Poultry Industry Opposes Mandatory Fleet Recorders

On May 27, 2011, in Regulatory, by Phouth Gonzalez

The National Chicken Council, the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, and the National Turkey Federation in comments filed this week with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) expressed their opposition to FMCSA’s proposed rule requiring companies to install electronic on-board recorders on their truck fleets.

The joint comments said that a number of poultry companies have already installed on-board recorders and benefitted from the technology.  However, the comments said, many other companies have and continue to successfully utilize paper logs to monitor and comply with the hours of service regulations.  FMCSA’s April 2010 regulation already requires on-board recorders for motor carriers that are found to have a high rate of violations regarding hours of service, but the proposed rule would not necessarily guarantee a higher level of compliance, the trade groups said. Instead, the proposed rule would impose an unnecessary expense on carriers that are successfully complying with the current hours of service regulations using paper logs.