Oberstar's highway bill would mandate EOBRs for all carriers within 4 years; ATA has concerns

By LYNDON FINNEY
The Trucker Staff

6/24/2009

WASHINGTON — The new highway reauthorization bill mandates Electronic On-Board Recorders to track Hours of Service compliance for all commercial motor vehicles within four years of enactment.

The mandate is in stark contrast to the most recently published proposed EOBR rulemaking that would make only motor carriers that have demonstrated a history of serious noncompliance with the Hours of Service rules subject to mandatory installation of EOBRs.

A draft text of the bill, primarily authored by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar, is now circulating.

A spokesman for the committee confirmed Tuesday that the intent of the language in the bill is to mandate EOBRs for all commercial motor vehicles.

In a related development, the American Trucking Associations issued a statement Wednesday expressing some concerns about an across-the-board mandate and said that should the law be passed, there should be federal funding to help carriers with the cost of purchasing the devices.

Under the originally proposed EOBR rule, on which carriers and the public were allowed to comment in 2007, truck and bus companies with a history of serious Hours of Service violations would be required to install electronic on-board recorders in all of their commercial vehicles for a minimum of two years.

Within the first two years that the rule would be enforced, former Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Administrator John Hill said in January 2007, the agency estimated that about 930 carriers with 17,500 drivers would fall under this requirement.

The proposed rule also included incentives for voluntary installation of EOBRs.

FMCSA officials continued to refine the rule throughout 2007 and into 2008 and make changes in the proposed rule based on Congressional, industry and public comment.

Hill repeatedly said he was encouraged to expand the scope of the originally proposed rule to include more motor carriers.

Sources have told The Trucker that the rule submitted to OMB did expand the scope before the Final Rule was approved by the office of the Secretary of Transportation and sent to the Office of Budget and Management Nov. 11, 2008.

However, it became bogged down at OMB during the final days of the Bush administration and was withdrawn from OMB three days after the Obama administration took office when the new president put the brakes on all pending federal regulations until they could be reviewed by incoming staff.

The EOBR Final Rule is now under review by Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and is scheduled to be published in October.

Whether today’s version of the Final Rule expanded the scope of companies required to install EOBRs even further is not known.

A cost impact analysis is always part of the rulemaking process, Hill said, but a Congressional mandate can take the burden off an agency to show cost benefit.

Should a Final Rule be published prior to the passage of the bill, sources have told The Trucker that a Congressional mandate would trump any existing EOBR rule, which would then have to be revised to comply with the law.

In a statement, the ATA said the organization had concerns over the proposed requirement, but also had some ideas about how the industry can accomplish the goal of increased enforcement of the Hours of Service rules.

In its statement, the ATA said it looked forward to working with Oberstar’s committee on “this important safety issue.

“There is an electronic logging regulation currently being reviewed by the Office of the Secretary of DOT,” the ATA statement continued. “This is an amended form of the electronic logging regulation proposed in 2007 and sent to the Office of Management and Budget for final approval, but then derailed by the Obama administration.

“We supported the 2007 proposal, which required electronic logging for enforcement of HOS regulations for carriers and drivers with a history of poor HOS compliance. But we also suggested improvements to it. We do not have a position on the amended regulation because we have not seen it. It is likely to affect more trucking companies and drivers than the 2007 proposed regulation would have.

“The cost of electronic logging equipment is substantial, and if there is a federal mandate for the equipment in order to improve federal and state enforcement efforts, there should be federal funding assistance for it.”

How soon the highway reauthorization bill is passed can only be conjecture.

While Oberstar is pushing for quick action to have a bill passed by Oct. 1 when the current highway funding bill expires, LaHood went to Capitol Hill last week to tell lawmakers the administration will offer a plan to extend financing of current highway programs for 18 months. In repsonse, Oberstar and forty-two other House Democrats — all members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee — in a letter Wednesday urged President Obama to drop the interim plan.

The entire section of Oberstar’s bill concerning EOBRs reads:

SEC. 4036. ELECTRONIC ON-BOARD RECORDERS.

 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall issue regulations to require commercial motor vehicles owned or operated by motor carriers subject to the Secretary’s hours-of-service regulations under part 395, Code of Federal Regulations, to be equipped with electronic on-board recorders.

 (b) PERFORMANCE STANDARDS.—The regulations issued pursuant to subsection (a) shall include performance standards for electronic on-board recorders to be used to monitor compliance with the Secretary’s requirements for hours of service of drivers under part 395, Code

 of Federal Regulations. Such performance standards shall ensure, at a minimum, that an electronic on-board recorder installed in a commercial motor vehicle—

(1) is synchronized to the vehicle engine or other vehicle equipment;

 (2) is able to identify each individual who operates the vehicle and track the periods during which such individual operates the vehicle;

 (3) enables law enforcement personnel to access information contained in the recorder quickly and easily during a roadside inspection; and

(4) is tamper-proof.

 (c) APPLICABILITY.—The regulations prescribed under subsection (a) shall be phased in and shall apply to all commercial motor vehicles used by motor carriers in interstate commerce not later than 4 years after the date of the enactment of this Act.

 (d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following definitions apply:

 (1) COMMERCIAL MOTOR VEHICLE.—The term ‘‘commercial motor vehicle’’ has the meaning that term has under section 31132 of title 49, United States Code.

(2) ELECTRONIC ON-BOARD RECORDER.—The term ‘‘electronic on-board recorder’’ means an electronic device that acquires and stores data showing the record of duty status of the vehicle operator and performs the functions required of an automatic on board recording device in section 395.15(b) of title 19 49, Code of Federal Regulations.

Lyndon Finney of The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at editor@thetrucker.com.

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