Seventh Circuit Vacates Electronic Recording Rule for Trucks

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, based in Chicago, vacated the final rule of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Adminstration (FMCSA) approving the use of electronic on board recorders (EOBRs)on some trucks. In an Opinion issued recently the federal appellate Court ruled that FMCSA's rule was "arbitrary and capricious" because the Agency failed to consider a regulatory requirement that the use of monitoring devices for hours of service violations not be "used to harass vehicle operators."

The Seventh Circuit's action represents the latest challenge to FMCSA revisions to hours of service (HOS) regulations, which have been successfully challenged in the past. In 2003 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit also ruled the Agency's HOS rules were arbitary for its failure to consider the impact of the rules on the health of drivers. Public Citizen v. FMSCA, 374 F.3d 1209 (D.C. Cir. 2004). Again, in 2007 the D.C. Circuit struck down the Agency's latest attempt to revise the HOS regulations for not allowing meaningful comment on driver-fatigue model used nor explaining why the model was adoped. OOIDA v. FMSCA, 494 F.3d 188 (D.C. Cir. 2007).

This most recent challenge to the HOS rules was brought by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, Inc. (OOIDA).