LITTLE ROCK — A group of trucking companies, including J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. of Lowell, hopes to sidestep the federal agency regulatory process to hasten adoption of electronic devices intended to track the amount of time a driver can spend behind the wheel.
The proposed Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Enhancement Act of 2011, if approved by Congress and the president, would extend the use of electronic onboard recording devices to all companies that operate big rigs.
The legislation was submitted to the Senate Commerce Committee last week by Democratic Sens. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia.
“Members of our group think we can move faster if we look at the legislative process,” rather than moving through the regulatory process that can take as long as 10 years from development to implementation, said Bill Vickery, a spokesman for the Alliance for Driver Safety and Security.
The new bill will get another look by Senate committee members this week, said Vickery, who’s also a representative of the Arkansas Trucking Association in Little Rock. Backers hope the measure will be included as part of a twoyear federal highway bill.
The Highway Authorization Act, which is an estimated $109 billion appropriations bill, has been extended eight times since its 2009 expiration. The current extension ends March 31, according to Transport Topics, a trade publication affiliated with the industry’s most powerful lobbying group, the American Trucking Associations.
Alliance members include J.B. Hunt, Maverick USA of North Little Rock, Knight Transportation of Phoenix, U.S. Xpress Enterprises Inc. of Chattanooga, Tenn., and Schneider National Inc. of Green Bay, Wis.
Members have said use of the devices will make highways safer, although some non-Alliance carriers have reported that using the devices results in improved regulatory compliance but not necessarily improved safety.
Trucking companies are responsible for their drivers’ compliance with federal rules called “hours of service” that limit the amount of time drivers can spend behind the wheel.
Drivers say current regulations don’t require them to sleep, or rest, during off-duty periods. But fatigued driving remains on a top-five list of carrier violations, according to Transport Topics .
Paper logbooks can be used to track a driver’s daily driving limits. But critics say the logbooks are easily manipulated, which is another reason given by carriers that favor electronic record keeping.
Many corporate fleets use the in-cab devices, which cost an estimated $350 per truck plus a monthly fee.
This is not the first time the Alliance has sought mandatory use of the devices.
The group’s initial political push came in September 2010 and again in March, when a proposal called the Commercial Driver Compliance Improvement Act was introduced by Pryor and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. The bill has been in the committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation since then.
Vickery said language from the Alliance’s latest effort is the same as that found in the March proposal, also known as Senate Bill 695. The bill proposed a three-year implementation timeline.
The new proposal uses a similar time frame and gives the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration one year to issue a rule and the industry an additional two years to install tracking devices.
The legislation also broadens the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s original proposal that would have required use of the devices only by trucking companies which had violated the industry’s hours of service regulations.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration doesn’t comment on pending legislation, Shashunga Clayton, a spokesman for the agency, said via e-mail Monday.
Business, Pages 23 on 12/13/2011