The short answer: unassigned driving time is every mile your truck moved while nobody was logged into the ELD, and it does not disappear on its own. Under 49 CFR 395.32(c)(1) the motor carrier must ensure those records are reviewed and must do one of exactly two things with each one: annotate the record explaining why the time is unassigned, or assign it to the appropriate driver. There is no third option, no delete button, and no expiry. You then keep those records for at least 6 months from the date of receipt under 395.32(c)(2) and hand them over during any inspection, audit or investigation under 395.32(c)(3).
The part that costs owners money is the second half: you cannot assign hours to a driver who did not drive. A carrier can only propose the assignment, and the driver has to confirm it electronically. Push it through anyway and you have converted a weight-5 paperwork problem into a weight-7 false log. Everything below is sourced to the rule text at 49 CFR 395.32, the ELD technical specifications in Appendix A to Subpart B of Part 395, and FMCSA's own ELD guidance on editing and annotations.
The regulation titles the section Non-authenticated driver logs, a more honest name than the one everybody uses. Under 395.32(a), the ELD must associate the non-authenticated operation of a commercial motor vehicle with a single account labeled "Unidentified Driver" as soon as the vehicle is in motion, if no driver has logged in.
Three consequences people underestimate:
In practice it comes from six places, and only two involve a driver doing anything wrong:
Most of that list is not a driver problem at all. That is exactly why the rule puts the closing obligation on the carrier. The wider set of duties the same device puts on you, from registration to malfunction handling, is laid out in ELD compliance requirements for 2026, and the separate clock that starts when the unit itself fails is in the ELD malfunction 8-day rule.
Both, in sequence, and the carrier is the backstop.
The driver, under 395.32(b). When a driver logs into an ELD, the driver must review any unassigned driving time when prompted by the device and must either assume the records that belong to him, or indicate that the records are not attributable to him. Ignoring the prompt is itself the violation. There is a roadside code for it and it carries real weight, which we get to below.
The carrier, under 395.32(c)(1). The motor carrier must ensure records of unidentified driving are reviewed and must either annotate the record explaining why the time is unassigned, or assign the record to the appropriate driver to correctly reflect that driver's hours of service. Whatever every driver truthfully rejects does not vanish: it becomes the carrier's line to write.
There is a third obligation people forget. 395.22(e) requires the motor carrier to require that its drivers and support personnel log into the ELD system using their proper identification data. A pile of unassigned time is evidence that this requirement is not being enforced, which is a separate finding from the unassigned records themselves.
This is the working document. Match the cause, know who closes it, know what the annotation must say. An annotation reading "shop" is not an explanation. One reading "10/14, 11 minutes, tractor 118 moved from bay 2 to the lot by the repair shop during PM service, work order 44-2019, no dispatch, truck did not leave premises" is.
| How the time appeared | Who must close it | How to close and document it |
|---|---|---|
| Driver drove and forgot to log in | The driver | Driver assumes the record at the next login prompt, annotates the reason, recertifies the day. Nothing for the office to do except verify it happened. |
| Driver logged into the wrong tractor | The driver | Assume the record, annotate with the correct unit number. The driving minutes cannot be reduced, only attributed. |
| Team driver never logged in, time landed on the co-driver | Both drivers | Reassign between the team drivers under 395.30(c)(3). Only allowed if both were indicated as co-drivers in each other's records, and each co-driver must confirm the change. |
| Mechanic or shop moved the truck | The carrier | Annotate: date, minutes, unit, shop name, work order or invoice number, and that the vehicle was not in commerce. Keep the invoice with the ELD records. |
| Road test after a repair | The carrier | Annotate with the repair order and the tester's name. Expect this one to be several miles, not several feet. |
| Yard shuffle by dispatcher, hostler or owner | The carrier | Annotate the mover and the purpose. It cannot be relabeled as a yard move after the fact, see the trap section below. |
| Tow, jump start, or moving a disabled unit | The carrier | Annotate with the tow company and the bill number. The tow bill is your supporting document. |
| New ELD installed, profile not created yet | The carrier | Annotate with the install date and the provider ticket number, then fix the root cause: 395.22(b)(2) puts account creation and management on the carrier, so open the account before the tractor is dispatched. |
