The United States Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) today announced the release of a supplemental proposed rulemaking which will require the use of electronic logs for commercial drivers of trucks and busses engaged in interstate commerce.

According to the FMCSA’s news release, the new rule, if adopted as currently proposed, would, among other things:

• Respect driver privacy by ensuring that ELD records continue to reside with the motor carriers and drivers. Electronic logs will continue to only be made available to FMCSA personnel or law enforcement during roadside inspections, compliance reviews and post-crash investigations.
• Protect drivers from harassment through an explicit prohibition on harassment by a motor carrier owner towards a driver using information from an ELD. It will also establish a procedure for filing a harassment complaint and creates a maximum civil penalty of up to $11,000 for a motor carrier that engages in harassment of a driver that leads to an hours-of-service violation or the driver operating a vehicle when they are so fatigued or ill it compromises safety. The proposal will also ensure that drivers continue to have access to their own records and require ELDs to include a mute function to protect against disruptions during sleeper berth periods.
• Increase efficiency for law enforcement personnel and inspectors who review driver logbooks by making it more difficult for a driver to cheat when submitting their records of duty status and ensuring the electronic logs can be displayed and reviewed electronically, or printed, with potential violations flagged.

The stated goal of the action is to increase safety by reducing the ability of CDL drivers to alter their log entries, and thus increase compliance with present hours of service rules (HOS) and other restrictions.  FMCSA notes that some 12% of accidents involving large trucks and busses in 2012 listed driver fatigue as a factor.  This new NPRM supersedes a similar proposal released in 2011.

Here is a link to the press release announcing the action:

http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/about/news/news-releases/2014/release-14-03-13.aspx

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