Coalition of Small Business, Trucking, Energy, Agriculture Opposes ...

An unusual coalition has come together to oppose a Senate provision from being included in the final federal transportation bill.

The National Federation of Independent Business, the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, the Agricultural Retailers Association, the Petroleum Marketers Association of America and severl others have joined the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association in opposing a proposed new mandate to install electronic on-board recorders (EOBRs) on commercial motor vehicles. Learn more about the issue from our story ?Trucking Provision in Transportation Bill Divides Industry.?

Here?s the text of the coalition?s letter:

?As representatives of organizations whose members directly or indirectly depend upon commercial motor vehicles, we write in opposition to a provision in the Senate?s surface transportation legislation (MAP-21) that would mandate electronic on-board recorders (EOBRs) on every single one of the millions of commercial motor vehicles in use across the country.

Many of the members we represent are small businesses operating on extremely thin margins. They have been impacted by significant new regulatory burdens that have driven up their costs of doing business while still fighting to gain a footing in our slow to recover economy. Instead of adding new unproven and unnecessary regulatory burdens to industry, Congress and the Administration should be taking steps to ensure that burdens are limited to those that are absolutely essential.

All of us are committed to making our highways safer, but the Department of Transportation has not made a clear case that the safety benefits of an EOBR mandate outweigh the costs, especially for a blanket mandate as envisioned in MAP-21. Because of this, any use of EOBRs for HOS compliance should be voluntary and not forced through a federal government mandate costing industry at least $2 billion.

As such, we urge the Conference Committee to remove EOBR language from the final surface transportation bill.?

Learn more about who supports the Senate proposal and why from our story ?What Commercial Vehicle Safety Advocates Want in Final Transportation Bill.?

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association is the largest national trade association representing the interests of small-business trucking professionals and professional truck drivers. The Association currently has more than 150,000 members nationwide.

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