| Vehicle sold, leased out, or moved by a buyer | The carrier | Annotate with the transfer date and counterparty. Records already generated stay with you for the full 6 months regardless of who owns the truck now. |
| Personal use of the truck with no login | The driver | Driver assumes it as driving time. It cannot be converted to personal conveyance retroactively. This is the expensive one for hours available. |
This is where the rule stops being philosophical and starts producing evidence. Under section 4.6.1.6 of Appendix A, when there are ELD records showing driving time under the unidentified driver profile, the ELD must prompt drivers logging in with a warning about new unassigned driving time. And then:
| What the number governs | The number | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Speed at which the ELD auto-records driving | Threshold not above 5 mph; vehicle counts as stopped after 0 mph for 3 consecutive seconds | Appendix A, section 4.3.1.2 |
| Unidentified driving that triggers the data diagnostic | More than 30 minutes in a 24-hour period | Appendix A, section 4.6.1.6 |
| Who sees the lit indicator, and for how long | All drivers logged into that ELD, current day plus 7 days | Appendix A, section 4.6.1.6 |
| Level at which the diagnostic can clear | 15 minutes or less, aggregate, over current day plus previous 7 consecutive days | Appendix A, section 4.6.1.6 |
| How long a driver's rejected unidentified events stay viewable at roadside | 8 days | FMCSA ELD guidance |
| Carrier retention of unidentified driving records, per ELD | 6 months from date of receipt | 49 CFR 395.32(c)(2) |
| Back-up copy of ELD records on a separate device | 6 months | 49 CFR 395.22(i)(1) |
| Records of duty status and supporting documents | 6 months from date of receipt | 49 CFR 395.8(k)(1) |
| Records of duty status the driver must have in the vehicle | A copy of each record for the previous 7 consecutive days | 49 CFR 395.8(k)(2) |
| What the ELD itself must print or display for an officer | The current 24-hour period plus the previous 7 consecutive days, driver profile and Unidentified Driver profile as separate reports | Appendix A, section 4.8.1.3 |
| Producing records kept at another terminal after a request | 48 hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and Federal holidays | 49 CFR 390.29(b), referenced by 395.22(j) |
Practical reading of that table: 15 minutes rolling is your real target, not zero and not "some". It is the only number the equipment itself treats as acceptable, which makes it the only defensible standard. How those minutes interact with the driving and duty limits they are measured against is covered in hours of service rules explained.
Two legitimate paths, and FMCSA names both: the driver claims the time when prompted, or the carrier assigns it later and the driver accepts.
The second path has procedural teeth in 49 CFR 395.30(d):
So the back office never closes the loop alone. If your driver quit last month, that time is not going onto his log, and you annotate instead. Three more mechanics worth knowing:
Here is the shortcut that ruins audits. The minutes are annoying, one driver is off and will not answer the phone, so the office assigns the block to whoever is logged in and moves on.
The cost difference is not subtle. In FMCSA's Safety Measurement System, violations are weighted by severity inside the Hours-of-Service Compliance BASIC:
| Violation code | What it means | Group | Severity weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 395.32B | Driver failed to assume or decline unassigned driving time | Incomplete/Wrong Log | 5 |
| 395.32B-ELDDFR | Driver failed to review any unassigned driving time when prompted by the ELD | Incomplete/Wrong Log | 5 |
| 395.8E-HOSPD | No driver may make a false report in connection with a duty status | False Log | 7 |
| 395.8E-HOSPDELDT | Tampering with an ELD so it does not accurately record and retain required data | False Log | 7 |
| 395.30E-ELDMCCD | Motor carrier coerced a driver to make a false certification of records | False Log | 7 |
| 395.22A | Operating with a device not registered with FMCSA | Incomplete/Wrong Log | 5 |
Source: FMCSA's SMS Appendix A violations list. The 395.32B code entered the SMS with version 3.0.9 of the methodology, the April 27, 2018 snapshot, and it counts violations cited on or after April 1, 2018, so it has been scoring for years. The ELD tampering code arrived much later, in version 3.21, the May 15, 2026 snapshot, which is the current version of the list. Note what is not on that list: 395.32(c), the carrier's own obligation, has no roadside code. It does not show up on an inspection report at all. It shows up in an investigation, where the finding is against the company rather than against a driver. How weighted violations translate into a percentile is worked through in HOS violations and what they cost in CSA, and where the intervention lines sit is in what counts as a good CSA score.
