Are the electronic on-board recorders required by the proposed HOS rule too expensive?
Not at all. A large portion of the currently extensive problem of violations of the HOS requirements consists of driving in excess of the maximum permitted hours. EOBRs are important contributors to strengthening federal and state oversight and enforcement of HOS limits. Although EOBRs cannot directly monitor how a driver actually spends his or her off-duty time, they can control the time windows in which actual driving occurs so that truck and bus operators do not exceed safe limits of time spent behind the wheel. As for the expenses of buying, installing, and maintaining EOBRs, the FMCSA’s benefit/cost analysis estimates the cost per unit in the range of $1000 per truck. However, the agency believes that the cost per unit to own and maintain EOBRs will be significantly less than this amount; especially after economies of scale both in the costs of production and in the marketplace take hold after a compliance schedule is triggered by the adoption of a final rule. Moreover, recent inf
