Drivers,

Great news on January 11, 2007 at 10:00 EST John Hill, from Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA in a press conference , released its much anticipated notice of proposed rulemaking addressing the use of electronic on-board recorders (EOBRs) for compliance with the hours-of-service regulations.

At present they will not be required on all trucks.

Under the proposed regulations:

• New performance standards would be mandated for EOBRs installed in commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) manufactured two years following the effective date of the final rule;
• Motor carriers that have demonstrated a history of serious noncompliance with the hours-of-service rules would be subject to mandatory installation of EOBRs meeting the new performance standards; and
• The FMCSA would provide incentives to motor carriers who voluntarily use EOBRs in their CMVs.

Under the proposed performance standards, EOBRs installed on CMVs manufactured two years after the effective date of the final rule would be required to meet specific standards. The proposed standards would require the EOBRs to record basic information including name of driver, duty status, date and time, location of the CMV, distance traveled, and name and USDOT number of the motor carrier.

FMCSA states that the proposed performance standards would standardize the display of data fields and require that data be easily downloadable.

Under the proposal, EOBRs meeting FMCSA's current requirements and voluntarily installed in CMVs manufactured before the implementation date may continue to be used for the remainder of the service life of those CMVs.

The proposal would require mandatory installation of EOBRs for motor carriers that demonstrate a history of serious noncompliance with the hours-of-service rules. This would apply to motor carriers that had a 10 percent or greater violation rate of the hours-of-service regulations listed in the proposed Appendix C to Part 385 during each of two compliance reviews conducted within a two-year period. Violations in the proposed Appendix C to Part 385 include exceeding the hours-of-service limits, falsifying records of duty status, and failing to make a record of duty status.

FMCSA estimates that if these proposed rules were in place today, about 930 motor carriers and 17,500 drivers would be subject to mandatory EOBR installation.

Proposed incentives for voluntarily using EOBRs in CMVs include:

• Revising FMCSA's compliance review procedures to permit a random sample of drivers' records of duty status; and
• Providing partial relief from the hours-of-service supporting document requirements if certain conditions are satisfied.

The notice of proposed rulemaking is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register Thursday, January 18, 2007. The comment period on this NPRM is expected to last for 90 days. FMCSA anticipates the publication of a final rule in 18 to 24 months.

Drivers will still have to have a log book to ensure the comply with the Hours of Service rules.

We like this ideal as we feel it will make Motor Carriers do a better job of training, (which we see very little of, other than lip service) a two hour class is not enough to help a driver stay out of trouble. You receive the training after you have violated the rules and a log person calls you in to fix the problem.

Drivers you want to go on line and send an email to support this, I'll bet big companies are not going to like this ideal at all.