Monitoring HOS Compliance

It seems that a consensus is developing in the trucking industry to support electronic devices that monitor the number of hours that drivers work behind the wheel.

The Truckload Carriers Association last week adopted a policy supporting the use of electronic logging devices (ELDs) to ensure compliance with the federal government’s hours-of-service rules, which govern the number of hours that drivers can be behind the wheel.

TCA’s policy is similar to a policy proposal that has been supported by American Trucking Associations’ Safety Policy Committee and that is scheduled to be considered by the association’s executive committee in May.

In February, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration proposed requiring that nearly all interstate fleets install electronic onboard recorders (EOBRs) to monitor their HOS compliance.

But there has been little information available on just what an EOBR should be capable of monitoring, or more specifically, what data should be provided by fleets to federal inspectors.

EOBRs, in general, are capable of monitoring any number of truck operations, such as hard braking, that may be important to a fleet’s supervision of its drivers but are not required by law to be provided to FMCSA.

That lack of clarity had led TCA to signal at first that it would not support the electronic logging rule, but the membership apparently was able to agree to support use of ELDs.

An agreement to support ELDs would ensure that drivers were complying with federal work rules, without exposing fleets to new potential legal liability in civil cases.

FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro praised TCA “for the leadership they showed on a tough issue,” when she addressed the group in San Diego last week.

The agency’s EOBR proposal is out for public comment, and Ferro said her comments shouldn’t be taken as an endorsement that ELDs would necessarily satisfy the compliance requirement.

Clearly, there are definitional issues that need to be ironed out. But if FMCSA is interested in working with the industry to guarantee that its hours-of-service rule is followed by all fleets, the ELD proposal should provide a ready solution.

Several large fleets already had publicly expressed their support for some form of electronic logging, even before FMCSA made its proposal.

ATA’s executive committee will consider its ELD proposal in May, before FMCSA’s deadline for public comment closes near the end of the month.