WASHINGTON Drivers of commercial vehicles shouldnt be cited for having a laptop within their view, at least not under the federal safety regulation that bans televisions, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has told state safety inspectors.

The FMCSA made its views known at the annual conference of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance in Winnipeg, Manitoba, last month.

Thomas Yager, FMCSAs chief of driver and carrier operations, detailed the laptop issue during a PowerPoint presentation at the CVSA meeting. The bottom line of Yagers presentation was that the TV regulation does not apply to laptop computers.

Last spring, commercial vehicle inspectors in Arizona briefly wrote tickets and issued warnings to truck drivers with laptops open in their cabs, citing the anti-TV rule in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation in 1995.

One truck driver was ticketed at the San Simon (Ariz.) Port of Entry under FMCSR 393.88, which prohibits commercial drivers from keeping screens capable of receiving a television broadcast within their view when they are at the wheel. Subsequently, Arizona issued a handful of warnings to other truckers.

Arizona suspended its practice after a trucking publication questioned the citations. Next, the Arizona DOT sought legal guidance from the FMCSA as to whether FMCSR 393.88 applied to laptop computers.

Participants at the CVSA conference noted that technology is developing faster than regulations that govern commercial vehicle drivers.

"Micromanaging how people use technology actually gets into driver behavior," said one trucking industry executive. "If somebody doesnt watch the road because theyre watching a movie well thats inattentive driving so cite them for it. Theres a big difference between attacking the technology, and criticizing someone for how its being used."