The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration may expand its proposed requirement for electronic onboard recorders to include all carriers, rather than just those who persistently violate the hours of service rules.


"I am asking [FMCSA] staff to look at ways we can expand that rule and still be within the scope of what we published," FMCSA Administrator John Hill said recently in remarks to the National Industrial Transportation League.

Under the proposed rule, the agency would require mandatory recorders for carriers that violate the hours rules 10 percent or more of the time, as determined in two compliance reviews within a two-year period.

That approach was the middle of three options the agency considered for its proposal. The lesser option was to keep recorders optional. The greater was to require them industry-wide.

Hill did not say definitely that the agency will switch to the universal option - he is precluded by law from discussing the proposal in detail - but this marks at least the second time he has indicated that the agency is looking at a stricter approach.

Last December he told Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.: "Even though in our proposed rule we have limited the number [of carriers covered], I am looking to expand the population of carriers that would be covered by that significantly."