seven trucks — knows your lanes and your hours, so the loads you're offered actually fit your remaining drive time.

The point of ELDs isn't to trap you; it's to keep you legal and rested. The structure you run under decides how much of the compliance burden you carry alone.

If you'd rather focus on driving and let the authority, ELD, and filings be handled, take a look at how ARI is built for owner-operators on our owner-operator opportunities page — and when you're ready, you can start your lease-on with ARI or call us at (888) 600-9098.