When a vehicle moves or idles, drive time is automatically recorded in the Hours of Service (HOS) report, whether or not a driver is assigned to the vehicle in the Samsara Driver App. If a vehicle is active without an assigned driver, this activity appears as an unassigned segment in the Unassigned HOS Report.
If your fleet has unassigned driving segments, you should assign or annotate them whenever possible. If a segment is assigned to the wrong driver, you can also unassign the segment and later reassign it. This helps ensure accurate logs and reduce misinterpretation during audits.
Note
Vehicles used by mechanics, maintenance staff, or other non-drivers without login credentials can also generate unassigned HOS.
You can take proactive steps to avoid unassigned HOS, automatically annotate unassigned segments, and detect when unassigned driving events occur:
- Enable Automatic Driver Recognition with Camera ID: Automatically assign or suggest drivers for unassigned segments using your Samsara dual-facing dash cam.
- Configure Automatic Yard Move Annotations: Add a geofence to automatically annotate unassigned trips that take place within the yard.
- Add a Compliance Alert: Create a compliance alert to receive notifications whenever an unassigned driving event occurs.
If you have vehicles in your fleet with unassigned HOS, you can assign or annotate these segments directly from the Unassigned HOS Report using this workflow:
- To view all vehicles with unassigned segments, open the Unassigned HOS Report by navigating to Compliance (
) > Unassigned HOS from the Samsara dashboard
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Review the list of vehicles. You can also locate specific vehicles using Search vehicles or Tags, or change the timeframe using the date selector at the top left of the report.
- Click a vehicle to see its unassigned segments.
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Select one or more segments that you want to assign or annotate.
Tip
If a relevant driver is tagged to a trip associated with an unassigned event, the Tagged Driver field will display the suggested driver, making it easier to identify who should receive the assignment without opening trip history.
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After selecting segment(s), choose to Assign Selected or Annotate Selected.
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If you are assigning the selected segments to a driver, choose the Driver.
Otherwise, if you are annotating the segments, add a brief Reason for Unassigned Time explaining why the hours are unassigned.
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Assign Driver or Save to confirm.
If you assigned a driver, the assignment status will update to
Pendingin the Log Edits Report (Compliance (AcceptedorRejectedin the Log Edits Report.If a driver rejects a segment, it will still be recorded in their roadside inspection log and Datafile with the annotation Unassigned time not attributable to the driver.
Note
Drivers must claim or reject an entire segment assignment, even if it includes both unassigned driving and idle time. To distinguish between driving and idle time, administrators can make detailed HOS log edits in the Samsara dashboard after driver accepts the assignment. Drivers can also add these details by editing the HOS log in their Samsara Driver App.
If a recent driving segment has been assigned to and accepted by the wrong driver, you can unassign the segment and return it to the Unassigned HOS Report using this workflow:
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Navigate to Compliance (
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Open the Hours of Service Report by clicking the date of the segment you want to unassign.
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Expand the log details by clicking the row for the log you want to edit.
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Locate the segment you want to unassign under the log graph and select Manage.
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Unassign the segment by selecting None from the Vehicle menu.
- Save to confirm. The segment can now be reassigned from the Unassigned HOS Report.
Most unassigned HOS segments occur during yard moves. To save time and avoid manually annotating these unassigned driving segments, you can create a geofence and set the Address Type to Yard.
When a yard geofence is configured, all future trips without a driver in the yard are automatically annotated as unassigned yard moves. Previous segments that occurred within the yard will not be affected.
Note
Use automatic annotations only for ELD-exempt personnel such as mechanics, fuelers, or washers. Drivers subject to ELD regulations should always sign in to the Samsara Driver App and log their appropriate duty status.
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