This fall, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago will hear from truck drivers like those who have received tickets in Independence and Bishop about a new monitoring system which truck drivers say violates the Fourth Amendment.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association says that Electronic Logging Devices are basically warrantless searches, because the gadgets track truckers’ locations in real time; the OOIDA also says that the ELD mandate is not cost-effective. For its part, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration counters that ELDs will make highways safer and level the playing field between large and small operators.

The FMCSA also says that truckers have a lower expectation of privacy due to a “long tradition of close government supervision.”

Safety Scores/SMS

“Close government supervision” is a nice way of saying “very intense regulation.” One of the newest such rules is the FMCSA’s relatively new Safety Management System. Employers scrutinize SMS scores when they look to hire new drivers, or retain the ones they have, and insurance companies use SMS scores to assess risk and set premium amounts. These scores measure seven different areas, including:

• Crash history,
• Moving violations,
• Safety infractions, and
• Recordkeeping issues.

An attorney can help keep your score as low as possible in these areas. Assume that first responders issue a citation at the scene of an accident, but a court later rules that the driver was not responsible. In most cases, the government uses the law enforcement data instead of the judicial finding, so the trucker’s score is artificially high. The same is true of recordkeeping violations, because FMCSA compliance is a maze of confusing, and sometimes contradictory, rules.

Getting Legal Help

The aggressive lawyers at Bigger & Harman, APC, are committed to giving individuals a voice when dealing with speeding and traffic tickets. Call today at 661-859-1177 or email attorney@markbigger.com to receive the personal professional attention you deserve. En español, llame al 661-376-0214.