FMCSA May Require All CMVs Have Wireless Electronic ID

Last week, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) published an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking requesting feedback on whether the agency should require all commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) “to be equipped with electronic identification (ID) technology capable of wirelessly communicating a unique ID number when queried by a Federal or State motor carrier safety enforcement personnel.”

FMCSA's action was in response to a petition by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) and would be used to “improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the roadside inspection program by more fully enabling enforcement agencies to focus their efforts at high-risk carriers and drivers.” Currently, FMCSA and state enforcement authorities already can wirelessly scan license plate and DOT numbers as means of identifying carriers, however FMCSA states this is not always a reliable method of carrier and driver identification.

NRMCA will continue to monitor the issue and provide comments to FMCSA. While still early in its promulgation, the proposal leaves more questions than answers; namely, will this be required on all new trucks or will retrofits be required of in-service trucks; if this is supposed to focus on high-risk carriers and drivers then why require it on all CMVs; what if a carrier is strictly intrastate, but crosses a state line at some point for an extraordinary reason; why can’t current methods be improved first; what implications does this have for autonomous trucks and who can access this information? There are also many other questions not currently addressed in the proposal.

FMCSA will accept comments on the proposal until Tuesday, November 22. Click here to review the proposal. For more information, contact Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org.