What’s going on here?

This is a summary of discussion on the Supporting Documents post between February 6 and May 13.  (On that date, the post was closed to further discussion.)  This summary was written by the Regulation Room team based on all the comments people made. This version is a DRAFT. We need YOUR help to make sure that nothing is missing, wrong or unclear.

Important dates:

May 14-22:  Comments can be made here on the draft
May 21-22:  Regulation Room team reviews comments and revises draft
May 23:  Final Summary of Discussion is posted on Regulation Room and submitted to FMCSA Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (The agency proposing the EOBR Electronic on-Board Recorder (A device attached to commercial motor vehicles that tracks the number of hours drivers spend on the road) rule) as a formal comment in the official rulemaking record.  (May 23 is the last day of the official commenting period.)

Things to keep in mind as you read through the draft summary and make comments:

1. The goal here is to give FMCSA Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (The agency proposing the EOBR Electronic on-Board Recorder (A device attached to commercial motor vehicles that tracks the number of hours drivers spend on the road) rule) the best possible picture of all the different views, concerns, and ideas that came out during the Penalties/Enforcement discussion.  This is NOT the place to reargue your position or criticize a different one.  Focus on whether anything is missing or unclear, not whether you agree or disagree.
2. Rulemaking is not a vote. FMCSA Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (The agency proposing the EOBR Electronic on-Board Recorder (A device attached to commercial motor vehicles that tracks the number of hours drivers spend on the road) rule) is not allowed to decide what to do about EOBRs Electronic on-Board Recorders (Devices attached to commercial motor vehicles that track the number of hours drivers spend on the road) based on majority rule.  (Why? See Effective Commenting)  Approximate numbers are provided in the summary to give FMCSA Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (The agency proposing the EOBR Electronic on-Board Recorder (A device attached to commercial motor vehicles that tracks the number of hours drivers spend on the road) rule) a sense of the frequency of views, concerns, and ideas.

To help us make Regulation Room better, please take this SHORT survey on your experience.  (If you’ve already taken the survey on using RegulationRoom for the EOBR Electronic on-Board Recorder (A device attached to commercial motor vehicles that tracks the number of hours drivers spend on the road) rule, please don’t take it again.)

This post got 11 comments from 5 users; moderators responded 6 times.

Commenters included one independent owner the company that owns the rights to repayment of the mortgage principal plus interest operator, an owner/operator leased to another carrier, an owner the company that owns the rights to repayment of the mortgage principal plus interest of a trucking business, a CMV Commercial Motor Vechicles owner/manager with 10 vehicles/units,  and a member of an advocacy group interested in this rule. Two stated they had previously used or where using an EOBR, AOBRD or fleet A group of motor vehicles owned or leased by businesses or government agencies management system.

As in other posts, there is a lot of disbelief that EOBRS will increase safety enough to justify their cost and intrusion on truckers’ privacy.  There is even an argument they may decrease safety if drivers are constantly stressed about time.

Another commenter (owner of a trucking business with 10 vehicles) worries that “private carriers like myself” simply don’t generate the kind of supporting documents that would be required, in the ordinary course of their business.   He/she gives details:  “My trucks transport my own equipment from farm to farm in the western US and rarely see urban areas or interstate corridors where more supporting documents can be generated. Most feuling is done a day or more in advance to a RODS Record of duty status (A logbook maintained by CMV drivers to track driving time (i.e., duty status) for each 24-hour period) trip and the trip is completed before feuling is required again. We rarely stop at truck stops since they are not typically on our routes.  Most purchase receipts , port of entry permits, and scale tickets are only date stamped not time stamped. We travel in convoy so all expense receipts are recorded as one receipt for 10 drivers. What advantage we do have is [that] the management responsible for the collection of documents and a compliance review is also travelling with all the drivers using RODS. So lack of management control of drivers HOS Hours of service (Regulations issued by FMCSA that limit the number of daily and weekly hours a CMV driver may drive) violations is impossible since our management is traveling with our drivers and in control of generating supporting documents. Most of these documents are for other operations in a business so copies will have to be made to keep them in a separate file to be sure they are available for a compliance review. This substantially increases the size and cost of the file required for HOS Hours of service (Regulations issued by FMCSA that limit the number of daily and weekly hours a CMV driver may drive) duty records.”  This commenter worries that FMCSA Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (The agency proposing the EOBR Electronic on-Board Recorder (A device attached to commercial motor vehicles that tracks the number of hours drivers spend on the road) rule) has not adequately considered the additional costs for small companies of having to maintain these documents.  He/she also objects that the proposed regulation “assumes that the driver and motor carrier A person providing motor vehicle transportation for compensation. The term includes a motor carrier’s agents, officers and employees is guilty of HOS Hours of service (Regulations issued by FMCSA that limit the number of daily and weekly hours a CMV driver may drive) violations unless they prove without a reasonable doubt they are innocent.”

