ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Dec. 6, 2004) — The American Trucking Associations and the Owner-Operator Independent Driver Association both spoke out on the possibility of mandated black boxes for trucks last week.

The two groups were among hundreds of parties to submit comments to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in response to the agency’s announcement that it will consider mandating electronic on-board recorders as part of a revised hours-of-service rule it is required to publish by next summer.

In its comments the ATA acknowledged changing attitudes toward EOBRs in its membership, saying that more carriers are getting used to the idea. However, the ATA said government must provide strong evidence that a mandate would yield real safety benefits. The ATA said one reason for slow voluntary adoption is the possibility that black box data could be used in civil litigation. So all data must clearly belong to the fleets and off limits for enforcement beyond drivers’ HOS, the ATA said.

“It cannot be presumed or believed that there is a correlation between electronic recording and accident reduction, it must be documented,” the ATA stated. Even an assumption that EOBRs will enable federal safety investigators and enforcement officials to better verify the driver’s compliance should be proven.”

The carrier group also expressed concern with the cost of buying, installing, operating and maintaining EOBR systems.

Meanwhile, OOIDA came out swinging. In its own press release, the group said that mandated EOBR would be unconstitutional and since both electronic and paper logs require driver input, would not yield a more accurate HOS compliance record. OOIDA’s comments also suggest that carriers and brokers are a major cause of hours-of-service violations, and drivers shouldn’t be punished for those actions.

“As OOIDA has been telling the FMCSA for years, it is the on-duty, not driving demands of carriers, brokers and shippers that put the greatest pressure on drivers to violate the HOS rules,” the association’s filed comments stated.

Last week the Canadian Trucking Alliance endorsed the proposal of mandatory EOBRs for all trucks governed by the National Safety Code. “It’s imperative from a safety point of view, which of course is paramount, but also in terms of providing responsible carriers with a level playing field with competitors who might otherwise choose to bend or break the rules to increase driving time,” CTA CEO David Bradley said.

The announcement came as the CTA dropped its pursuit of a controversial proposal to extend the daily “working window” from 16 to 18 hours for the upcoming new Canadian HOS regime.

The CTA canned the idea after failing to get widespread industry support, as well as vocal opposition from unions and independent truckers.

— with files from Truckinginfo.com