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This story appears in the April 11 print edition of Transport Topics.

American Trucking Associations last week endorsed a federal proposal that trucking companies use electronic logging devices to monitor driver compliance with the hours-of-service rule.

In an April 7 statement, ATA said it supported both legislation requiring the electronic logging equipment and a rule proposed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

“ATA has always been in favor of strong enforcement of safety rules and regulations. This new policy just underlines that support,” Bill Graves, ATA president and chief executive officer, said April 7.

ATA thus joins the Truckload Carriers Association and the Alliance for Driver Safety and Security in supporting the new federal initiative.

TCA’s board of directors voted to endorse electronic logging devices (ELDs) at its convention March 13 (3-21, p. 1), and in a March 31 statement, the Alliance for Driver Safety and Security said it supported the Senate bill.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has opposed the federal electronic onboard recorder (EOBR) mandate.

“What makes me feel good is that the trucking associations — TCA and ATA — are gravitating to positions of support for ELDs,” said Steve Williams, CEO of Maverick USA Inc., North Little Rock, Ark.

Williams, who chairs the Alliance, said April 7, “I think we must be doing something that makes sense to a broad swath of interests.” Alliance members include Schneider National, Maverick USA, J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Knight Transportation and U.S. Xpress Enterprises, carriers that already have installed EOBRs on many of their trucks.

“Electronic onboard records are the logical step in the pursuit of safe highways,” Williams said in a March 31 statement.

ATA said it backed requiring the devices, provided they are “cost-effective,” protect the privacy of fleet and driver data and relieve fleets of the obligation to retain paperwork supporting driver HOS reports.

The Commercial Driver Compliance Improvement Act, introduced March 31 by Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), would require all interstate trucks to use EOBRs for HOS compliance within 18 months after passage (4-4, p. 4).

The Senate bill, a new version of legislation introduced last year, would create consistent standards for the devices, including requirements that they be tamper-resistant and capable of communicating with the truck engine’s control module.

“The Alliance is certainly pleased that Sens. Pryor and Alexander have reintroduced the legislation,” Williams said.

“The bill includes some important provisions relating to device design and performance specifications,” said Rob Abbott, ATA’s vice president of safety policy. “However, ATA will advocate for some needed improvements in the legislation.”

“Specifically, the bill does not offer any provisions for data protection, nor does it address supporting documentation requirements for carriers that install or use the devices,” Abbott said.

While ELD is a term often used interchangeably in the industry with EOBRs, an ELD is technically a device that is capable of recording HOS compliance data and does not necessarily include all of the additional functionality often found in EOBRs, Abbott said.

The Pryor-Alexander bill broadly follows a more detailed proposed rule that FMCSA issued Jan. 31 that would require EOBRs for an estimated 500,000 U.S. interstate carriers.

Abbott said ATA also “generally supports” the proposed FMCSA rule, but “has concerns with certain elements of it.”

Dave Osiecki, ATA’s senior vice president of policy and regulatory affairs, said, “Many fleets already use these devices, and they report not only compliance and safety gains, but also improved efficiency.”

The FMCSA proposal calls for interstate carriers that currently use record of duty status logbooks to document drivers’ HOS to install EOBRs to “systematically and effectively” monitor their drivers’ compliance with HOS requirements. Shorthaul interstate carriers that use timecards to document drivers’ hours would be exempt from the requirement.

While motor carriers subject to the proposed EOBR requirements would still need to retain some supporting documents, they would be relieved of the requirements to retain documents to verify driving time, the agency said.

Carriers that violate the EOBR requirement would face civil penalties of up to $11,000 for each offense. Noncompliance also would have a negative effect on a carrier’s safety fitness rating and Department of Transportation operating authority, FMCSA officials said.

The agency said it expected to have a final rule in place by June 2012, but that motor carriers would be given three years after the effective date of the final rule to comply.

FMCSA said the cost of purchas-

ing and installing EOBRs would range from $1,500 to $2,000 per truck and would cost several hundred dollars annually for service fees. Carriers still would be required to retain HOS records for six months.

In a March 31 statement opposing the Senate EOBR bill, Todd Spencer, OOIDA executive vice president, said, “EOBRs are nothing more than overpriced record keepers lobbied by big business trucking companies to wipe out small-business competition.”

Senior Reporter Rip Watson contributed to this story.