CVSA eyes electronic IDs

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance has made multiple attempts to get the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to mandate a technology that opponents often refer to as “trackers on trucks.”

Those attempts have not been successful. Now, CVSA aims to get the tech mandate included in the next highway bill. If successful, FMCSA would be mandated by Congress to issue a final rule requiring universal electronic vehicle identifiers on new commercial vehicles.

The mandate tops the list of CVSA’s legislative priorities.

CVSA, a group of local, state and federal officials focused on commercial motor vehicle enforcement, said the mandate would allow officials to identify vehicles from a short distance.

The group has argued that the technology is needed because jurisdictions don’t have the resources to inspect every commercial motor vehicle. The electronic ID would allow enforcement to focus on high-risk carriers.

“Deployment of this technology would revolutionize the way commercial motor vehicle roadside monitoring, inspection and enforcement are conducted, exponentially growing the program and improving roadway safety,” CVSA wrote.

CVSA Deputy Executive Director Adrienne Gildea said the tech wouldn’t track the vehicles or acquire any information about the drivers.

“There are no credible privacy concerns,” CVSA wrote. “No sensitive information, such as driver information and data, would be transmitted, and the vehicle would share only the universal vehicle identifier. The universal vehicle identifier, potentially tied to the vehicle identification number, would then be used by enforcement to access information that is already required to be displayed or made available to enforcement by existing regulation.”

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association voiced concerns about a slippery slope and pointed out that a 2022 notice suggested that more information could be transmitted.

“Does CVSA really expect truckers to believe the only thing anyone wants universal electronic IDs to transmit is what is already available on a license plate?” asked Collin Long, OOIDA’s director of government affairs. “If that was the case, then why did the proposed rule they petitioned for include information like the driver’s hours of service, medical certification, axle weight, pre-trip inspection date and time, and more? A new promise from CVSA is meaningless when we’ve already seen behind the curtain. The well was poisoned in 2022 and CVSA should move on, rather than trying to get Congress to bite on a widely panned proposal that has no connection to safety.”

CVSA first petitioned the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to mandate the tech in 2010.

In 2022, FMCSA issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking that considered requiring all interstate commercial motor vehicles to have an electronic ID.

OOIDA and individual truckers immediately opposed the proposal, saying it would not improve safety and would violate the privacy of truck drivers.

“OOIDA and our members oppose this proposal in the strongest possible terms,” the Association wrote in comments signed by President Todd Spencer. “Our members have been extremely clear that this concept is an unwarranted intrusion into their privacy, as well as an overly costly and burdensome requirement that does nothing to improve their efficiency or safety.”

In all, the advance notice received more than 2,000 comments. Many of the comments came from individual truckers who cited concerns about privacy and government overreach.

The opposition was strong enough that FMCSA moved the rulemaking to the back burner in 2023, and no action has been taken since.

Personal conveyance

Although it is not included in the group’s legislative priorities, CVSA also plans to make another push for stricter rules regarding a truck driver’s use of personal conveyance.

As of press time, CVSA said it planned to petition FMCSA about off-duty driving in late July.

CVSA petitioned FMCSA in 2020 and 2022 to create a maximum distance or time regarding a truck driver’s personal use of a commercial motor vehicle. Both times, CVSA’s petition was denied.

In the 2022 petition, CVSA argued that 61% of violations logged as personal conveyance were an attempt to conceal hours-of-service violations. However, FMCSA said the statistic proves violations for misuse of personal conveyance are already being enforced.

Gildea confirmed that the group will petition FMCSA again.

“CVSA supports revising the definition of personal conveyance to include a set limit (2 hours) and to clarify the regulations to allow for consistent, correct application of the duty status,” Gildea wrote in an email to Land Line. “The current definition of personal conveyance is incomplete because it does not provide a limit on how long the driver can travel under the personal conveyance designation.”

According to FMCSA guidance, a truck driver may use a commercial motor vehicle for personal conveyance as off-duty only when he or she is relieved from work by the motor carrier. The truck can also be used for personal conveyance even when it is laden as long as the load is not being transported for the benefit of the motor carrier. Personal conveyance does not count against a truck driver’s hours of service.

FMCSA provided seven examples of appropriate use of personal conveyance.

1. Time spent traveling from where the driver is parked for the night to restaurants and entertainment facilities
2. Commuting between the driver’s terminal and his or her residence, between trailer-drop lots and the driver’s residence and between work sites and his or her residence
3. Time spent traveling to a nearby, reasonable, safe location to obtain required rest after loading or unloading
4. Time spent moving a commercial motor vehicle at the request of a safety official during the driver’s off-duty time
5. Time spent traveling in a motorcoach without passengers to a place of lodging (such as a motel or truck stop) or to restaurants and entertainment facilities and back to the lodging
6. Time spent transporting personal property while off-duty
7. Authorized use of a commercial motor vehicle to travel home after working at an offsite location

FMCSA also provided eight scenarios that would not qualify as personal conveyance.

1. Bypassing available resting locations in order to get closer to the next loading or unloading point or other scheduled motor carrier destination
2. After delivering a towed unit, and the towing unit no longer meets the definition of a commercial motor vehicle, returning to the point of origin under the direction of the motor carrier to pick up another towed unit
3. Continuation of a commercial motor vehicle trip in interstate commerce in order to fulfill a business purpose
4. Time spent driving a passenger-carrying commercial motor vehicle while passengers are on board
5. Time spent transporting a commercial motor vehicle to a facility to have vehicle maintenance performed
6. After being placed out of service for exceeding the maximum periods permitted under part 395, time spent driving to a location to obtain required rest, unless so directed by an enforcement officer at the scene
7. Time spent traveling to a motor carrier’s terminal after loading or unloading from a shipper or a receiver
8. Time spent operating a motorcoach when luggage is stowed, the passengers have disembarked and the driver has been directed to deliver the luggage

OOIDA opposes any efforts to restrict the use of a trucker’s personal vehicle when off-duty.

“A commercial motor vehicle driver’s time is already overregulated in terms of when they can drive and when they can rest,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer wrote in comments to FMCSA in 2024. “There should not be any additional restrictions on how a driver can use his or her own personal time. We have supported FMCSA’s denial of petitions that would establish personal conveyance limits. We urge the agency to uphold this guidance and protect the use of personal conveyance moving forward.” LL