ELECTRONIC LOGGING DEVICES (ELD’S) WHICH KEEP TRACK OF COMMERCIAL TRUCKERS’ LOCATION, HOURS OF OPERATION AND MILES DO NOT FACILITATE UNREASONABLE SEARCHES; THE TRUCKING INDUSTRY IS HEAVILY REGULATED AND THE ELD’S AIM TO PREVENT DRIVER FATIGUE (CT APP).
The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Troutman, determined the electronic logging devices (ELD’s) which record the location, engine hours and mileage of commercial motor vehicles (CMV’s) do not facilitate unreasonable searches, The commercial trucking industry has been regulated for decades to prevent accidents due to drivers’ fatigue and the ELD’s contribute to that end:
Before us is a facial challenge to the constitutionality of New York regulations adopting a rule promulgated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration requiring the installation of electronic logging devices in commercial motor vehicles. We hold that the warrantless inspections authorized by the regulations fall within the administrative search exception to the warrant requirement and do not constitute unreasonable searches and seizures under article I, § 12 of the State Constitution. * * *
… [P]etitioners correctly concede that there is a long tradition of commercial trucking being subject to comprehensive regulations. Regulation of commercial trucking, including regulation of “the maximum hours of service for commercial drivers,” extends back more than eighty years both in New York and on the federal level … . Those regulations are in keeping with this State’s “vital and compelling interest in safety on the public highways” … .
CMV operators therefore have “a diminished expectation of privacy in the conduct of that business because of the degree of governmental regulation” … , and “may reasonably be deemed to have relinquished a privacy-based objection” to an “intrusion that will foreseeably occur incident” to applicable regulations … . More particularly, … commercial truck drivers have a diminished expectation of privacy in the location of their vehicles because of their participation in a pervasively regulated industry. Matter of Owner Operator Ind. Drivers Assn., Inc. v New York State Dept. of Transp., 2023 NY Slip Op 03184, CtApp 6-13-23
Practice Point: Electronic Logging Devices (ELD”s) which keep track of the location, hours of operation and mileage of commercial trucks aim to prevent driver fatigue and do not facilitate unreasonable searches.