Federal regulations proposed Jan. 11 would require truck and bus companies with a history of serious hours-of-service violations to install electronic on-board recorders in all their commercial vehicles for a minimum of two years.

The proposed rule also would encourage industrywide use of recorders -- commonly referred to by drivers as "black boxes" -- by providing incentives for voluntary use, said Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration chief John Hill, who made the announcement in Washington, D.C.
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Are "worst offenders of hours of service regulations" able to get a job to begin with???

 

I vote no unless company's want to start paying by the hour.

 

I hate to say it, but sooner or later they are coming. More and more companies are going over it. I know that come March my company is going to it for logging, paperwork, navigation, and tracking.

I think that when companies are losing money because they can not get frieght moved due to the fact the OBR's will just about force us to run legal, the companies will look at different pay rates and less time at the docks.

 

One thing that may come out as a result of this is the fact/proof that many ARE running illegal. Less freight being delivered will definitely send up a red flag that some illegal runs are happening. This is both good and bad. I think they need to set some sort of matrix and focus on the companies that exceed it. Best case scenario is that the industry will have to start thinking smarter and running more efficiently. Those that are running legal will love it because they won't have to fight with ops to stay legal. The monkey will be off their back. Those that like to cook the books will hate big brother in their business all the time. If it identifies some irresponsible drivers and saves lives I don't see how any responsible driver could have a problem with it.

 

Well, if you have a qualcomm then it's already been happening. It is just a matter of how they work with the data.

 

For one they are not talking about individual drivers. They are talking about trucking companies. Companies who score bad enough will have to have EOBR's installed in order to keep their operating authority.

Secondly, log violations are not considered moving violations. While they can get you shut down until you come into compliance and cost you some serious money, once the fine is paid there is no official record of the violation that will come up on a standard MVR. (Personally I never understood why they are not moving violations. Might improve things if it cost drivers points just like speeding.) So when a driver switches jobs the new company will have no idea unless the previous company chooses to report it, and most will not.

 

I agree with that 100%. HOS violations genneraly mean a tired driver as it is. If drivers had to worry about it affecting their license, I'd be willing to bet most drivers would "FALL IN LINE" and obey the laws. What the easy thing to do in theory is hire law abiding drivers, who are honest about their available hours.

Though I'm sure we'd all agree that would never happen :roll:

 

The problem is, you get a lot of drivers out there who feel that they HAVE to run illegal at times in order to make money. They don't think of the consequences before they do it, they just do it. Part of that is on the companies, the driver's CPM is low so they try to get every extra mile they can into their paycheck. As someone else already said, if you run by the book, this will not bother you. This could actually help you in some cases, ie a lawyer trying to nail you for being sleepy and at fault when it was their clients fault for pulling out in front of you and getting themself killed. Box would show the truck had only been moving for 5 hours when the wreck occurred and that you did hit the brakes.

 

Lots of the fuel companies up here run them. The big companies.
That being the reason I won't run for a big company.

 

To tell the truth I welcome them in my truck. The reason is that most companies will replace the paper logbooks with them and as lazy as I am I would rather push a button to do a duty change than to write everything down.