Fleet Compliance and Software, Country by Country

Australia

Australia has no mandatory ELD equivalent. The Heavy Vehicle National Law governs fatigue management for vehicles over 4.5 tonnes, and its Electronic Work Diary — the closest thing to a US ELD — remains a voluntary alternative to a paper logbook, even after a major reform of the law took effect on 1 August 2026.

India

India has no ELD mandate. Its real compliance requirement is AIS-140, a GPS-and-NavIC vehicle-tracking standard that transport-category vehicles registered after April 2019 must carry, with a hardwired panic button and ARAI-certified hardware. Fleet software here is built around AIS-140 compliance first, driver-hours tracking second.

Japan

Japan splits fleet compliance across three regulators that don't share one rulebook: MLIT covers vehicles and carriers, MHLW sets driver working-hours limits, and the National Police Agency handles in-vehicle driver behavior. There's no digital-tachograph mandate yet, and the driving-time reform that took effect in April 2024 landed in the same year as a broader trucking labor-supply crisis.

New Zealand

New Zealand runs no ELD system and no dedicated heavy-vehicle law like Australia's HVNL. Commercial drivers work under Waka Kotahi's Work Time and logbook rules, and the compliance cost most fleet software actually tracks is Road User Charges — a distance-based tax with no US or Australian equivalent.

South Korea

South Korea requires a digital tachograph (DTG) under Traffic Safety Act Article 55, analyzed centrally by a public transport-safety agency — not a US-style ELD. What sets this market apart isn't the mandate itself, though: it's that Korea's three mobile carriers, not dedicated telematics vendors, are the dominant fleet-technology brands.

Taiwan

Taiwan runs two genuinely separate device mandates that get conflated even in local coverage: a driving recorder (行車紀錄器) required on heavier vehicles under Road Traffic Safety Rules Article 39-4, and a GPS-based monitoring system required specifically on tour buses under Article 19-4 of the Regulations Governing Motor Vehicle Transportation Enterprises — the latter just gained a new driver-identification requirement effective 1 January 2026.

Brazil

Brazil requires a digital tacógrafo on most commercial trucks and buses, mandated by CONTRAN Resolution 912 and governed by the Lei do Motorista's driving-time rules — the most directly comparable mandate to the EU or US ELD model found anywhere in this research. Compliance and cargo-theft risk both drive adoption here, a genuine dual mandate for fleet software few other markets share.

Canada

Canada has had a fully enforced ELD mandate since 1 January 2023, but it works differently from the US version: every device needs independent third-party certification against a national technical standard before a carrier can legally run it, and Transport Canada actively delists devices that fail to keep up.

France

France runs no US-style ELD system. The digital chronotachygraphe, required under directly applicable EU rules, is what actually records a driver's activity, and regional DREAL offices check it against a formal, published annual enforcement plan. A Smart Tachograph deadline lands on 1 July 2026 for international light goods vehicles over 2.5 tonnes.

Germany

Germany runs no separate ELD system. The digital tachograph (Fahrtenschreiber), mandatory under directly applicable EU rules, is what actually captures a driver's hours, and the Bundesamt für Logistik und Mobilität (BALM) enforces it. A Smart Tachograph Generation 2 hardware deadline has already passed for larger vehicles, with a second one landing in 2026 for smaller cross-border vans.

Norway

Norway isn't an EU member, so its tachograph and drivers'-hours rules arrive through the EEA Agreement rather than direct EU membership — specifically, a Norwegian regulation (forskrift 2007-07-02-877) that implements the same EU tachograph and driving-time rules used across the bloc. Statens vegvesen and the police enforce it; there's no separate Norwegian ELD system.

Spain

Spain has no ELD requirement. The digital tacógrafo, mandatory under EU rules, is the compliance device — the DGT alone reports analyzing more than 70,000 tachograph data points daily to check driving and rest times. Four separate bodies split enforcement, licensing, and inspection duties that a single US agency would typically combine.

Sweden

Sweden applies the EU's tachograph and drivers'-hours framework directly as a member state, using a digital device called a färdskrivare rather than a US-style ELD. Three separate authorities split the work — Transportstyrelsen regulates the device and licensing, the police handle roadside stops, and Trafikverket manages infrastructure only, not compliance.

United Kingdom

The UK has no US-style ELD mandate. Commercial drivers' hours are recorded on a digital tachograph under retained EU law, enforced by the DVSA at the roadside. A new hardware deadline lands on 1 July 2026 for vehicles doing international work, while UK-only vans stay exempt.

South Africa

South Africa has no confirmed hours-of-service or tachograph mandate under the National Road Traffic Act — a genuinely different starting point from most markets in this research. What the law does require is a Professional Driving Permit for commercial drivers. The real story behind this market's software industry is stolen-vehicle recovery, not compliance.