The FMCSA is all dressed up and ready to miss another deadline. By the end of the day today, they will have missed yet another deadline to publish rules on the use of Electronic Onboard Recorders (EOBRs).
To be fair, the FMCSA is still waiting on the ruling to clear the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, but this will mark the fourth month in a row that the FMCSA has failed to meet their own target date to publish a proposed rule that might mandate the use of EOBRs by all drivers.
The rule was initially supposed to be published no later than a year after the MAP-21 act which required it was signed in to law in July 2012 and then go in to effect no more than two years after that.
The FMCSA has not released any definitive information on what the proposed rule will contain, but according to an article published on OverdriveOnline, a report issued by the DOT in July of last year says that the rule is supposed to establish the four following items:
- Standards for EOBR devices themselves
- The requirement that all drivers use them
- Requirements of supporting hours of service documents
- Safeguards to ensure fleets and enforcement officials can’t use EOBRs to harass drivers.
Though it is not known if the FMCSA is still planning to include all of these items, the second requirement should be of particular interest to all drivers.
Next Story: Fuel Efficiency Standards To Be Tightened For Trucks
James Beam says
Guess I’ll be flippin hamburgers, make the same amount of money. Plus I don’t want to be out on the road with the influx of new drivers this will create.
David S. McQueen says
The FMCSA has been told not to publish an NPRM (Notice of Proposed Rule Making) in the Federal Register. The Obama regime doesn’t want to ruffle feathers prior to the mid-term elections. Yes, MAP-21 (the “law of the land”) requires the FMCSA to promulgate ELD/EOBR rules, but, hey, the hallmark of the Obama regime is to ignore those laws it doesn’t agree with. You and I can’t do that but the empirical presidency of Lord Obama can, even though the US Constitution requires the president “take care that the laws be faithfully executed”. See Sec. 3, Art. II.
Brian White says
What a surprise. FMCSA misses another deadline. The real story is the insatiable appetite this administration has for regulations in the trucking industry. I believe that a mandate for EOBR use is exactly what the mega-carriers want. A company that has hundreds, if not thousands, of power units can and probably will find a way to minimize the cost of the EOBR for each unit. And, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they found a way for the federal government (you and me) to pay for most or all of the cost.
The small independent trucker, the companies with a small fleet, are being driven out of business by the never-ending deluge of regulations from the supreme ruler of all things, the Obama administration.
As I compose this reply, I’m working off yet ANOTHER 34 hour restart. Truck parked, not making any money for my family. Sure, the truck needs maintenance, but I can’t even do THAT without violating the rules.
So here we are. Work to be done, but the rules won’t allow it. Once again, an example of rules and regulations being made that punish law-abiding citizens, instead of focusing on the drivers & companies that couldn’t pass a level one roadside inspection if their life depended on it.
Pat says
These rules and regs are all industry driven guys. Go back to the Bush days and check where all this started you will see the big mega carriers finger prints on most of these new and up coming regs. It is their way to put the little guy on the curb and keep a very watchful eye on their drivers. If you follow OODIA at all they talk about the same thing. Big Business rules the road.
Mike Tarnowski says
how can you be a O/O if you are told how and when to do your job. If we are forced to install
EOBR i will be done . this work sucks now it will only get worse
Michael says
I am doing a research project on logging systems, as part of my graduate studies. I talked to a gentleman at FMCSA about whether electronic, paper logs or a combination of both would be sufficient for drivers. Also I asked could there be a provision written for drivers that are on electronic logs now; which would allow them to move their truck if they timed out at the shipper/ receiver and was not allowed to stay on the property. If you have ever had this happen to you, then you know what I am talking about…. You get to the shipper/ receiver at the specific time. You have plenty of time left on your clock, but because they took forever to get you loaded/ unloaded, your 14hr clock timed out. Knowing that you are going to timeout on their property you ask them, “do you allow overnight parking because I am timed out and I cannot legally move my vehicle?” When the person says “no you cannot stay here” what are you to do? You have to move your truck, but once you do you are in violation of your log books. I ran into this multiple times when I was a flatbedder.
