FMCSA Publishes Electronic On-Board Recorders (EOBR) RULE
Posted on Fri, Apr 16, 2010 @ 09:05 AM
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) this week published its long overdue Electronic On-Board Recorders rule (EOBR). The rule was ready a year ago but was pulled back to allow the incoming Obama Administration to review it. It is schedule to go into effect June 1, 2012.
The rule, the first requiring EOBR’s, is limited to carriers with serious patterns of hours-of-service (HOS) violations as a result of Compliance Reviews. The FMCSA estimated that 5,700 truck and bus companies would be required to purchase, install and use EOBR’s after the first year of implementation of the new rule. Carriers with ten percent (10%) or more HOS (log) violations discovered during a Compliance Review will be required to install and use EOBR’s in all their vehicles for at least two years according to the FMCSA.
The rule also contains long-awaited technical requirements for EOBR’s, long a concern among competing manufacturers of the devices.
In a related story, David Bradley, President of the Canadian Trucking Alliance (Canada’s largest trucking advocacy group with more than 4,500 carriers as members) said EOBR’s should be mandatory for all truckers operating in North America. He went on to say the FMCSA will “inevitably” move toward broader EOBR requirements if not a universal mandate.
US carriers which voluntarily use EOBR’s will be exempt from some of the FMCSA’s requirements regarding retaining the retention of documents to support HOS enforcement.
Published by Kevin Mullen: Director-Safety