MARKHAM, Ont. — “Please, get to the FMCSA website and post your comments. You gotta do that.”

That straight talk came from Cari Baylor, the director of sales at Milan, Indiana,-based Baylor Trucking.

Baylor is also on the board of directors of the American Trucking Associations (ATA) and was one of the guest speakers at a Shaw Tracking Executive Conference in Markham last Friday.

Baylor was talking about the advantages of electronic onboard recorders when she digressed and strongly appealed to the audience to get online and make their voices heard.

Specifically, she referred her audience to the FMCSA’s Feb.28 deadline for comments on the agency’s HOS re-engineering project. “You’ve only got two weeks left to comment.”

“The new rules aren’t based on safety,” she told the audience, adding that with driving time more precious than ever before, the new system could lead to drivers cutting corners, like doing pre- and pos-trips "in a minute."

You know that’s not legal.”

She also reiterated reports that ATA will file suit if the new regs are implemented as proposed; and the brass at the ATA has said as much to the Obama administration.

Baylor said the new HOS rules will definitely cause huge delays in the shipment of goods, adding “every minute matters.”

“To us, one minute delay anywhere is $1.32 to our bottom line. You have to start practicing that.”

If you want to know more, the FMCSA is holding a “Public Listening Session” this Thursday, Feb. 17. starting at noon and continuing to midnight. To encourage maximum public participation, the entire session will be webcast at www.fmcsa.dot.gov.

FMCSA officials will take online comments and questions from the public starting at 12 noon until 12 midnight EST.