The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has proposed making permanent a pilot program under which Werner Enterprises drivers may substitute electronically generated logbooks in place of handwritten records.
Since 1998, Omaha NE-based Werner has replaced handwritten logbooks with those automatically produced by Qualcomm GPS technology and complementary computer software programs.
“Based on this experience, the agency believes that the terms and conditions of the exemption would achieve a level of safety equivalent to, or greater than, that provided by complying with the current records of duty status (RODS) requirements,” says a statement in the Federal Register.
Comments on the proposal are due by Jan 12, 2004.