Skepticism about safety benefits. Several commenters emphatically dispute that EOBRs Electronic on-Board Recorders (Devices attached to commercial motor vehicles that track the number of hours drivers spend on the road) would increase safety enough to justify the cost to truckers, especially at a time when “money is tight for everyone.”

One emphasizes that according to FMCSA’s own data only a small number of accidents are fatigue-related; EOBRS would add another cost to the company or owner the company that owns the rights to repayment of the mortgage principal plus interest operator A self-employed commercial truck driver or a small business that operates trucks for transporting goods over highways for its customers “without a positive reasoning.”  This commenter challenges FMCSA’s belief that the number of fatigue-related crashes is really 10-15% rather than the reported 1.4%: “the keyword I am focused on is ‘believes’  I can do the same thing. I ‘believe’ that the number is lower than 10-15%—so who is right? At any cost to the driver— without any ‘real’ hard evidence—is uncalled for.”

A second commenter uses the 2009 data to calculate that even using FMCSA’s assumptions, only about 40 of 3300 lives lost in CMV Commercial Motor Vechicles related crashes would be in fatigue-related crashes.  He/she believes this is not the kind of safety improvement that justifies electronic monitoring of drivers:  “Now I do understand that 1 life is too many.  But the FMCSA Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (The agency proposing the EOBR Electronic on-Board Recorder (A device attached to commercial motor vehicles that tracks the number of hours drivers spend on the road) rule) is more about ending a truckers freedoms than they are about safety.”  This commenter thinks that EOBRs Electronic on-Board Recorders (Devices attached to commercial motor vehicles that track the number of hours drivers spend on the road) are like the government requiring people to carry traveling papers.

A different reasoning comes from a third commenter (an independent-owner operator):  “Chronic HOS Hours of service (Regulations issued by FMCSA that limit the number of daily and weekly hours a CMV driver may drive) violations are almost always instigated from the corporate office and dispatch/operations personnel. Penalizing the repeat offenders is a good common-sense policy. However, requiring ALL carriers to install EOBR Electronic on-Board Recorder (A device attached to commercial motor vehicles that tracks the number of hours drivers spend on the road) devices is costly and unnecessary. The cost/benefit statements are overstated, and obviously favor the sellers/administrators of the technology. The current system, with appropriate enforcement, works very well for the majority of carriers who believe in observing the law.”   At the request of the moderator, this commenter elaborated:  “EOBR are costly in the sense that they offer no ROI for the operator. While they may reduce some of the administrative cost(s) for a large operation, they will only create an unnecessary layer of responsibility for the small operator; one that is already being adequately filled via log books and proper enforcement procedures. Tech providers and support personnel will be the true beneficiaries of an EOBR Electronic on-Board Recorder (A device attached to commercial motor vehicles that tracks the number of hours drivers spend on the road) mandate…  I wish I could give you an in-depth, guided tour of this business that brings you your life each day. You would be surprised at how honest and efficient most people are in the face of nearly overwhelming odds, and how completely unnecessary the deployment of EOBR Electronic on-Board Recorder (A device attached to commercial motor vehicles that tracks the number of hours drivers spend on the road) technology is for all but the most habitual offenders of the HOS Hours of service (Regulations issued by FMCSA that limit the number of daily and weekly hours a CMV driver may drive) rules.”

Finally, one commenter argues that EOBRs Electronic on-Board Recorders (Devices attached to commercial motor vehicles that track the number of hours drivers spend on the road) may even reduce safety: “A driver is going to be giving an ETA to the receiver that is going to be mathematically possible time wise without much extra to spare, forcing a driver to be more aggressive in order to even have a chance of making it, and will constantly be detracted by stressing over time. The FMCSA Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (The agency proposing the EOBR Electronic on-Board Recorder (A device attached to commercial motor vehicles that tracks the number of hours drivers spend on the road) rule) are discussing making it illegal to handle a cell phone in a truck calling it a distraction. Now they are going to force another piece of electronics in your cab instead.”

Read what commenters have said about their personal experiences relevant to the EOBR Electronic on-Board Recorder (A device attached to commercial motor vehicles that tracks the number of hours drivers spend on the road) rule here.