ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Jan. 6, 2005) — The American Trucking Associations has taken stern exception to the proposed rule on hours-of-service-related “supporting documents” in comments filed with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

ATA opposed the proposal that would require carriers to identify, systematically file and keep for at least six months “any and all” paper documents and electronic data that could possibly be used to verify the accuracy of a driver’s logbook.

“The agency does not accomplish the purpose of defining ‘what are supporting documents,'” the ATA comments said, “but adds to the current confusion by making an untold amount of business records potential supporting documents.”

ATA recommended that FMCSA provide carriers the opportunity to establish a self-monitoring system using documents and data determined by the carrier and, during a compliance review, measure the effectiveness of the system against a performance benchmark.

— from Truckinginfo.com