WASHINGTON -- The much-anticipated final rule for electronic on board recorders (EOBRs) in the U.S. may not make it into the rulebooks in the waning days of the Bush administration.

According to Truckinginfo.com, quoting a report in Traffic World, Federal Motor Carrier Safety (FMCSA) administrator John Hill said he didn't know if the rule was going to be published in time, adding: "it doesn't look like we are making progress at this point."

A final rule requiring motor carriers to install EOBRs -- once known as black boxes -- was expected to be published by the end of 2008.

The FMCSA's original plan called for EOBRs for a minimum of two years for carriers and owner-ops deemed "most likely to be a safety hazard on the road." Carriers charged with two serious HOS review violations (with a rate of violation greater than 10%), in a two-year period, will have to fit their fleet with EOBRs.

Under this system, only about 1,000 of the nearly 700,000 carriers FMCSA regulates would fall under the regulation.

However, because of pressure by the National Transportation Safety Board and other independent groups, FMCSA reportedly toughened up the final version of the regulation.

NTSB was urging the agency to require Electronic On-Board Recorders by all motor carriers, regardless of HOS records. It's unknown whether FMCSA adopted that mandate or something similar.

"It's still not as far as a lot of people would like me to go, but it's significantly more than what we had proposed," Hill said at a recent conference.

- with files from Truckinginfo.com