FMCSA amends policy, allows GPS, other equipment for monitoring

FMCSA wants to use all technology available to achieve the safe and efficient transportation of passengers and freight.

By BARB KAMPBELL
The Trucker Staff

12/22/2008

The use of advanced information technologies to monitor compliance with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR) is now authorized after a policy change became effective Dec. 19.

In 1997, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued a policy memorandum limiting the use of advanced technology during agency investigations regarding motor carrier compliance with FMCSRs. The reasoning behind this was to offer a positive opportunity to advance operational safety performance since the technologies were just emerging and being implemented within the industry in the late 1990s.

FMCSA officials initiated the policy limiting the use of technology data and electronically produced records, such as GPS, during reviews and for regulatory enforcement purposes, in order to promote and encourage the use of these new technologies by the industry. This policy, FMCSA stated, afforded the industry the opportunity to fully integrate the technology in its operations and overall safety management systems.

“After more than a decade since the agency established its policy, the use of advanced technology has become widely accepted and an integral component of the industry’s logistics and operations systems,” FMCSA stated in the Federal Register announcement. “The agency’s policy achieved its purpose; the once emerging technologies are today a common and essential component of the industry’s logistics, operations and safety management systems to achieve the safe and efficient transportation of passengers and freight.”

Barb Kampbell of The Trucker staff can be reached for comment at barkkampbell@thetrucker.com.