FMCSA Hears from Drivers, Carriers on EOBR Issue

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Several dozen truck drivers, motor carriers and law enforcement officers gave federal regulators a candid array of opinions on whether a planned electronic logging device mandate would be properly used as a safety device and fleet productivity tool.

“We believe that electronic onboard recorders have safety benefits,” Jack Van Steenberg, chief safety officer for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said in an introductory statement. “We want to learn from you how this technology creates or increases the risk of harassment of drivers.”

The administrators got an earful at “listening session” held here Thursday in conjunction with the FMCSA Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program Leadership meeting and the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s 2012 workshop.

One truck driver said he was awakened by a dispatcher who issued an alert over an EOBR urging the driver to get back on the road, while another called it a “people problem,” suggesting that harassment already existed with paper logs and likely would continue when EOBRs are installed on all trucks.

But several motor carrier executives defended the use of EOBRs and said that they had or would have policies in place to safeguard abuse of EOBRs by dispatchers.

American Trucking Associations last week called for a provision mandating use of EOBRs to be kept in Senate transportation-bill legislation, while the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has opposed EOBR mandates.

The EOBR listening session was the second such public meeting held by FMCSA, which has for more than eight months been wrestling with an appeals court decision last summer rejecting a 2010 EOBR final rule.