MYTHS’

6. EOBRs are not enforceable — roadside officers will just “wave you through.”
Kraft: Kraft referenced CVSA’s North American inspectors’ championships, where he says he saw firsthand how some jurisdiction are “getting impressive with the knowledge inspectors have of these systems. The idea that you’re just going to get waved through isn’t there anymore. And inspection screening is getting much better — carriers with low violation rates are just not going to be screened.” All the same, carriers who’ve implemented EOBRs, he added, have an advantage over others in this day and age.

Lowry: “We here in Utah have a top-hands competition the highway patrol competes in, and then they do it on a national level. They’ve invited me the last two years to teach them about EOBRs – what the myths are and how the systems actually function. They are required to be recertified yearly. Local folks are getting more trained on how to read the EOBRs – on the different types, they stay up to date. One benefit I’ve found is that you don’t have worry about when a driver arrives having them on the right duty status. It does it automatically. Enforcement can get everything at a quick glance, too.”

Dinino: “Certainly, our numbers have been reduced in terms of inspections and violations – a direct result  of the EOBRs. What it does do is make an awareness available to us [on where] to heavily concentrate our maintenance issues to have a clean inspection when we are inspected. While the inspection rate has dropped, the violation rate has dropped exponentially.”