Judging by the findings of a recent government-led study, event data recorders (EDRs) — better known as “black boxes” — are destined to become required safety gear on the nation's trucks.

Three years in the making, the report was prepared by the Event Data Recorder working group set up by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Motor Vehicle Safety Research Advisory Committee.

And advisory is the operative word, as the group's members, drawn from government, academia and suppliers, were charged only with fact-finding and not making recommendations.

Nonetheless, the facts they turned up will make it hard to argue against mandating black boxes on board trucks. The ten findings presented in the report's executive summary, and paraphrased here, strongly support using EDRs on commercial vehicles:

• The data from EDRs has “the potential to greatly improve highway safety,” by aiding such activities as improving occupant-protection systems and making crash reconstructions more accurate.

• EDR technology has potential safety applications for all classes of motor vehicles, including heavy trucks.

• Future EDR systems may be designed to capture a wide range of crash-related and “other” data elements.

• NHTSA has already incorporated EDR data collection in its motor-vehicle research databases.

• “Open access” to EDR data (minus personal identifiers) will benefit researchers, crash investigators and manufacturers in improving highway safety.

• U.S. and European studies have shown that driver and employee awareness of the presence of an onboard EDR reduces the number and severity of crashes.

• Different EDR systems may be required to meet the needs of specific vehicle classes.

• The degree of benefit derived from EDRs is directly related to the number of vehicles with them and the infrastructure's ability to use the data they generate.

• Early notification of the location and nature of serious collisions can be gained with automatic crash notification systems that integrate onboard crash sensing and EDR technology with other electronic systems.

• Most EDR systems use proprietary technology and require the manufacturer to download and analyze the data.

While all that bodes well for the adoption of EDRs as safety devices, the specter of using them for regulatory enforcement also looms over the report. “Data recorders for commercial vehicles might include functionality to act as electronic logbooks for drivers' hours of service,” the authors note, without elaboration.

That expansion of EDR's role, of course, is not a far-fetched concept. But it's the aspect of data recorders that most unnerves drivers and, for that matter, many fleet owners who object to Big Brother riding along in the cab. On the other hand, there are many truckers who no doubt would love to see the day they never have to touch a paper logbook again.

The authors do concede that there are “unresolved privacy concerns relating to who owns the data, who can access and make use of the information (including leasing, rental and insurance companies) and who might store individual and anonymous/grouped data on a permanent basis.”

However, they pretty much dismiss those concerns by almost casually adding that “in the absence of more specific guidelines, data can be obtained with the permission of the vehicle's owner.”

Translation: Like it or not, black boxes are on their way to a truck near you.