We have dispatch programs, scanners and video games built into cell phones. Why not automated driver logs?

Wireless service provider Nextel Communications and Silicon Valley-based software company Xora Inc. are asking the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to allow a system to do just that. The companies have petitioned the FMCSA separately. Nextel is asking for a change in the rules. Xora is asking for an exemption.
Nextel’s plea was delivered in response to the agency’s call for comments on mandatory electronic on-board recorders. “Nextel asks that the FMCSA clear the way for wireless handset-based solutions for compliance with hours-of-service rules,” the company said in its comments.
Xora, meanwhile, has asked for an exemption similar to that granted to truckload carrier Werner Enterprises, which developed its own automated log system. Werner’s system keeps logs otherwise acceptable to regulators, but in a form that does not quite meet rules outlined in Section 395.15 of the FMCSA rules. The FMCSA has exempted Werner from those rules.
The Nextel-Xora system would require a GPS-equipped handset with enough computing power to run the application and would resemble Werner’s system, at least in part. The Werner system sends log data over the truck’s Qualcomm system to a central server, which processes the data. The server can send log pages back to the truck and display them on the driver console.
The Xora software called Xora DOT Logs would send some information back to a Xora server, but process and retain much critical data in the handset itself. That would allow the application to function even when out of transmission range, alerting the driver to potential violations, for example.
Like most handset-based applications, Xora automated logs over the Nextel system could deliver snappy functionality in an inexpensive package.