Evaluating the Potential Safety Benefits of Electronic Hours-of-Service Recorders [Research Brief]

https://doi.org/10.21949/15028632014PDFBriefMotor carriersCommercial vehiclesHours of laborData recordersElectronic equipmentTraffic violationsFor hire carriersCommercial driversFatigue (Physiological condition)Data loggingHighway safetyUnited StatesUnited States. Federal Motor Carrier Safety AdministrationUnited States. Department of Transportation. Federal Motor Carrier Safety AdministrationUnited States Federal Motor Carrier Safety AdministrationThe study quantitatively evaluated whether trucksequipped with electronic hours-of-service recorders(EHSRs) have a lower (or higher) crash and hours-of-service (HOS) violation risk than those withoutEHSRs. The safety benefits of EHSRs werequantitatively evaluated by comparing the crash riskfor two exposure groups (i.e., EHSRs wereconsidered to improve safety if the trucks withEHSRs showed a lower crash risk than truckswithout EHSRs).This project conducted a literature synthesis onEHSRs and an effectiveness evaluation on EHSRs.Data were obtained through a third-party vendorthat compiled previously-generated compliance dataregarding participating motor carriers. For thisproject, EHSRs were defined as any device thatelectronically records drivers\u2019 HOS. There havebeen many variations of EHSRs over the years,such as automatic onboard recording devices(AOBRDs), electronic onboard recorders (EOBRs),and functions included in fleet managementsystems. Each of these devices has specificfunctionality that may or may not be embodied bythe term EHSR84