Future EOBRs will be all-encompassing

TORONTO, (Oct. 11, 2004) — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration wasted little time in responding to a U.S. court’s suggestion to reevaluate several aspects of its final hours-of-service regulation. Told by the U.S. Court of Appeals to revisit the issue of electronic onboard recorders (EOBR), the agency has published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on the devices once commonly referred to as “black boxes.”

The FMCSA is requesting comments on potential amendments by Nov. 30 to its HOS regulation concerning the devices. The purpose is to ensure any future mandate concerning EOBRs would be appropriate as well as reflect state-of-the-art communication and information management.

In July, the U.S. Court of Appeals threw out the federal government’s hours-of-service rule and sent it back to FMCSA for review because the agency failed to comply with a statute requiring the agency to consider the impact of the rule on “the physical condition of the operators.” While the court didn’t officially rule on EOBRs, it did chide the FMCSA on several other troublesome aspects of the rule, including the FMCSA’s decision not to include in the final rule the earlier proposal to require EOBRs.

“[We] cannot fathom why the agency has not even taken the seemingly obvious step of testing existing EOBRs on the road, or why the agency has not attempted to estimate their benefits on imperfect empirical assumptions,” the court said.

While the FMCSA has for years studied older devices, rapid developments in electronic technology have made them increasingly obsolete, the agency says, adding that the proposal therefore addresses the possibility of allowing motor carriers to use modern devices as part of the hours-of-service requirement.

“There’s been years of research on EOBRs, however it’s only been in the last several years that there’s been advancements in the technology that we haven’t taken a look at yet and need to explore,” FMCSA spokesperson David Longo told Today’s Trucking. “There’s a void there that we need to fill, starting with public comment.”

Rob Pallante, vice-president of PeopleNet Communications Canada, believes new in-cab technology has evolved to meet many of these standards. He says new EOBRs will likely be a convergence to a single source, all-in one device. The on-board system will mesh mobile communications like vehicle tracking and routing software, with data reporting, like ECM codes and electronic driver logs.

Pallante says the company’s new on-board computer, the g3 just introduced last week, incorporates much of the technology that future EOBRs will likely have to meet.

“The technology that we have available today is a much better fit,” he says. “It’s more flexible, as being forward and backward compatible, to adapt to whatever mandates are handed down.”

— read the complete story in the October print edition of Today’s Trucking