The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) and the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) are opposing federally mandated on-board recorders for trucks, according to information from the associations.
OOIDA and TCA filed comments November 30 with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). According to OOIDA, such a regulation “would not only be unconstitutional, but that it would not provide any more accurate records of HOS (hours of service) compliance than existing paper logs do.”
Among the TCA concerns are: privacy issues; cost, not only for installation of the devices, but also other potential start-up costs, replacement costs, additional monthly charges, training costs for industry and the enforcement community, and additional hardware costs; potential reinforcement of the current driver shortage problem; the question of who owns the recorder data; and what the association said are the current limitations of the technology.
The American Trucking Associations has estimated that hardware and installation for global positioning satellite (GPS) tracking devices total more than $1,500 per vehicle, and annual communication costs may exceed $1,000 per vehicle, depending on the uses.
The association comments follow a FMCSA proposal for the recording devices to document driver compliance with hours-of-service rules. FMCSA earlier acknowledged some of the concerns apparent in its notice and asked for comments to be filed by the end of November 2004.