On May 23, 2011, the American Trucking Association gave its opinion on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)’s proposal that all big rigs and semis (motor carriers) have electronic gizmos installed that will automatically record the truck driver’s hours of service (HOS). You can read the ATA documentation and its commentary to FMCSA here.
Back in February 2011, we posted about the FMCSA’s release of its proposed regulation that would legally require these electronic gizmos that will record the number of hours that a truck is in service (and therefore, the number of hours the truck driver is on the job, driving the semi or big rig). In that post, we discussed what Hours of Service were, and how these electronic devices (“Electronic OnBoard Recorders“) are expected to work.
You can read the FMCSA press release that was issued back in February here.
American Trucking Association Approves the Proposed Regulation – But Not Without Reservations
The ATA is going along with the new gizmos, but it’s going on the record about things the trucking industry isn’t happy about, which include:
- their position that the FMCSA proposal fails to meet Congressional requirements;
- the device needs more security in proper driver identification and authentication;
- the device needs better standards to make sure they aren’t altered (tampering);
- there should also be documents that can be deemed to meet compliance.
Will we see big rigs, semis, and tractor trailers with automatic devices that keep track of how long that truck driver has been operating his or her rig? Yes. Is the fight over on when that is going to happen? No.
