I may be wrong... Hel I probably am, but way i understand it if you are intrastate hauling you are exempt from log books here in wa, unless you travel more then 150 miles from home in a day, radius not actual miles.
but then you don't get to claim intrastate if your cargo is destined to leave the state, hence if you haul to the ports, or mills that ship outside the state, then you have to be classified interstate and jump through the bs of log books, and dot physicals every other year.
As far as electronic log books being required, I've heard rumors but nothing solid yet, bet yer ass that most of the loggers around here will eat the fine rather then spend money on electronic gizmo's that may or may not be compatible with their trucks. Or for that matter buy a new truck just to be compatible with a ridiculous law.
It's a mess and it just makes it even harder for a small guy to do business.
A friend of mine has a lumber truck and hauls mainly in California. Intra state, right? He unloaded in LA a couple of weeks ago and picked up a load of sacked fertilizer to come back north. He loaded the fertilizer in LA but the load originated in Texas. That made it, according to the ticket he got, the furtherance of an inter state load. He got popped at the first scales he came to for being over HOS. Under California rules he still had a couple of hours to run on his logbook but that load of sacks put him over hours. The fine was just over a thousand dollars. The cops watch for this kind of thing and they're dialed in.
As far as eating the fine for no ELD goes, I don't think a guy with his own truck can afford it. He might choke down the first one but like all fines the costs will escalate with each occurance. Since loggers run in a relatively small geographic area the cops will catch on pretty quick who's in compliance and who's not.
Staying within 100 or 150 air miles might work but I think you're also limited to a certain number hours a day to qualify for that exemption.
What log truckers, or any small trucking outfit absolutely don't need are more obstacles in their path. Most of them are just making wages and any little glitch will set them back, sometimes too far to recover.
There are a lot of trucks for sale in California. A lot of guys are just giving up and getting out before the government digs the hole any deeper.