An independent trucking group is urging a federal appeals court panel to stop a government regulation that would require drivers to use electronic logging devices to track their hours on the road, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Guidelines established by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will require most trucks in long-haul routes to install the devices by late 2017, according to the report. The FMCSA believes the devices, often called e-logs, will make it easier to enforce limits on how long truckers can drive before having to take a break and thus lower accidents. Federal law requires truckers to stop driving after 11 hours on the road.
The Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association argues the logging devices would violate millions of truckers' privacy since the government and employers would be able to track their movements, the report states. The group's lawyers also said employers could use the e-log data to make truckers drive in unsafe conditions when they haven't reached their time limits for driving.
While many large trucking fleets already rely on e-logs, some smaller trucking companies and independent drivers with their own trucks do not want to buy the devices — which can cost $500 each — and argue they can manually track driving hours through a paper log book.
The OOIDA filed a lawsuit in 2011 that shot down a similar e-log regulation. This most recent version of the regulation has strict limitations on who can access and use data from the e-logs, said Joshua Waldman, JD, on behalf of the U.S. government.
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