ATA Asks FMCSA to Change Portions of Final EOBR Rule
By Sean McNally and Dan Leone, Staff Reporters
This story appears in the May 10 print edition of Transport Topics.
American Trucking Associations, along with several key industry groups and manufacturers, asked the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to change its final rule on electronic onboard recorders, saying the technical specifications laid out by the regulation were not achievable.
The rule “includes two technical specifications that are unrealistic, very costly and are probably not what was actually intended.”
Specifically, the groups said the temperatures the device must operate in and the type of computer connection the device must use to transmit data will cause issues.
“It is most important that we solve these issues before DOT moves to the next stage, which is a broader mandate for a broader section of the industry,” said Rob Abbott, ATA vice president of safety policy. “We have to work out these technical issues if these devices are going to be more commonly used.”
In addition to ATA, the petition was signed by Qualcomm Enterprise Services, PeopleNet, Xata Corp., Continental Corp., the American Bus Association, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, the National Private Truck Council and the United Motorcoach Association.
According to the final EOBR rule, issued April 2, to comply with the technical specifications, a unit “must be able to operate in temperatures ranging from -40 degrees Celsius to 85 C (-40 degrees Fahrenheit to 185 F).” (4-12, p. 1; click here for previous story.)
For reference, the lowest temperature recorded in the lower 48 states is -56 C in Saint George, Utah, in 1985. The highest ever recorded temperature is 57 C in Death Valley, Calif., in 1913.
“The distinction we need to make is ‘What’s the difference between a device survivability temperature and a device operating temperature?’ ” Abbott said. “The question is, ‘Will these add a significant amount of cost to the device because it is so far out of range for the industry standard?’ and that’s really the concern that a lot manufacturers and carriers will have.”
In the petition, the groups said devices such as EOBRs “typically meet minimum operating temperature range of -20C to 60 C.”
A Qualcomm executive said that while the temperature thresholds in the regulation might be appropriate for electronics mounted under a truck’s hood, where extremes of heat and cold are common, they are unnecessary for computers inside a cab.
“It just makes no sense,” said Dave Kraft, director of government affairs for Qualcomm, San Diego.
Kraft said that all of Qualcomm’s EOBRs can already function in the -20 C to 60 C range that the industry recommended to FMCSA in its petition.
“The regulation should allow for a lower cost and more universally accepted approach,” said Brian McLaughlin, chief operating officer of PeopleNet, a Qualcomm competitor based in Minnetonka, Minn.
McLaughlin estimated that reengineering the company’s onboard computers to meet the tougher temperature specifications would add “hundreds of dollars per unit” to retail costs.
CVSA Interim Executive Director Stephen Keppler said that while the law enforcement group is “very supportive” of the use of EOBRs, they do have issues about the way data would have to be transmitted.
“The specification that is in there will limit . . . how enforcement is able to interact with the devices,” Keppler said. “We’re really looking for different options . . . all kinds of sophistication with our members in the field as to how they do their work.”
The rule requires EOBRs use a “Type B connector,” a connection the group’s petition said “is not normally part of an EOBR configuration.”
“The cost of altering or retrofitting deployed systems could be very significant for the industry,” the petition said. “However, if the specification allowed for EOBRs to have a Type A connector and the download process to use [a] USB mass storage device, this would be immediately compatible with existing devices.”
Qualcomm and PeopleNet both said that hardware retrofits and software updates would be necessary to comply with the USB specifications in the regulation.
Hardware tweaks would be minor, the companies said.
Existing onboard computers with USB capability already have Type A connections. An external adapter could accommodate the different shape of a Type B connector, and software updates, which can be delivered over the air, would take care of compatibility issues, Kraft and McLaughlin told Transport Topics.
“One of our concerns has been is FMCSA has really put a lot of onus on enforcement to buy equipment if they don’t have computers. It is basically an unfunded mandate on the states,” Keppler said. “We don’t want technology to drive what goes on in the field; it needs to be the other way around.”
