WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration wants to explore the issue of driver harassment and coercion and determine the extent to which electronic onboard recorders could be used to either harass and/or monitor driver productivity.
To do so, the agency is proposing a driver and carrier survey on the topic, according to an Information Collection Request (ICR) that can be accessed at the Federal Register.
An ICR is a set of documents that describe reporting, record keeping, survey or other information collection requirements imposed on the public by a federal agency.
The request must be approved by the Office of Management and Budget before a collection begins.
Through various processes, the FMCSA said it wants to survey more than 1,000 respondents, including over 500 drivers and 400 carriers.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association challenged the rule in court based in part on concerns that EOBRs could be used to harass drivers.
On Aug. 26, 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated the April 2010 rule, saying that contrary to statutory requirements, the agency had failed to address the issue of driver harassment, including how EOBRs could potentially be used to harass drivers and ways to ensure that EOBRs were not used to harass drivers.
More about EOBRs in the trucking industry from CDL Life.