WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will not appeal a recent court ruling vacating the upcoming electronic onboard recorder (EOBR). Instead, they will address the court’s concerns regarding "driver harassment" in a revised version.

The rule requires carriers with a 10 percent or greater hours-of-service (HOS) violation rate to install EOBRs on all their vehicles. It’s a precursor to a broader mandate that would require EOBRs on nearly all trucks operating in the U.S.

Back in August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit agreed with a challenge from owner-operator groups that the rule fails to protect drivers from "harassment" through EOBR technology, and the FMSVCA didn’t consider how drivers should be protected. The court then vacated the rule and sent it back to FMSCA for review.

The decision to not appeal the court ruling was mentioned in an announcement of a pending meeting of the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC). The agency will remove the sections the court found wanting and will post a new version at a later date.

While the agency does say in the rule that it is legally obligated to prevent harassment, it does not go into detail on how that will be implemented. The court asked the FMSCA to describe the exact steps it will take to prevent harassment. It needs to consider the types of harassment that already exist, how frequent and widespread it is, and how EOBRs will either allow or prevent harassment.

In the meantime, the agency wants MCSAC to continue to work on the technical detail of the rule. The committee, made up of a panel of 19 officials from the industry, enforcement community and labor and safety advocacy groups, has been working at the agency’s request on recommendations for EOBR standards and is slated to finish by the end of the year.

They are considering how best to handle data security, the transfer of data from the onboard recorder to the inspecting officer, and certification of inspecting devices.