OOIDA Plans EOBR Rule Challenge
This story appears in the June 14 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association filed notice that it will challenge a new federal rule requiring fleets with poor hours-of-service records to use electronic onboard recorders to monitor drivers.
The petition, filed on June 3 in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, does not specifically outline the objections to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s rule, although OOIDA has been a vocal opponent of mandating the use of EOBRs.
“We think the time to address the issues that we have consistently raised through the years is now,” OOIDA Executive Vice President Todd Spencer told Transport Topics. “Do these things promote safety and produce better safety performance?”
A spokeswoman for FMCSA said the agency had no comment.
Spencer said that, in part, the lawsuit is to prepare for the next EOBR rule, which FMCSA has said will cover even more carriers.
Issued in April, FMCSA’s current regulation requires fleets with a violation rate of 10% or more in a single compliance review to use EOBRs to monitor their drivers (4-12, p. 1; click here for previous story).
Under the current rule, with which fleets have until 2012 to comply, as many as 5,700 carriers will be required to have the devices.
However, FMCSA has said it expects to issue a follow-up regulation that would expand the number of fleets required to use EOBRs.
During a June 9 meeting of the agency’s Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee, Administrator Anne Ferro said, “Work is well under way on a broader EOBR mandate.”
Spencer said OOIDA does not believe the cost of the devices is justified by its potential safety benefits.
“This is really nothing more than another recordkeeping device that is subject to the same shortcomings of a paper logbook, and if that’s all that it is, how is it that you can justify putting this kind of cost on an industry that’s predominantly small businesses?” he said.
Spencer also said FMCSA has “yet to produce any evidence that using these systems produces better safety performance or reduces accidents.”
