EOBR White Paper

Text of Proposed EOBR Mandate in the Highway Authorization Bill

SEC. 4036. ELECTRONIC ON-BOARD RECORDERS.

(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall issue regulations to require commercial motor vehicles owned or operated by motor carriers subject to the Secretary’s hours-of-service regulations under part 395, Code of Federal Regulations, to be equipped with electronic on-board recorders.

(b) PERFORMANCE STANDARDS.—The regulations issued pursuant to subsection (a) shall include performance standards for electronic on-board recorders to be used to monitor compliance with the Secretary’s requirements for hours of service of drivers under part 395, Code of Federal Regulations. Such performance standards shall ensure, at a minimum, that an electronic on-board recorder installed in a commercial motor vehicle—
(1) is synchronized to the vehicle engine or other vehicle equipment;
(2) is able to identify each individual who operates the vehicle and track the periods during which such individual operates the vehicle;
(3) enables law enforcement personnel to access information contained in the recorder quickly and easily during a roadside inspection; and
(4) is tamper-proof.

(c) APPLICABILITY.—The regulations prescribed under subsection (a) shall be phased in and shall apply to all commercial motor vehicles used by motor carriers in interstate commerce not later than 4 years after the date of the enactment of this Act.

(d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) COMMERCIAL MOTOR VEHICLE.—The term ‘‘commercial motor vehicle’’ has the meaning that term has under section 31132 of title 49, United States Code.
(2) ELECTRONIC ON-BOARD RECORDER.—The term ‘‘electronic on-board recorder’’ means an electronic device that acquires and stores data showing the record of duty status of the vehicle operator and performs the functions required of an automatic on board recording device in section 395.15(b) of title 19 49, Code of Federal Regulations.

Oberstar's highway bill would mandate EOBRs for all carriers within 4 years

ATA conditionally supports an EOBR mandate, Public Citizen endorses EOBR mandates as well

Oberstar seeks mandatory truck EOBRs

Now Congress is getting in on the act, calling for mandatory EOBR's. First, it was repeated attempts by the NTSB (who has no authority over such matters) to require EOBR's, then three were 2 attempts in the last 7 years by the FMCSA.

Click on the link to read Rep. Oberstar's white paper on the subject.

Transport Ministers get on-board with CTA's call for an EOBR mandate

And now the latest news from Canada; they are now seriously considering an EOBR mandate.

GPS Fleet Tracking Helps Firms Weather the Tough Economy

Below is an excerpt from the Aberdeen Group in the UK - but it applies here in the US:

Yet another research report confirms that in this tough economy, GPS fleet tracking is helping companies maintain customer-satisfaction levels, optimize vehicle usage and control service-related costs.

The recently released report titled “”Service Workforce and Fleet Management: Driving Utilization with Location Intelligence,” published by the Aberdeen Group, found that major firms are turning to GPS vehicle tracking to “increase visibility into all service resources via GPS.”

Fleet operators who responded to the study report that they currently monitor and track the location of 35% of their workers and 47% of their vehicles. That’s up from averages of 23% for workers and 35% for vehicles in 2008. The respondents also indicated they planned further investments in GPS tracking systems in 2010.

“These results are indicative of the value offered by GPS-enabled tracking, navigation and routing solutions in meeting cost containment and customer management pressures faced by today’s service and manufacturing organizations,” an Aberdeen senior research analyst said.

The survey said responding firms have seen the following average improvements in key service performance indicators since they installed a GPS tracking system:

•25% reduction in idle times
•32% increase in fleet utilization
•22% decrease in fuel costs and a 31% drop in daily mileage
•23% boost in workforce productivity
According to the survey, responding firms are “significantly more likely than all others to actively integrate captured location information and intelligence into their field service scheduling and parts management systems to drive overall service delivery efficiency.”

The recent surge in similar reports confirms for us what we’ve known all along: There’s no better solution than GPS fleet tracking to help fleet operators rein in costs and improve employee productivity.