Keep it in proportion: FMCSA states readers should not draw conclusions about a carrier's overall safety condition simply from the data displayed in the system. Unassigned driving is a compliance and audit problem first. Claims that it automatically reprices your insurance are marketing, not regulation.
Because the special driving categories are a real-time declaration, not a label you apply later. FMCSA's guidance, updated July 31, 2023, is direct: drivers may not assume driving time from the unidentified driving profile and convert it to Off Duty personal conveyance or On-Duty Not Driving yard move. Under 395.28, the driver must select the applicable category before the start of that status and deselect it when the status ends. Selection and deselection must be indicated at the time the status changes and cannot be added later. An older FMCSA answer that sounds like the opposite is worth reconciling: a driver assuming records from the Unidentified Driver profile may indicate a special driving category, but under section 4.3.2.8.2(b) of Appendix A the ELD must never allow automatically recorded driving time to be shortened. That is exactly why converting an already recorded drive event into PC or YM is not available to you.
FMCSA then tells you the correct move: if the status that should have been in effect was personal conveyance or a yard move and the category was not selected, the unidentified driving time should be annotated, because enforcement personnel consider annotations and GPS coordinates when determining whether a violation is present. In other words, a precise annotation plus coordinates that show the truck never left the terminal is the defense. Where the personal conveyance line actually runs is set out in the personal conveyance rules. A retroactive relabel is not, and the ELD is not allowed to shorten automatically recorded driving time to accommodate it. The yard-move mechanics themselves, including how to get the category configured so this stops happening, are in yard moves on an ELD. Where the line runs between a legitimate correction and a falsified log is the whole subject of log edits versus falsification.
The Unidentified Driver profile is not buried. Section 4.8.1.3 of Appendix A requires the inspected driver's profile and the Unidentified Driver profile to be available as two separate reports, by printout or display. If there are no unidentified records on that ELD for the current 24-hour period or any of the previous 7 consecutive days, the unidentified report does not have to be produced. Otherwise both reports go to the officer.
What the officer is doing with it, in order:
Rejecting the records does not make them invisible: rejected unidentified driving events must remain available for review at roadside for 8 days and be included in the output file.
An audit is a different exercise: the investigator has the whole file, not one screen. Under 395.32(c)(3) you must make available unidentified driving records for the entire period ELD records are required, which retention sets at 6 months. Under 395.22(j) you produce them electronically at the time of the request, or, with multiple offices or terminals, within the 49 CFR 390.29 window of 48 hours excluding weekends and Federal holidays.
Then the cross-checking starts. The investigator holds three stacks side by side: the unidentified driving records, the drivers' logs, and the supporting documents you keep for the same 6 months under 395.8(k)(1). The questions write themselves:
Pattern beats volume here. Ten random minutes from a repair shop read as a functioning fleet. Forty minutes every Monday read as a driver who starts the week off the clock.
What the investigator can actually write up is a shorter list than owners expect, and it is worth knowing which lines carry a rating consequence:
| Regulation | Finding | Where it appears | Rating status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 395.32(c)(1) | Unidentified driving records not reviewed, not annotated, not assigned | Investigation only, no roadside code | Neither acute nor critical |
| 395.30(f) | Failing to retain ELD information | Investigation | Acute |
| 395.8(k)(1) | Failing to preserve a driver's records of duty status for 6 months | Investigation | Critical |
| 395.8(e)(1) | Making, or permitting a driver to make, a false report regarding duty status | Investigation | Critical |
| 395.32B | Driver failed to assume or decline unassigned driving time | Roadside inspection report | Severity weight 5 in the HOS BASIC |
The difference matters because of the arithmetic in Appendix B to Part 385. Acute and critical findings score points inside a rating factor, and one of those factors is built on Parts 392 and 395. Zero points is Satisfactory, 1 point is Conditional, 2 or more points is Unsatisfactory. So the unassigned pile itself does not move the rating, but the retention and false-report failures that usually travel with it do. What a Conditional rating then takes to undo is covered in upgrading a Conditional safety rating, and the document list an investigator works from is in the DOT audit document checklist.
