ATA Urges Pilot Program for Onboard Recorders

Click here to write a Letter to the Editor.

efore the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rules on whether to issue an exemption to design requirements for an automated onboard recording device produced by software manufacturer Xora Inc., it first should conduct a pilot program, American Trucking Associations has urged.

In a July 7 written comment to FMCSA, Dave Potts, director of safety and compliance for ATA, said that a pilot program would better determine whether the agency’s rule on automated onboard recorders needs to be changed.

“[That would] help to ensure that a performance standard specifying what is an AOBR is consistently applied, that the proposed concepts are adequately examined, and ultimately allow for . . . adoption of the practices by industry parties.”

Xora, Mountain View, Calif., filed an application June 8 for an exemption from FMCSA’s requirement that AOBRs be synchronized with a truck’s engines. Its AOBR technology uses a Nextel Communications cellphone equipped with a global positioning system to monitor drivers’ hours of service.

(Click here for previous coverage.)

For the full story, see the August 1 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.