American Trucking Associations announced that its membership has endorsed a policy supporting federal laws and regulations that would require trucking companies to use electronic logging devices -- also known as electronic onboard recorders, or EOBRs -- to monitor driver hours-of-service.


"ATA has always been in favor of strong enforcement of safety rules and regulations," ATA president and CEO Bill Graves said. "This new policy just underlines that support."

"FMCSA's own safety monitoring program, CSA, shows a link between compliance with the current hours-of-service rules and carrier safety performance," Graves said. "In addition to showing that the current hours-of-service rules are working, that data shows us that increasing compliance with those rules will further improve trucking's already impressive safety record."

This move follows the Truckload Carriers Association's move last month to endorse mandatory EOBRs, along with a policy to call the technology e-logs.

While ATA's new policy expresses support for an electronic logging mandate, ATA believes any regulation or law should also address several issues, including:

- Cost-effective device specifications allowing for accurate recording of driving hours.

- Data ownership and access in order to protect the privacy of fleets and drivers alike.

- Relief from the current, significant burden of retaining additional supporting documentation.

"Many fleets already use these devices and they report not only compliance and safety gains, but also improved efficiency," said Dave Osiecki, ATA senior vice president of policy and regulatory affairs. "Those benefits make supporting an electronic logging requirement good business."

The FMCSA's current EOBR proposal vastly expands the rule the agency put out less than a year ago.

The current rule, which will go into effect June 4, 2012, says that carriers that violate hours of service rules 10 percent of the time, based on single compliance review, must use electronic onboard recorders to track driver hours. It will affect only 5,700 interstate carriers.

The rule the agency is now proposing, which will go into effect three years after it is made final, will cover all of the approximately 500,000 carriers now required to maintain driver logs. It will create a market for at least 2 million recorders by one estimate, although other estimates go as high as 3.4 million. It also covers requirements for documentation to prove compliance with the hours of service rule, and it would require carriers to monitor driver compliance with the rule.

Under the proposal, violators of the recorder requirement would face civil penalties of up to $11,000 for each offense. Noncompliance would also negatively impact a carrier's safety fitness rating and DOT operating authority, the agency said.

The proposal will not apply to short-haul interstate carriers that use timecards to document hours of service.