Because unassigned driving time is, by definition, hours of service nobody is accountable for. Every minute in that profile is commercial vehicle operation with no driver's clock running against it. A small residue is normal: shops move trucks. A large, recurring share supports a different conclusion, and it is one the carrier has to disprove rather than the investigator prove.
Specifically, a large unidentified pile is consistent with three things at once, all of them the carrier's problem:
To be precise about what is not written anywhere: FMCSA does not publish an acceptable percentage of unassigned driving. Any consultant quoting you a magic percentage is quoting themselves. The regulation speaks in minutes, 30 to trigger and 15 to clear, and those are the numbers to manage against.
TruckerNavi runs the safety side for Russian-speaking carriers across NY, NJ and FL: weekly unassigned driving review with proper annotations, ELD account management, DQ files, Drug & Alcohol program, DataQ challenges and DOT audit prep. Safety Compliance: BASIC (БАЗОВЫЙ) $99/mo, START (СТАРТ) $189/mo, PREMIUM (ПРЕМИУМ) $499/mo. Want to see what an investigator would pull from your last 6 months before he does? Mock DOT Audit, $399. Opening a company from scratch? Authority Bundle, $499. Russian, English and Ukrainian.
See Safety Compliance plans →Or just call: (315) 871-0833 · WhatsApp
Two moves close it, and only two. Either a driver claims the block at the login prompt, or you propose the assignment from the back office and the driver confirms it electronically under 49 CFR 395.30(d)(3). Anything no driver will truthfully claim gets an annotation under 395.32(c)(1) explaining why it stays unassigned. Clearing the data diagnostic is a separate thing: the event goes inactive at 15 minutes or less, the records themselves stay.
No. There is no delete function and no expiry date. FMCSA states that only the unidentified driving records data diagnostic event can be marked inactive, and the underlying records that generated it may not be deleted. On top of that, 49 CFR 395.30(f) bars a carrier from altering or erasing the original information, and 395.32(c)(2) makes you keep unidentified driving records for at least 6 months from the date of receipt.
It sits there and becomes an investigation finding against the company. 395.32(c)(1) has no roadside violation code, so nothing appears at a scale house, which is exactly why owners meet the pile only when an investigator pulls 6 months of ELD data at once. The neighbouring findings do carry weight: failing to retain ELD information under 395.30(f) is an acute violation, and failing to preserve records of duty status for 6 months under 395.8(k)(1) is critical.
Only through the driver code, not the carrier one. A driver who does not respond to the prompt gets 395.32B or 395.32B-ELDDFR, severity weight 5 in the Hours-of-Service Compliance BASIC. The carrier duty in 395.32(c) has no roadside code and therefore no severity weight at all. Assign hours to the wrong driver and you move into the False Log group at weight 7, which is where the expensive damage lives.
Yes, and it is the most common source of all. Nobody in a repair shop logs into your ELD, so every move into the bay, every move out of it and every road test after a repair records under the Unidentified Driver profile once the truck passes the 5 mph threshold. The fix is not technical: annotate the block with the date, minutes, unit number, shop and repair order number, and keep the invoice in the same 6-month file.
Start with the ELD record, not with memory. Each unidentified event carries date, time, location and odometer, so match it against dispatch records, gate logs, repair orders, tow bills and fuel receipts for the same hour. If the match points at a driver, propose the assignment and let him confirm it. If nothing points at a driver, that is not a failure: it is an annotation, and an honest annotation is a complete answer.
