Appeals Court Vacates FMCSA's EOBR Final Rule
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has decided to vacate the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s final rule requiring motor carriers that are substantially non-compliant with the hours-of-service (HOS) regulations to install electronic onboard recorders (EOBRs) to monitor their compliance. This case was brought before the Court by three commercial truck drivers and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) who petitioned for review of the final rule.
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The Court concluded that the rule cannot stand because FMCSA failed to consider an issue that it was statutorily required to address. Specifically, the Court stated FMCSA said nothing about the requirement that any regulation about the use of monitoring devices in commercial vehicles must "ensure that the devices are not used to harass vehicle operators." Accordingly, the Court granted the petition and vacated the rule.
The American Trucking Associations (ATA) CEO Bill Graves states that ATA supports FMCSA’s efforts to mandate the adoption and use of electronic logging devices for HOS compliance. ATA hopes FMCSA will work quickly to address the Court’s decision and the device design and performance specifications being evaluated by the FMCSA's Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee. ATA statement is available here.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 04/05/10 news, 10040515, for BP summary of this FMCSA final rule which incorporated new performance standards for EOBRs for commercial motor vehicles manufactured on or after June 4, 2012.)