Know where every technician is, and who actually needs logs
Service vans spend the day hopping between jobs across town, not crossing three states. TenTrucks shows where every van is and tells you when a tech pulls up to a site. Hours of service stays off unless a vehicle and its driver really fall under the rules.
Do your service vans even need an ELD?
Most ELD pitches skip this question. For a service company it's the first one, and the answer can differ for two vans parked side by side in your lot.
Work through it in this order and stop at the first answer that settles it.
Is the vehicle a CMV at all?
Under 49 CFR 390.5, a vehicle used in interstate commerce is a commercial motor vehicle if its GVWR or GCWR, or its actual weight, is 10,001 lb or more, whichever is higher. So does placardable hazmat. Read the plate in the door jamb, and remember a trailer counts toward the combination rating.
Back at the shop within 14 hours?
The short-haul exception in 395.1(e)(1) covers drivers who stay within 150 air miles of their normal work reporting location (172.6 statute miles) and are released within 14 consecutive hours. No log, no ELD, no 30-minute break. The 11-hour, 10-hours-off and 60/70-hour limits still apply, and the company keeps time records for 6 months.
Non-CDL trucks get a longer day
395.1(e)(2) covers property-carrying CMVs that don't need a CDL. Same 150 air miles, back to the reporting location after every duty tour. No driving after the 14th hour on duty on 5 days of any 7, or after the 16th hour on 2 days of any 7. No logs, and time records kept for 6 months.
A bad week doesn't mean an ELD
A day outside the short-haul conditions needs a log. Paper is allowed for a driver who needs logs on no more than 8 days in any 30-day period, under 395.8(a)(1)(ii), and FMCSA counts any rolling 30 days. Past 8, it's an ELD.
Utility and telecom crews may be out entirely
Part 395 doesn't apply to utility service vehicles, per 395.1(n). The definition in 395.2 covers electric, gas, water, sewer, telephone and cable TV, and it names broadband internet and cellular telephone operations too. The vehicle has to be working on those facilities, travel between sites included, and run mostly inside the service area.
Federal rules only, and not legal advice. The regulation text linked below is what counts.
Who logs and who doesn't
The short version. Check each vehicle and each person separately: one shop can have every row.
| Your situation | Logs needed? | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Under 10,001 lb GVWR and GCWR, no placardable hazmat | No. Not a CMV, so Part 395 doesn't apply | 49 CFR 390.5 |
| CMV, within 150 air miles, released within 14 hours | No logs or ELD. Time records kept 6 months | 395.1(e)(1) |
| Non-CDL CMV, within 150 air miles, back to base every day | No logs. 14th and 16th hour limits apply | 395.1(e)(2) |
| Outside short-haul on 8 days or fewer in any 30 | Logs on those days. Paper is allowed | 395.8(a)(1)(ii) |
| Outside short-haul on more than 8 days in any 30 | Yes, on an ELD | 395.8(a)(1)(i), FMCSA ELD FAQ |
| Utility service vehicle, including broadband and cellular | No. Part 395 doesn't apply | 395.1(n), 395.2 |
An ELD has to be on FMCSA's registered list. TenTrucks is self-certified and registered with the FMCSA.
Set up for service work, not long haul
Pick Field Services when you sign up and the app talks like a service company. Drivers become technicians, driving becomes working, sleeper becomes rest. Hours of service starts switched off for the whole account.
Then set each person: ELD, electronic logbook, or Not required. The tech in the heavy box truck runs a full ELD while the one in the cargo van keeps no log. Same account, same map.
If that box truck works short-haul most days, give its driver the USA Short Haul preset, or build a company rule in the cycle rule builder.
- Technician, Working and Rest across the app and web
- ELD, electronic logbook or no logs, per person
- CDL and non-CDL driver types
- 14 cycle presets plus custom rules for the people who log
Where the van is, and when it got to the job
It's 1:40. Your HVAC tech just wrapped the second call on the north side, and the third customer, across town, wants to know when someone's coming. You don't call the tech, who's driving. You open the map.
The live map shows every van, with positions sampled every 15 seconds. Trip replay shows where a van went yesterday. If the customer wants to watch it come up the street, send a share-location link that expires when you say.
Draw a circle around a customer's building, your shop or the supply house, and you get an alert when a tech goes in or out. The dwell time report shows how long each van stayed inside, as close as GPS gets to time on site. You can draw other shapes, but only circles trigger alerts today. Geofence events can also go out as webhooks to your own scheduling tools.
- Live map and trip replay
- Share-location links with an expiry you choose
- Entry and exit alerts, checked every 30 seconds
- Dwell time by site, plus geofence webhooks
The driving between calls counts too
Techs drive in town traffic all day, in a van full of ladders and parts. The ELD device records harsh braking, hard acceleration, sharp cornering and seatbelt events. Those roll into a safety score for each technician, along with HOS violations, inspection defects and idle time.
Speeding works differently. It's an alert, not part of the score. You set how far over the posted limit counts, anywhere from 1 to 50 mph, and the Speeding report keeps the history.
Safety coaching is built in, and there's an insurance report to download at renewal. The harsh-event thresholds are fixed. You can't tune them.
Keep the vans out of the shop
A van in the shop is a day of rescheduled calls. Set maintenance schedules by miles, days or engine hours, and get an alert when service is due or overdue.
When a tech writes up a defect on an inspection, a work order opens by itself. Major defects come in as critical and due in one day. The rest are high priority, due in seven. Photos go with the defect. Custom inspection forms cover the bucket truck or the jetter trailer.
A fault code from the engine sends an alert and opens a work order. Low fuel sends an alert too, and the Idle Time report shows which vans sat running through lunch with the AC on.
Fewer phone calls, fewer receipts in the glovebox
Dispatch and techs message each other in the app, so a change of address for the next call is in writing, not buried in a voicemail.
Receipts are the other leak. A tech photographs the supply-house receipt or the fuel ticket, and the AI scan pulls out the date, vendor, location, amounts, gallons and odometer. Nobody retypes it at the end of the month.
The app and the web dashboard run in English, Spanish, French, Russian and Uzbek. Each tech picks their own.
How it looks by trade
Same tools, different days.
HVAC
Summer means back-to-back calls. Circle your regular commercial accounts, send share-location links on residential calls, and watch idle time on vans left running between jobs.
Plumbing
Emergency calls wreck the schedule. The map shows who's closest to the burst pipe. When a customer questions the bill, the dwell time report shows how long the van was actually at the house.
Electrical
Crews often mix light vans with heavier trucks. Put the people in CMVs on an ELD or electronic logbook, leave the rest on Not required, and schedule service on the bucket truck by engine hours.
Telecom and broadband
If your work fits the utility service vehicle definition in 395.2, Part 395 doesn't apply and those techs can sit on Not required. You still get the map, arrival alerts at towers and cabinets, and maintenance.
What TenTrucks won't decide for you
TenTrucks doesn't measure the 150 air-mile radius, and it doesn't flag a day that falls outside the short-haul exception. Someone in the office decides who logs, sets that person's compliance mode, and changes it when the work changes. If a tech starts taking a heavier truck out of town three days a week, you change the setting. The system won't.
The exceptions also expect 6 months of time records: start time, total hours on duty, release time, and for new or intermittent drivers, the previous 7 days' total. Make sure your timekeeping covers them.
There's no dash cam video in TenTrucks today, and we don't track tools, generators or trailers on their own. Better you hear it now.
Questions fleets ask us
About TenTrucks ELD for field service fleets.
See TenTrucks running a service fleet
Book a demo. Bring a list of your vans and their weight ratings, and we'll sort out who logs and set up your first job-site alerts.