FMCSA opens floor for driver commentary on EOBRs

EOBRThe Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will hold a public listening session Thursday, April 26, in Bellevue, Wash., to solicit information, concepts, ideas and comments on electronic onboard recorders and the issue of driver harassment.

This session will allow interested drivers and persons to present comments, views and research FMCSA should consider in developing its Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.

The agency wants to know what factors, issues and data it should consider as it addresses the distinction between productivity and harassment: what will prevent harassment from occurring; what types of harassment already exist; how frequently and to what extent harassment happens; and how an electronic device such as an EOBR, capable of contemporaneous transmission of information to a motor carrier, will guard against – or fail to guard against – harassment.

The listening session will be at the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance meeting in Bellevue, 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. PT, in the Grand Ballroom IJK on the 2nd floor of Hyatt Regency on Bellevue Way N.E.

The session will be recorded, and a transcript of the session will be placed in the docket for FMCSA’s consideration. The listening session also will be available via webcast and will allow for email comments during the online broadcast.

FMCSA will post specific information on how to participate via the webcast at fmcsa.dot.gov in advance of the listening session.

For more information about the session or the webcast, contact Shannon Watson, FMCSA senior advisor for policy, at (202) 385-2395 or [email protected].

FMCSA held its first listening session on the topic in Louisville on March 23, where several drivers and owner-operators expressed disdain for EOBRs.