In February 2009, the Canadian Trucking Alliance wrote to the Federal Minister of Transport calling for leadership in the creation of a National Safety Code standard for Electronic Onboard Recorders (EOBRs) that is harmonized nationally and internationally with the United States.
An EOBR is a device used to automatically track, collect, and record electronic information about the operation of commercial motor vehicle and its driver.
The National Safety Code standard for hours of service (NSC Standard 9) requires drivers to fill out paper log books. The standard also allows the use of electronic media provided it captures the information required by the standard as set out by the associated federal and provincial regulations.
The European Economic Community has mandated a form of the technology for several years and CCMTA established an industry led project group to examine EOBRs during development of the new hours of service standard. However, work progressed sporadically as the collective attention of industry and governments focused on other priorities, and the project was abandoned in 2003 pending U.S. developments. Since then, however, there have been a number of developments that have brought the need to consider a national EOBR standard back to the forefront.
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A research project has been underway since 2001 involving Quebec, Ontario, and Transport Canada to: test EOBRs to demonstrate their use in an operational environment; evaluate their ability to enhance motor carrier fleet operations, safety, and enforcement; assess costs and benefits and stakeholder attitudes; and, determine minimum requirements for their use in intra provincial, inter provincial and international operations.
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In August 2006, Transport Canada issued findings from a report that concluded EOBR technology was readily available; that log book falsification is relatively high; that EOBRs can contribute to road safety; that EOBRs represent an improvement over paper logs; that privacy concerns can be managed; and EOBRs will level the playing field.
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The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is currently reviewing EOBR rules for the motor carrier industry in the United States. The Administration issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making in January 2007 but the rule has not been finalized as they consider their options and appropriate course of action.
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In December 2008, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) held an International EOBR Symposium aimed at initiating discussion and addressing the challenges both industry and enforcement face. Among the top issues identified was the need to have uniform enforcement, follow uniform standards for EOBRs, make EOBRs mandatory, and make them tamper proof.
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Since 2007, the number of truck and bus operators voluntarily using electronic log books for hours of service continues to increase along with requests from carriers and vendors for rulings from individual jurisdictions on the compliance and acceptance of electronic log book applications. The result, if left unchecked, is the proliferation of ad hoc policies and disparate standards.
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In some jurisdictions auditors are now able to utilize a carrier’s satellite (GPS) records as supporting documents when verifying compliance with hours of service rules during audits. Some industry stakeholders argue that it is unfair to use satellite records kept by companies because it provides an unfair advantage to companies who use traditional paper records that are more difficult and labour intensive to review.
The need for governments to act in unison to address this confluence of events is clear, and in April 2009 the Council of Deputy Ministers directed CCMTA to explore issues related to EOBRs and report back with recommendations in the fall of 2010.
November 2009
