Trucking Laws · Illinois · October 29, 2026

Truck Driver Has Electronic Log Hours Reset by Phone in About 10 Minutes in Front of Illinois State Police and FMCSA

By Big Rig Daily Staff

A truck driver parked at an Illinois police station called an electronic logging device (ELD) provider, and about 10 minutes later his hours-of-service logs showed a fresh set of hours. The reset was a demonstration, done on purpose Wednesday, Oct. 28, in front of Illinois State Police officers and a federal safety investigator, CCJ reported.

What happened in DeKalb

Francis Buchanan, a driver for Meiborg Inc., sat parked at the DeKalb Police Station while he waited on hold with a federally registered ELD provider. He gave an operator his company and truck numbers and asked for his hours to be reset. "In about 10 minutes, his logs showed perfect compliance and a fresh set of hours," CCJ wrote. Meiborg and FMCSA staff captured the demonstration on video.

"I always figured if I was surrounded by state police, it would be for something different," Buchanan said while he waited on hold.

Why the company did it

Zach Meiborg, CEO of the Meiborg Companies, brought the demonstration to police to make his case that hours cheating has broken the trucking industry, CCJ reported.

"It costs us $300,000 to send a truck down the road," Meiborg said. If he can only work a truck eight hours a day, he said, his cost per mile is "tremendously higher" than that of carriers he says are running truckers 16, 18 or 20 hours a day. By his estimate, one million trucks could be running fraudulent electronic logs. That figure is his own estimate, not an official count.

What police said

CCJ reported that Illinois State Police officers and Meiborg acknowledged a limit on enforcement. Even in the rare case when a truck with a manipulated ELD is caught, the driver "mostly just needs to sit for 10 hours before they can drive again," according to CCJ's summary.

One officer said Illinois had recorded no tampering violations under the new code to date, but that "we're enforcing it." Another officer said the issue is federal and that troopers do not have authority to tow a truck. Troopers were advised to read a driver's logs as soon as possible during a stop, because it can take just a few minutes for a driver to call a provider's help line and get hours reset.

Since April 1, 2026, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance's out-of-service criteria include ELD tampering as its own violation, separate from other false log violations, CCJ reported.

What FMCSA said

In a statement, an FMCSA spokesperson said the agency "aggressively investigates and cracks down on fraud across every corner of the commercial motor vehicle industry including electronic logging device manipulation."

"FMCSA and our law enforcement partners will hold violators fully accountable," the spokesperson said.

On the same day, FMCSA Chief Safety Officer Steve Dowling told the WEX OTR Summit in Jacksonville, Florida, that the agency has removed more than 100 noncompliant ELDs from its registered device list and prevented nearly 600 others from being approved. "You can't go in and edit logs by making a phone call," he said. "Anytime we hear of that, we're going and investigating," FreightWaves reported. FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs said Tuesday that the agency is working on a rulemaking to strengthen oversight of ELD providers, with third-party testing among the ideas, The Trucker reported. No timeline was given.

Quick facts

• Where and when: DeKalb Police Station, Illinois, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026.
• Time to reset: about 10 minutes, on video.
• FMCSA's chief safety officer: more than 100 noncompliant ELDs removed from the registered list.
• Carrier's one million trucks figure: Meiborg's estimate only.

Big Rig Daily has also covered how ELD and hours-of-service rules work and what FMCSA's chief safety officer said about removing ELDs and training providers. To plan your own driving hours, try the hours-of-service break calculator.

A question for readers

If an electronic log can be reset with one phone call, what should be done to keep honest truckers from losing ground?

Save this story for later

Save this to Pinterest