The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is increasing its use of Global Positioning System history logs as supporting evidence in 18 wheeler and other commercial drivers’ hours-of-service audits, an executive with Qualcomm Inc. said last week.
Norm Ellis, Qualcomm’s vice president and general manager for transportation and logistics, said the company had “seen an uptick” in FMCSA’s use of electronic data in enforcement actions.
Electronic data, such as the position logs generated by GPS-based tracking systems and electronic onboard recorders, have been used by FMCSA since December, when it lifted a more than decade-old moratorium on using electronic data to verify hours. The agency now requires carriers using GPS tracking and EOBRs to retain data generated by these systems for six months.
GPS efficiently manages and tracks drive times to ensure compliance with Hours of Service (HOS) regulations by tracking drivers’ duty status with wireless timesheets. GPS can verify accuracy of driver logs. The use of GPS technology will advance safety in the Trucking Industry to the motoring public.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