The person at FMCSA said that electronic log books are the best way to keep both commercial and other motorists safe. I asked, “have you ever been an over the road driver and know what they have to go through?” His answer, no I have not. I asked, “how can you make regulations on something you have no personal experience in?” He did not have an answer and reverted back to saying electronic are safer. .
For the timing out problem, his answer is, “the drivers should plan better.” I said sir I was a flatbed driver, at one time, and this happened to me more than once. It is not the drivers fault that the shipper/ receiver took hours to get them unloaded/ loaded. So why should they be punished for something that is not their fault? He did not have an answer for that either.
From what little I did talk to the guy, he would not listen with an open mind. It is their way or the highway. A driver does not need a computer to tell them when they are tired, their body will do that.
Be safe!
John S says
Good read, from a drivers point of view I believe only a driver can determine his or her time to rest. Given so may variables as health, age, if your sick, or what weather you have driven in. Or if it would be safer to drive a bit more to reach a safe place. As variable as trucking is, we don’t need more micro management. We need more common sense to deal with pay, hours worked and proper rest for the job we are doing. A driver who unloaded a truck for hours, might be more tired then one who drove for 10. Setting limits was good when most trucking was the same. Now we have so many types from local, regional, dedicated, LTL and delivery.
I worked a driving job where I logged less then 100 miles but worked 15 to 16 hours because I unloaded most of those. Its hard to define a blanket regulation that fits well.
WING says
You might as well have been talking to Anne Ferro..of FMCSA fame. Has the same qualifications and proved what I just stated with her boot licking OOIDA stunt, riding in a stretch sleeper for 2 days.
Never a driver… not even an also ran. Just a 1% princess who was not elected . Came from presidency of Maryland Motor Carriers Asc.
Might as well have been riding around in a limousine. Nothing against chauffeurs.
Blue007 says
This country and this industry needs a new STRIKE! Hell with these companies and hell with this government! Shut down your trucks for a week and demand what’s ours, FREEDOM!
John S says
Strike will never solve our problems. Your talking old solutions that have yet to work in such a large diversified industry like trucking. The solution is elect people with a understanding and commitment to help the industry not hurt it. But you also have to improve public perception and give them a reason to support your plight. The public perception of trucking has never been worse, because local and national news media demonize us as killers of the highway.
They see pee bottles and aggressive truck drivers and develop a negative towards us. If drivers want support, they have to find ways to convince the public and government they deserve it. Otherwise special interests will continue to find ways to regulate us even more.
WING says
3 days shuts down the banks….. a week closes hospitals for a lack of supplies. One day is sufficient to get the government and media’s attention… a grocery store, once the public finds out,…. see media coverage above( they will try to hide the story) will clear in hours…unless the store is closed and that will happen quickly with a management decision. The trucker will be blamed. People will be terrified…. hope the first ones are Public Citizen Group…Anne Ferro of the FMCSA and MADD/PATT, etc.
Americans as a whole are spoiled and arrogant, get most everything with immediate gratification.
I had this conversation with a small group of non-drivers 3 days ago and they freaked out. Last
November, had to wait at the DMV for a MVR and had this conversation with two other drivers and you should have seen the terrified looks from the other people waiting/sitting for their driver’s licenses!
A strike is not an old solution…. a strike puts a red flag on a problem that is totally ignored by the general public and Trucking industry managers that have enslaved the trucker since 1938 with the coming of age of the Fair Labor Standards Act…..a criminal piece of legislation that had the effect of stooping over 40 hours of work pay of overtime for drivers…in part due to coming out of the Great Depression…. have drivers ever elected people with an understanding and commitment to help the driver…in quantities more than one..?
Not Obama or Ray LaHood or Anne Ferro!
Just Park In Place..
For One Day….
need a bunch of billboards across the country to start it rolling to a Halt.
Alex says
Go ahead and strike.
I’ll just pick up your slack, doing the loads that you’ll miss out on. All while using a EOBR.
