Industry Wire

FMCSA Publishes Electronic On-Board Recorders (EOBR) Rule

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) published a Final Rule that will require interstate commercial truck and bus companies with serious patterns of hours-of-service (HOS) violations to install electronic on-board recorders (EOBRs) in all of their vehicles. Motor carriers who are found to have 10 percent or more HOS violations during a compliance review will be required to install EOBRs in all their vehicles for a minimum of two years.

Electronic on-board recorders are devices attached to commercial vehicles that automatically record the number of hours drivers spend operating the vehicle. The rule will become effective on June 1, 2012, which will ensure that EOBR manufacturers have enough time to meet the rule's performance standards and to manufacture products to meet industry demand. Additionally, FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro said that another EOBR rule will be initiated later this year that will be mandate EOBRs on commercial motor vehicles for a broader population of commercial motor carriers.

Under the ruled issued today by FMCSA, there are some incentives for carriers who voluntarily adopt EOBRs. Those carriers will receive relief from some of FMCSA's requirements to retain HOS supporting documents, such as toll receipts used to check the accuracy of driver logbooks.

FMCSA says the final rule would require EOBRs to record basic information needed to track a driver's on- and off-duty status, such as:  name, duty status (on-duty/not driving, driving time, sleeper berth, off-duty) date, time, and location of the commercial vehicle and distance traveled.

It would also require EOBRs to use Global Positioning System (GPS) technology or other location tracking systems to automatically identify the location of the commercial vehicle, which would further reduce the likelihood of falsification of HOS information.

To see a copy of the final rule published in the Federal Register on April 2, 2010, please click here.