EOBR Mandate Awaiting House GOP Approval

Last week, the Senate passed a bill which will spend $109 billion on roads and highways over the next 2 years. In this bill, which passed 74-22, the Senate attached a mandate which will force everyone to get Electronic On-Board Recorders (EOBRs) in their trucks.

The bill now moves to the House. If the House approves the Senate version of the bill, it becomes law, and EOBRs will be mandated for everyone. Normally, I would say, no problem, the Tea Party GOP freshman have got my back. There is no way they are going to let this massive, expensive, burdensome regulation become law. Remember, the EOBR mandate was one of Obama’s Top 7 most expensive regulations, which was identified to Speaker Boehner in August, 2011.

But do they have my back? For one thing, the vast majority of the GOP representatives probably don’t even know this huge regulation is in the bill. Secondly, the House, and the Speaker are under enormous pressure by the Government Media to pass this bill, which will save the economy. Note: this bill will do nothing to save the economy. All it will do is spend another $109 billion of our children’s money.

Finally, the American Trucking Association (ATA) is pushing for the EOBR mandate, because they believe it will give them an economic advantage over the small truckers. So, on the one hand, you have the Government Media, the “safety” advocacy groups, the Teamsters, the Democrats, the FMCSA, and the ATA. On the other hand, you have small business. As Bob Dylan said, “you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows”.

Questions

I think I put a post about the “Ask Eric” part of this blog at some point in the past, but I will do it again. Somewhere there must be a way you can post questions on this website, because when you do, apparently I get them emailed to me for approval. I must then go into the site, approve the question, and then answer it. I freely admit, I do not answer these questions as frequently as I would like. Often I am busy with other matters. Plus, remember, I am basically answering the questions for free.

Nevertheless, I am going to try in the future to answer these questions. I understand how frustrating it is when you are trying to get the right answer, and have nowhere to turn. There is very little point in calling the government. Your chances of getting someone who either 1) has the time to talk to you, and 2) cares enough to give you an answer are not good. I guess that’s why people turn to google and end up with me.

A few points on getting your questions answered more quickly by me. One, the shorter, the better. If you are asking a 5 point question, which basically translates into “please discuss at length all of the regulations to which I am subject”…. that’s going to get skipped. That regulation book is hundreds of pages long. I can discuss at length the book, but not for free, and not in 50 words. Two, ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ are always appreciated. Three, if you have a complex question, offering to pay for my time is always a way to get my attention.

DOT Scraps Plans to Consider Preventability in CSA

This comes to us from TruckingInfo.com. The FMCSA has halted efforts to consider the preventability of accidents in their CSA system. What does this mean, and why does it matter to you? This is the answer to a question I am asked over and over and over again. Eric: I have two accidents on my CSA record that aren’t my fault, how do I get them off of there? Answer: you can’t!!!! It cannot be done.

The way the CSA system works is that they gather up all the roadside inspections and all the accidents by everyone who has a DOT number, put them in a big computer, crunch them all up, and whoever has the most accidents, and the worst inspections, gets the highest CSA scores. That is an oversimplification, of course, but mostly that’s correct. Unfortunately, there are so many accidents, DOT does not have the manpower to read and investigate every accident to determine whether it was your fault or not. So, they simply count them all, regardless of whose fault it was.

If they actually come in to your office to do an audit, they will take into account the preventability of your accidents in determining your official safety rating. The safety rating is the one which is Satisfactory, Conditional, or Unsatisfactory. However, your CSA score will stay the same. Your non-preventable accidents will stay on your CSA record.

‘But wait a minute!’, you say. ‘I have two accidents on my record where a car ran into the back of my truck! I want them off there!’ Tough. ‘But what about due process in the CSA system? My insurance carrier and shippers see these accidents on there, and they don’t like it.’ Did you say due process and CSA in the same sentence? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I mean, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh damn, man, that’s funny. You only get due process on TV.

According to the article in Truckinginfo.com, the FMCSA recognizes this is a problem, but simply does not have the manpower, or the interest in fixing it. So, if you have a bunch of non-preventable accidents on your record, sorry about your luck.