On June 27, 2012, Congress passed the $109 billion transportation and infrastructure bill, which contains a possible mandate for electronic on-board recorders “EOBRs.” Following the passage of the bill, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will make a decision concerning the mandatory EOBRs within a year.
In response to the bill’s passage, the main opponents of the legislation, the Owner-Operator Independent Driver Association “OOIDA,” have vowed to continue to disregard safety and fight the possible mandate. Todd Spencer, OOIDA’s executive vice president, has laughably argued that EOBRs are no more reliable than easily manipulated and falsified handwritten paper logs. Which is easier and more likely to occur: a truck driver falsifying a handwritten, paper log book in order to remain on the road and increase profits or a truck driver hacking into a sophisticated computer program to falsify his hours of service? The answer is obvious and OOIDA should be ashamed for taking such an anti-safety, “profit over people” position that jeopardizes the safety of the American public, including the owner-operators that it represents.