A coalition of carriers, drivers and safety interest groups have banded together to press lawmakers to include an electronic onboard recorder (EOBR) mandate in the highway bill they are drafting.
In a letter to leaders of the House-Senate conference committee, the groups strongly urged that the mandate in the bill be kept intact.
The letter was signed by Bill Graves, president and CEO of American Trucking Associations, as well as leaders for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Teamsters union, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance and the Truckload Carriers Association, among others.
The EOBR mandate is included in the Senate’s two-year, $109 billion highway bill.
Concurrently, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is working on technical standards for performance and certification on its own EOBR proposal.
While the bill is not required for the FMCSA to implement an EOBR mandate, it’s believed the law would give the agency further direction and perhaps strengthen the case for EOBRs in the likely event that the mandate is challenged in court, notes Heavy Duty Trucking magazine.
