GPS data to be used to monitor trucking companies’ compliance with federal regulations

As a trucking safety trial lawyer, I’ve been bemused at the reluctance to fully utilize widely available GPS technology for trucking regulatory enforcement. Under a policy issued in 1997, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration limited the use of technology data and electronically produced records, such as GPS, during reviews and for regulatory enforcement purposes.

Now, effective 12/19/08,according to a report by Barb Kampbell at TheTrucker.com the FMCSA will use GPS and other advanced technology for regulatory enforcement and safety reviews.

Ken Shigley is a trial attorney in Atlanta, Georgia who has been listed among the “Legal Elite” (Georgia Trend Magazine), as a “Super Lawyer” (Atlanta Magazine), and in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers (Martindale). A former chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Litigation Institute, Mr. Shigley is on the National Advisory Board for the Association of Interstate Trucking Lawyers of America, and is a frequent national seminar speaker for the Interstate Trucking Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice. A Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, he is Secretary of the 40,000 member State Bar of Georgia.