Trucking Industry Takes Issue With Technical Concerns in EOBR Rule

Trucking industry groups and technology providers filed a petition for reconsideration with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regarding the final rule on electronic onboard recorders

, which was issued last month.

The stakeholders are asking the FMCSA to reconsider two technical provisions in the rule they call "unrealistic," including the requirement that the EOBR be able to operate in temperatures ranging from minus 40 degrees to 85 degrees Celsius. The groups also voiced concern over the requirement that the devices be capable of transferring data using a single Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector.

"The impact of the Appendix A technical requirements ... would force the industry to develop significantly more expensive hardware and to incur extraordinary transitional costs in order to be compliant," the request said. "Based on our experience and a review of commercially available equipment being used for transportation telematics, these additional requirements do not appear to be appropriate."

The temperature provision would make the devices more expensive, and any handheld devices that interface with the recorder will have to meet the same standard, said Rob Abbott, vice president of safety policy for the American Trucking Associations, among the groups filing.

According to the request, typical devices meet a minimum operating temperature range of minus 20 to 60 degrees Celsius. The groups recommend the FMCSA either remove the temperature operating range from the rule, or apply this lower range for specification.

Brian McLaughlin, chief operating officer for PeopleNet, says, "I think the approach on how the EOBR can give data to law enforcement is a good start, but it needs some more definition." McLaughlin is on the Technology & Maintenance Council's EOBR Task Force. He says the TMC committee would like to see USB mass storage devices, also called memory sticks, thumb drives or flash drives, as an option for transferring the data.

The petition points out that most EOBR devices do not normally support USB Type B connectors, which is specified in the rule, but they do support Type A connectors. The groups recommend the FMCSA throw out the Type B requirement and allow for USB data download via a Type A connector.

"If the specification allowed for EOBRs to have a Type A connector and the download process to use USB mass storage device, this would be immediately compatible with existing devices," the petition said. "This approach avoids costs of retrofits and device obsolescence and improves interoperability with law enforcement laptops that might not be easily connected to the EOBR through a cable."

In addition to the ATA and McLaughlin, the petition was also submitted by David Kraft, director of government affairs with Qualcomm Enterprise Services; Tom Cuthbertson, director industry solutions, Xata Corp.; Jerry Gabbard, vice president with Continental Corp.; Clyde Hart, senior vice president of government affairs and policy at American Bus Association; Steve Keppler, interim executive director, Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance; Gary Petty, president and CEO of the National Private Truck Council; and Vic Parra, president of the United Motorcoach Association.

"We believe there may be some changes to the technical requirements contained within the new regulations, based on industry feedback," Cuthbertson said. "These anticipated changes will have an impact on what it takes to make our products compliant, and may actually make it easier."

"We hope that these issues can be fixed before the rule goes into effect (in two years)," Abbott said.