THE USE OF ELECTRONIC LOGGING DEVICES (ELD’S) TO MONITOR THE HOURS AND PLACES OF OPERATION OF COMMERCIAL MOTOR VEHICLES (CMV’S) AND THE INSPECTION OF ELD’S BY LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL DURING ROADSIDE SAFETY INSPECTIONS CONSTITUTE VALID ADMINSITRATIVE SEARCHES (THIRD DEPT).

The Third Department, in a full-fledged opinion by Justice McShan (too comprehensive to fairly summarize here), determined the use of electronic logging devices (ELD’s) to monitor the hours and places of operation of commercial motor vehicles (CMV’s), such that the data collected by the ELD’s can be inspected by law enforcement personnel, does not constitute unreasonable search and seizure:

ELDs integrate with a vehicle’s engine and use GPS technology to automatically record the date, time and approximate geographic location of CMVs, as well as the number of engine hours and vehicle mileage (see 49 CFR 395.26 [b]). Drivers are required to manually input identifying information and any changes in their duty status, the categories of which include, among others, on-duty, off-duty and authorized personal use (see 49 CFR 395.24 [b]; 395.26 [b]; 395.28). Upon request, information recorded by ELDs must be made available to law enforcement personnel during roadside safety inspections … .* * *

 … “[O]ne would be hard-pressed to find an industry more pervasively regulated than the trucking industry.” … [W]e … find that commercial trucking is a pervasively regulated industry pursuant to which an administrative search may be justified.

… [T]he regulatory scheme at issue here provides adequate assurances that the inspection of ELDs will be reasonable. …

The ELD rule likewise provides the requisite “meaningful limitation” on the discretion of officials performing the inspection so as to ensure “that the search is limited in scope to that necessary to meet the interest that legitimized the search in the first place” … . Matter of Owner Operator Ind. Drivers Assn., Inc. v New York State Dept. of Transp., 2022 NY Slip Op 02166, Third Dept 3-31-22

Practice Point: Administrative searches are deemed constitutional in “heavily regulated industries.” Commercial trucking is a heavily regulated industry. The use of electronic logging devices (ELD’s) to monitor the hours and places of operation of commercial motor vehicles (CMV’s) and the inspection of ELD’s by law enforcement personnel during roadside safety inspections constitute valid administrative searches.