Private bus operators with DOT numbers to provide interstate transportation services have the next two months to comment on a newly published proposed rule that seeks to require electronic on-board recorders (EOBRs) to monitor hours-of-service compliance for all drivers.

The technology is installed in commercial vehicles to automatically record the number of hours a driver is behind the wheel. FMCSA said the NPRM would relieve motor carriers from retaining certain HOS supporting documents such as delivery and toll receipts that are used to verify the total number of hours that drivers spend behind operating the vehicle.

Instead, FMCSA-2010-0167 would use EOBRs to replace Records of Duty logbooks that document driver HOS. Short-haul interstate carriers that use time cards to document HOS would not be required to use EOBRs. If made a final rule, carriers that fail to comply could be fined up to $11,000 for each offense, and a carrier's safety fitness rating and DOT operating authority could be negatively affected. Motor carriers would have three years from the effective date to comply. FMCSA found that 96 percent of passenger motor carriers in the agency's Motor Carrier Management Information System would be considered small businesses.

The NPRM also affects interstate commercial trucking companies.

The NPRM is the latest federal effort to increase interstate driver safety. Last April, FMCSA issued a final rule that mandates EOBRs only for interstate carriers with serious patterns of HOS violations. Carriers with a 10 percent HOS violation rate will receive a remedial directive to install EOBRs in all their vehicles. NSTA noted last spring that, despite an abundance of comments that the EOBR mandate should include all carriers, FMCSA declined to broaden the scope at that time.

In publishing the NPRM, the Department of Transportation continues its partnership with Cornell University on the e-Rulemaking Initiative, which is designed to foster more transparency at the federal government level and to elicit more public participation in rulemaking efforts through the online Regulation Room.