I’ll be sure to honk as I drive by you guys.
WING says
No slack involved…. so YOU have sold your soul to an EOBR. Your freedom for a buck.
A buck in this country is worth a million dollars in government debt. You know…inflated to the point it is worth nothing…..
A time comes when you say enough is enough. When you say there will be no camera watching your every move….. . When it’s time to put you on the clock and get paid by the clock..not pro miles. When you set for 10 waiting for the load that was supposed to be ready 8 hours ago…
and your family at home is wondering if your are gonna bring home the bacon….so you can put shoes on their feet and clothes on their backs.
I see your point, though….. Buzzards have to eat too.
Ray says
If the day comes when I cannot find a trucking job that doesn’t do this I’ll look for something else to do. At my company they are moving to install these cameras on all their trucks to my dismay. I almost quit a few weeks ago when I got my new truck. Happily, they removed it. To my dismay many of our drivers tolerate it. Some even say they want it. It’s strange how on the forums about 90% say they are against it. In reality about 90% accept it.
Drivers, an outward facing dash camera with no microphone is enough! Having an inward facing camera with a microphone studying every facial expression for fatigue is an invasion of privacy. We don’t need somebody listening to our private conversations on the phone, or watching us undress and stuff. You guys believe that crap about it only recording 30 seconds before and after an accident? Guess what? You are definitely being lied to. Those parameters can be overridden at any time.
This industry has gone from very much needing regulating to very much being over regulated. There needs to be a balance. We’ve gone from one extreme end of the spectrum to the other extreme end of the spectrum. It’s up to the drivers to stand against this. The last time that happened was 60 years ago. That’s a difference between Americans and many European countries. Americans just take it. European citizens revolt. We need to take a greater stand.
WING says
Rightly said Ray. I was blacklisted by a company( I turned their sorry selves into the Colorado State Patrol(friends of the company) who did nothing and neither did media outlets, a transportation attorney, OSHA,etc., and I have videos, pix and DVIRs’ to show the unsafe conditions) and now work through a temp agency. Had to run a mail load and on the return leg…the DriveCam had the right l.e.d.s’ blinking in unison, for three hours, which meant I was being recorded for that amount of time….started when I slowed normally from 65 to 55 to 45 to 35 before each speed limit sign into a town on a two lane road know for a vicious speed trap. All the way to the yard.
The parameters were definitely ‘OVERWRITTEN’!
Something we must all remember… is that the management is a younger generation accustomed to entitlement, instant gratification…FacePlant/Twitterpated,etc…. where every detail is splattered on the net for the whole world to see, about every detail of your life… and socialists like The OBAMA generation love to dictate that you have no personal rights to anything…anymore!
John S says
Sounds like they are not totally onboard with this at all. So we dump regulations pertaining to freight rates, but enact EPA, driver and health regulations up dramatically. All this tells me, is that they want slave labor for cheap, but don’t want unhealthy, unsafe drivers doing it. Good luck with that.
IZ says
Well, my truck WILL GET PARKED if EOBRS become law! A computer cannot tell ME when I am RESTED OR TIRED!!
Becca says
I agree with the above comments, especially Michael’s. When I started driving 16 years ago, a driver could stop the 14 hour clock to take a much needed nap….no more. So guess who has to drive tired in order to maximize that clock time? Also, teams could choose to switch drivers after six hours if the duty driver got tired….now they have to drive for 10 hours so the off duty driver can be rested…never mind that he was fully rested after six. THE RULES MUST BE OBEYED! And lastly, there is nothing more maddening than having the EOBR voice announce, every 15 minutes after you hit one hour left to drive, the remaining time you have left. I wish it would tell you where a parking spot was! Trying to find a safe legal parking place in time is extremely stressful.
Ricky says
If they pass this into law, I will be looking for a new career. Also when they do pass, which I’m sure they will, they need to pass a law that requires shippers to have you loaded in an hour! I get sick of losing money and time because of they lazy people at some of these companies that ship freight!