diff --git a/test/e2e/node/node_problem_detector.go b/test/e2e/node/node_problem_detector.go
index af5e7914e1f..a07449fa267 100644
--- a/test/e2e/node/node_problem_detector.go
+++ b/test/e2e/node/node_problem_detector.go
@@ -131,44 +131,20 @@ var _ = SIGDescribe("NodeProblemDetector", func() {
 				framework.ExpectEqual(result.Code, 0)
 				gomega.Expect(result.Stdout).NotTo(gomega.ContainSubstring("node-problem-detector.service: Failed"))
 
-				// Let's assume that node problem detector has started the same time as kubelet
-				// We only will check for the KubeletStart if parsing of date here succeed
-				// This is an optimization to not ssh one more time to get kubelet's start time.
-				// Also we assume specific datetime format to simplify the logic
-				output := result.Stdout
+				// We only will check for the KubeletStart even if parsing of date here succeeded.
+				ginkgo.By(fmt.Sprintf("Check when node-problem-detector started on node %q", host))
+				npdStartTimeCommand := "sudo systemctl show --timestamp=utc node-problem-detector -P ActiveEnterTimestamp"
+				result, err = e2essh.SSH(ctx, npdStartTimeCommand, host, framework.TestContext.Provider)
+				framework.ExpectNoError(err)
+				framework.ExpectEqual(result.Code, 0)
 
-				// searching for the line "Apr 14 04:47:42 gke-cluster-1-default-pool-b1565719-eqht systemd[1]: Started Kubernetes node problem detector." and fallback to
-				idx := strings.Index(output, "Started Kubernetes node problem detector")
-				if idx != -1 {
-					output = output[:idx]
-					idx = strings.LastIndex(output, "\n")
-
-					if idx != -1 {
-						output = output[0:15]
-					}
-
-					st, err := time.Parse("Jan 02 15:04:05", output)
-					st = st.AddDate(time.Now().Year(), 0, 0)
-
-					if err == nil {
-						checkForKubeletStart = time.Since(st) < time.Hour
-					}
+				// The time format matches the systemd format.
+				// 'utc': 'Day YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS UTC (see https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.time.html)
+				st, err := time.Parse("Mon 2006-01-02 15:04:05 MST", result.Stdout)
+				if err != nil {
+					framework.Logf("Failed to parse when NPD started. Got exit code: %v and stdout: %v, error: %v. Will skip check for kubelet start event.", result.Code, result.Stdout, err)
 				} else {
-					// fallback to searching the line:
-					// -- Logs begin at Thu 2022-04-28 17:32:39 UTC, end at Thu 2022-04-28 17:40:05 UTC. --
-					idx := strings.Index(output, ", end at ")
-
-					output = output[:idx]
-					idx = strings.LastIndex(output, "-- Logs begin at ")
-					if idx != -1 {
-						output = output[17:]
-					}
-
-					st, err := time.Parse("Mon 2006-01-02 15:04:05 MST", output)
-
-					if err == nil {
-						checkForKubeletStart = time.Since(st) < time.Hour
-					}
+					checkForKubeletStart = time.Since(st) < time.Hour
 				}
 
 				cpuUsage, uptime := getCPUStat(ctx, f, host)