In The News

DOT bans hand-held cellphones for commercial drivers

Attention truckers and bus drivers. If you use a cellphone while driving and do not yet have hands-free technology, you could soon face a serious fine and possible disqualification once a new rule takes effect. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has announced the rule late this week, which prohibits the hand-held use of cellphones for CMV operators.

The latest action follows a 2010 rule that prohibits texting while driving a commercial vehicle, and it comes with the same set of fines and penalties – up to $2,750 for a driver and up to $11,000 for a carrier that enables or forces drivers to engage in the behavior. Multiple offenses can lead to a disqualification of a driver’s CDL.

The rule, authored by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, applies to commercial operators engaged in interstate commerce as well as intrastate haulers of hazardous materials. LaHood made the announcement Wednesday, Nov. 23, and the rule will take effect 30 days after it is officially published to the Federal Register.

Similar to the texting rule, the hand-held rule targets specific actions to discourage distracted driving. The use of hands-free technology is still allowed under the rule.

Distracted driving has been a major focus of the Department of Transportation since 2009. Secretary LaHood has said that anything that takes a driver’s eyes or focus away from the task of driving is a distraction, and various regulatory actions have ensued at the federal, state and local level.

OOIDA filed comments during the rulemaking process, calling FMCSA’s treatment of research into question.

“The final rule banning hand-held cellphone use for CMV operators involved in interstate commerce has been anticipated in spite of inconclusive studies supporting the premise that hand-held cellphone use is a safety issue with truckers,” OOIDA Director of Regulatory Affairs Joe Rajkovacz said Wednesday.

Rajkovacz points out that research by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute – the same research that showed the dangers of texting while driving – also shows that talking and listening on a hand-held phone pose little, if any, risk for commercial drivers, and that hands-free talking and listening actually has a protective effect on drivers.

“The announced final rule is full of caveats such as may , may not and believe instead of definitive terms actually establishing linkage between hand-held cellphone use and decreased highway safety for CMV operators,” Rajkovacz said.

In comments to the agencies, OOIDA said that without an enforcement mechanism, a rule banning cellphone use violates a trucker’s Fourth Amendment rights. But the authors of the rule were dismissive of those concerns.

“FMCSA refused to detail an enforcement plan for this rule,” said Rajkovacz.

“Instead, the agency stated they’ll work with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s training committee to develop uniform enforcement procedures. Importantly, FMCSA stated that ‘nothing in the rule authorizes enforcement officers to require a driver to make a mobile telephone available so that the officer can review call history for the purpose of enforcing this rule.’ Truckers do in fact have rights.”

In comments to the agencies, OOIDA raised an issue with the term “reaching” as it pertains to distraction, since truck drivers routinely and safely reach for equipment controls in the cab.

In response, the FMCSA revised the final rule to say a driver is allowed to “reach for the compliant mobile telephone, i.e. hands-free, provided the device is within the driver’s reach while he or she is in the normal seated position, with the seat belt fastened.”

OOIDA leadership questions why other risky activities have not been addressed in the rule, such as the constant communications that some drivers are forced to send and receive through fleet-management devices.

The agencies did not directly address an issue raised by OOIDA about the use of cellphones for GPS navigation. Many operators choose to use a cellphone for navigation rather than purchase a separate GPS device.

One thing was clear from the agencies, and that is the door remains open to more regulation.

“FMCSA is considering an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to seek public comment on the extent to which regulatory action is needed to address other in-cab electronic devices that may result in distracted driving,” the agencies stated.

See related story:
The right call?

www.LandLineMag.com