When Verizon’s network collapsed Wednesday afternoon, leaving tens of thousands of customers staring at “SOS” icons instead of signal bars, most Americans were worried about missing calls or losing their group chats. But in the trucking industry, the implications ran far deeper than a few dropped calls.
That ELD mounted in your cab? It needs cellular. Your AI dashcam uploading safety footage to the cloud? Cellular. Real-time GPS tracking that lets dispatch know your location? Cellular. The macro message you just sent your driver about a load change? You guessed it.
Modern trucking has quietly become dependent on cell towers in ways most fleet managers haven’t fully reckoned with. And Wednesday’s outage was a stark reminder of just how fragile that infrastructure can be.
Verizon confirmed the service disruption around 1 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, though reports had been flooding DownDetector since late morning. At its peak, more than 178,000 outage reports were filed within a 15-minute window. The company didn’t restore service until nearly 10:30 p.m., close to half the business day gone.
Emergency management systems in New York City and Washington, D.C., issued alerts warning that 911 calls from Verizon devices might not connect. The FCC is now facing calls for a formal investigation. Multiple law enforcement agencies spent hours investigating whether the outage was the result of a cyberattack before concluding it appeared to be a technical issue.
“Today, we let many of our customers down and for that, we are truly sorry,” a Verizon spokesperson said. The company has promised account credits for affected customers.
The trucking industry’s technology stack has become almost entirely cloud-dependent, and the cloud needs a cellular pipe to function. Consider what rides on that signal:
ELDs and HOS compliance: Your electronic logging device needs connectivity to sync with back-office systems, transfer data during roadside inspections, and keep dispatch informed of available hours.
AI dashcams: Systems like Netradyne, Samsara, Motive, and Verizon Connect’s own cameras all rely on cellular connectivity to upload footage to the cloud. That AI-powered safety coaching? It needs the cloud. Exonerating footage after an accident? Same deal. Netradyne’s cameras feature external cellular modules, Motive’s AI Omnicam uses cellular for its 360-degree monitoring, and Samsara’s footage “uploads to the cloud within minutes.” All of that stops when the cell signal stops.
Fleet visibility and tracking: Shippers expect real-time location updates. Brokers need to know where loads are. Dispatch needs to manage available capacity. When cellular service goes down, that visibility goes dark, and so does your ability to provide accurate ETAs or respond to customers.
Driver communication: Macro messaging, load updates, routing changes, emergency notifications. The entire communication pipeline between management and the frontline of trucking runs through cellular networks. When that pipe breaks, you’re shouting into the void.
Most ELD and telematics vendors don’t exactly advertise which cellular backbone powers their system, but outages give us a clear picture.
Fleets running Verizon Connect, operating on Verizon’s network, would have experienced disruptions, while AT&T-dependent systems like Motive kept humming.
Some providers take a cloud-based approach, caching data locally on the device when connectivity drops. Their system is designed to sync whenever the vehicle moves in and out of coverage areas throughout the day, transmitting stored data once the signal returns.
What the regs say about connectivity failures
The federal ELD rule under 49 CFR Part 395 anticipated connectivity problems. The technical specifications in Appendix A require certified ELDs to monitor their own compliance and flag malfunctions, including data transfer failures.
If the device can’t transfer data to FMCSA’s web services during a roadside inspection due to cellular limitations, the safety official will use the ELD’s display screen or printout to verify HOS compliance. Your logs don’t disappear just because the cell signal does.
Certified ELDs must store recorded data locally when internet connectivity is unavailable. Once the vehicle enters an area with cellular coverage, the device transmits its stored data to the cloud. The driver’s duty status record remains accessible on the mobile device, regardless of whether the back-end connection is live.
If the malfunction “hinders the accurate recording” of HOS data, the driver must maintain paper logs until the ELD is back in service. The carrier has 8 days from the time they discover the malfunction to repair, replace, or service the device, unless they request an extension from the FMCSA.
The compliance mess
Carriers who have experienced outages often discover other issues. For instance, some drivers’ ELDs stop functioning while they are in drive status, and the system continues to log them as driving for the duration of the outage.
A driver’s device might show continuous driving time well over the legal limits when it came back online. FMCSA doesn’t allow editing of driving time on line 3. Carriers can only add annotations to explain discrepancies. Six months of potentially inaccurate logbook records is a liability time bomb waiting to go off in litigation. Carriers should ask their providers what happens during and after an outage to their driver RODS.
The CB
While we’ve spent billions wiring trucking to the cloud, the most reliable communication technology in a crisis might be the one we’ve been slowly abandoning.
CB radios don’t need cell towers. They don’t need the internet. They don’t need a monthly subscription. They work when the power grid is down, when satellites go offline, and when cellular networks collapse. Channel 19 doesn’t care who your carrier is.
During Hurricane Katrina, more than 70% of cell towers went down and stayed down for weeks. CB radios kept working. During the February 2024 AT&T outage, truckers on channel 19 continued to share traffic updates while dispatch systems went dark.
The old-timers will tell you that CB usage has declined dramatically since smartphones took over. Channel 19 is often quiet now, until something happens. Traffic accidents, weather events, and lane closures are when the radio comes alive. Truckers know what’s happening on the road in real-time, no app required.
For fleet managers, there might be a lesson here about redundancy. Your tech stack is only as reliable as the infrastructure it rides on. Having a backup communication method that doesn’t depend on AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile might be worth reconsidering, even if it feels like a step backward.
Questions to ask your vendor
When you’re shopping for an ELD, telematics, or dashcam solution, asking “which cellular network do you use?” should be as routine as asking about price and features. Some questions worth asking:
Does your device use a single cellular carrier or multiple networks? What happens to my data when cellular connectivity is lost? Does your hardware cache data locally and sync automatically when coverage returns? How quickly do you notify customers of system-wide outages? What’s your process for helping carriers document malfunctions for potential DOT audits?
The ELD mandate was supposed to bring uniformity and reliability to hours-of-service compliance. But when the cellular networks that power these devices go dark, we’re reminded that regulatory compliance can be only as reliable as the infrastructure it rides on.
Yesterday it was Verizon. Last year, it was AT&T. The question isn’t whether another major outage will happen; it’s when, and whether your fleet will be prepared.
In the meantime, maybe dust off that old CB and make sure it still works. Channel 9 is still reserved for emergencies, and it doesn’t need a cell tower to save your day. Second, keep some paper logs.
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