FMCSA rethinks supporting documents

Agency offers incentive to use electronic tracking technology

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has decided not to require any motor carriers to retain certain documents related to drivers’ hours of service and will relieve carriers that use electronic mobile communications and tracking technology of the burden of maintaining numerous other supporting documents in order to verify driver logs. In a related move, FMCSA now will allow drivers to scan their logbooks as an alternative to creating a second handwritten duplicate logbook. (See “FMCSA offers alternative to duplicate logs,” page 23.)

The new regulatory guidance and policy, which was published in the June 10 Federal Register and takes effect July 12, will benefit carriers that have faced additional scrutiny since December 2008 when the agency adopted a policy of treating the data from electronic mobile communications and tracking systems as supporting documents that could be demanded in a compliance review.

In 1997, FMCSA’s predecessor published a list of more than 30 types of supporting documents that carriers needed to retain in order to verify logs. In its new regulatory guidance, the agency said that certain documents in that list no longer are used regularly by enforcement staff and no longer will be required of any motor carriers.

In general, FMCSA will continue to require other types of supporting documents that were listed in April 1997, but carriers using qualifying electronic mobile communications and tracking technology that capture time and/or position location information now will be relieved of the requirement to retain many of the remaining supporting documents.

In order to take advantage of this paperwork relief, however, motor carriers cannot challenge in HOS enforcement proceedings the accuracy of their own electronic mobile communications and tracking records. The new regulatory guidance spells out the specifications that electronic mobile communications and tracking systems must meet in order to qualify for the paperwork relief.

FMCSA’s new guidance and policy comes as the agency and the American Trucking Associations have been negotiating a settlement for several months of a lawsuit ATA filed in January regarding supporting documents. ATA’s suit, which was prompted in large measure by FMCSA’s December 2008 enforcement memorandum, seeks to compel the agency to issue a long-overdue regulation governing HOS supporting documents. The trucking group argued that without a regulation, carriers did not have clarity and certainty over what supporting documents were required.