Yes, whenever no driver claims it. 395.32(c)(1) gives the carrier exactly two options for each record, annotate or assign, with no minimum duration and no tolerance for small blocks. The 15-minute figure is not a tolerance either: it is only the level at which the ELD may mark the data diagnostic inactive, and FMCSA confirms it means 15 minutes aggregate across the current 24-hour period and the previous 7 consecutive days.
It means more than 30 minutes of driving in a 24-hour period accumulated on the Unidentified Driver profile of that ELD. Appendix A, section 4.6.1.6(c) then turns the indicator on for every driver logged into that device for the current 24-hour period and the following 7 days, so clean drivers carry it too. It goes out when the total for the current day plus the previous 7 consecutive days drops to 15 minutes or less.
It is driving recorded while nobody was logged into the ELD. Under 49 CFR 395.32(a) the ELD must associate non-authenticated operation of a commercial motor vehicle with a single account labeled Unidentified Driver as soon as the vehicle is in motion. The device cannot skip it: driving status is recorded automatically once the vehicle exceeds the set speed threshold, and that threshold must not be configured above 5 mph, so a short repositioning in the yard with no login can land in the Unidentified Driver profile just like a 400-mile run.
Both, at different moments. Under 395.32(b) a driver logging in must review any unassigned driving time when prompted and either assume the records or indicate they are not his. Under 395.32(c)(1) the motor carrier must ensure records of unidentified driving are reviewed and must either annotate the record explaining why the time is unassigned or assign it to the appropriate driver. The carrier is the backstop: whatever no driver claims stays the carrier's problem to explain.
Two paths. The driver claims it himself at the login prompt, or the carrier proposes the assignment from the back office and routes it to the driver. The second path is not a one-click fix: under 49 CFR 395.30(d)(1) the driver must confirm or reject any proposed change and then recertify and resubmit the records, and 395.30(d)(3) states that edits requested by any system or by any person other than the driver require the driver's electronic confirmation or rejection. A carrier cannot silently push hours onto a driver's log.
No, and it is the single most expensive mistake in this area. Assigning hours to a driver who did not drive creates a false record of duty status, and 49 CFR 395.8(e)(1) states that no driver or motor carrier may make a false report in connection with a duty status. 395.30(e) separately bars a carrier from coercing a driver to make a false certification. In CSA, false log violations carry severity weight 7 in the Hours-of-Service Compliance BASIC, while the honest failure to assume or decline unassigned time (395.32B) carries 5. Guessing costs more than admitting.
FMCSA does not publish a percentage. The only numbers written into the rule are minutes: under Appendix A to Subpart B of Part 395, section 4.6.1.6, more than 30 minutes of unidentified driving in a 24-hour period triggers an unidentified driving records data diagnostic event, and it can only be cleared when the total for the current 24-hour period and the previous 7 consecutive days drops to 15 minutes or less in aggregate. Treat 15 minutes rolling as the working target, because that is the number the device itself uses.
At least 6 months from the date of receipt, for each ELD, under 49 CFR 395.32(c)(2). Separately, 395.22(i)(1) requires a 6-month back-up copy of ELD records on a device separate from the one holding the original data, and 395.8(k)(1) sets the same 6 months for records of duty status and supporting documents. Under 395.32(c)(3) you must produce unidentified driving records during any safety inspection, audit or investigation for the whole period ELD records are required.
No. FMCSA guidance is explicit that a driver may not assume driving time from the unidentified driving profile and convert it to Off Duty personal conveyance or On-Duty Not Driving yard move, because under 395.28 the special driving category must be selected before the status starts and deselected when it ends, and cannot be added later. If the movement genuinely was a yard move or personal use, the correct fix is an annotation, since enforcement personnel consider annotations and GPS coordinates when deciding whether a violation exists.
Section 4.8.1.3 of Appendix A requires the inspected driver's profile and the Unidentified Driver profile to be available as two separate reports, by printout or display. If there are no unidentified records for the current 24-hour period or any of the previous 7 consecutive days, the Unidentified Driver report does not have to be shown. Otherwise both go to the officer. Records a driver rejected must stay viewable at roadside for 8 days, so a rejection does not hide anything.