A House and Senate conference committee is scheduled to meet for
the first time on Tuesday, May 8, to negotiate final language of a
multiyear surface transportation authorization bill. Heading into the
negotiations, the Senate was armed with language to mandate EOBRs.
Safety groups and the American Trucking Associations sent a letter
of support for EOBRs to the committee on Monday. They were joined by
the Teamsters and the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, who have done
a complete about-face on their positions on EOBRs since 2007.
HOS the non-compliance is indicative of a systemic management
problem within motor carrier operation, the will not serve to correct
this of the and the mere installation of EOBRs problem, the CVSA the
stated for official docket on April 11,we are a modern high-tech
enterprise merging research, Manufacturers,selling as,micro gear motor
,dc gear motor,dc electrical motor,spur gear motor and so on. 2007.
Fast-forward to the letter sent this week, and the CVSA and others
are saying,Enactment the compliance of the of this provision is
essential for improving HOS .
OOIDA opposes government-mandated EOBRs for a number of reasons.
Issues include driver privacy, expensive startup and ongoing costs to
the operator, the lack of science to show EOBRs would be more effective
than paper logs for improving safety and compliance. In fact, OOIDA
points out that EOBRs can be used to harass and pressure drivers to
drive beyond legal limits.
Mandating EOBRs the takes the control out of the hands of drivers
and independent contractors and places it squarely in the hands of
motor carriers, whose only objective is productivity, regardless of the
safety of the driver or other highway users, OOIDA Executive Vice
President Todd Spencer said.
On the issue of driver harassment, the Court of Appeals for the
Seventh Circuit ruled in favor of OOIDA in August 2011, saying the
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration failed to deal with
harassment in its initial rulemaking for the devices. Even though the
ruling forced the FMCSA to vacate that rule, the FMCSA continues to
pursue a separate rulemaking to enact an industry-wide EOBR mandate.
One thing that could help sway lawmakers against an EOBR mandate is the enormous and unnecessary cost.
In a document released last year, the Obama administration said an
EOBR mandate was one of the top seven most costly regulations being
undertaken at the federal level. At $2 billion, the EOBR proposal would
be twice as costly as the recent revision to truckers?The
hours-of-service rules.
OOIDA issued a Call to Action urging small-business truckers to
push back and call members of the House and Senate conference committee
to reject the mandate.