Electronic On Board Recorder (EOBR) mandate may be postponed   

The Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee may need more time to gather expert opinion on details of how the program will work. For example, the technical standards for communicating electronic information from the EOBR to a laptop in a law enforcement vehicle have not been worked out. In addition, it is not clear who will be responsible for equipping 12,000 CSVA-certified law enforcement personnel with the technology required to interact with an EOBR. It is also not clear how EOBRs should account for incidental truck moves such as when a police officer asks a driver to move a parked vehicle. Drivers are also expected to be allowed some personal off-duty driving time such as travelling for dinner. Finally, EOBR providers suggest that it may take a year or more to work out the hardware and software changes required to comply with the new regulations.

The FMCSA had planned to issue its final rule in June of 2012, but that target appears unlikely to be met. Carriers will have three years to comply once the final rule is issued. I remain convinced that mandatory EOBRs are a good idea for the industry and the general public, but the devil is in the details and it is important to be fair to drivers and to have a smooth implementation.

You can read more about the likely postponement in Transport Topics.