Mark Hazelwood warns that the U.S. trucking industry faces a safety crisis because self-certified ELDs and a surge in non-domiciled CDL holders have enabled hours-of-service manipulation and undertrained drivers on the road. He highlights a stark contrast—about 1,020 U.S. ELD providers under self-certification versus 42 certified in Canada—and supports a shift to mandatory third-party ELD oversight. Enforcement has already removed thousands of drivers, and Hazelwood says durable change will require costly certification, stronger CDL standards, and sustained enforcement.
Trucking Safety Crisis: How Self-Certified ELDs, Fake CDLs, and Market Manipulation Are Costing Lives
Industry veteran Mark Hazelwood warns that widespread self-certification of electronic logging devices (ELDs), together with a rapid rise in non-domiciled commercial drivers, has distorted freight markets and increased risks on U.S. highways. Hazelwood — chairman of Conversion Interactive, Echo Flaps and Assured Telematics — argues that the gap in oversight between the United States and Canada has allowed manipulable devices and low-quality licensing to proliferate, with potentially lethal consequences.
Why This Matters
The U.S. currently permits roughly 1,020 ELD providers operating under a self-certification model, compared with 42 third-party–certified providers in Canada (mandatory since 2019). That difference, Hazelwood says, makes it easy for bad actors to market or operate devices that can be altered to hide hours-of-service violations. Manipulated ELDs, combined with fast-tracked commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs), increase the number of fatigued, undertrained drivers on the road.
The Numbers And The Risks
Hazelwood estimates that drivers exploiting manipulated ELDs (often described as non-domiciled drivers) log roughly 145,000–150,000 miles per year, versus approximately 92,000–96,000 miles for a driver who follows hours-of-service rules. Removing one of these non-domiciled drivers from service, he says, is roughly equivalent to removing 1.5 compliant drivers' worth of capacity because of the higher miles they run.
"They're killing people," Hazelwood says, referring to crashes involving trucks driven by inadequately trained drivers using manipulable ELDs. He calls for ELDs and driver training to move from self-certification to independent third-party oversight.
How We Got Here
Hazelwood traces much of the expansion in non-domiciled CDL holders to lax licensing practices that accelerated in recent years. He cites an increase from roughly 170,000 non-domiciled CDL holders in January 2020 to about 780,000 by January 2025, a rise he attributes in part to so-called CDL mills that issued credentials quickly with minimal training.
Regulatory Response And Enforcement
Federal agencies have moved to address the problem. Hazelwood notes that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) have placed more than 20,000 drivers out of service and revoked about 28,000 illegal CDLs. The current administration is reportedly preparing to require third-party ELD certification in the U.S., but Hazelwood cautions that implementing a credible third-party program and certifying existing devices will take time and significant expense.
Assured Telematics — Hazelwood's company — spent millions obtaining the first Canadian ELD certification and expects comparable costs if the U.S. moves to mandatory third-party testing. He predicts many existing U.S. ELD vendors may exit the market rather than invest in certification.
Market And Recruiting Outlook
On the recruiting side, Hazelwood says Conversion Interactive is seeing rising demand for drivers as freight rates rise. However, because the pool of qualified, compliant drivers remains limited, carriers are not rapidly adding capacity; that constraint may help prevent a repeat of prior overcorrections driven by poorly trained entrants.
Diesel And Energy Perspective
Hazelwood also flagged unusually high diesel crack spreads—refiners' margins on diesel—around $87 per barrel, compared with a historical norm of roughly $15–$20. He attributes much of the pressure to U.S. diesel exports (about 2 million barrels per day) to Northern Europe as that region offsets refinery disruptions tied to the Russia–Ukraine conflict. He expects crack spreads to compress (potentially under $40 within months) and crude prices to moderate toward the low-$60s per barrel once geopolitical pressures ease.
What Needs To Change
Hazelwood urges a multi-pronged approach: require independent third-party ELD certification, tighten oversight of CDL issuance and training standards, pursue sustained enforcement against manipulative operators and chameleon carrier networks, and encourage industry investment in verified hardware and rigorous training.
For carriers, brokers, shippers and regulators, the immediate challenges are identifying manipulable ELDs, preventing rapid low-quality CDL issuance, and restoring a level playing field where safety—not fraud—determines capacity and pricing.
Bottom line: Moving from self-certification to robust, independent certification and stronger enforcement is costly and complex, but Hazelwood argues it is essential to save lives and correct distorted freight-market economics.
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