WASHINGTON It appears federal safety regulators will not be issuing rules this year that require nearly all over-the-road buses and trucks to have electronic onboard recorders.

A Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration spokeswoman confirmed that a mandate in 2012 is not likely.

The agency probably will not even issue a supplemental - or second - proposed rule until "late 2012 or early 2013."

The rulemaking process for electronic onboard recorders originally included a 2010 final rule for roughly 5,000 carriers with serious hours-of-service compliance violations, and a separate proposed rule issued in January 2011 for virtually all interstate bus and truck operators.

The remedial EOBR final rule (that is, the first one) was originally set to take effect in June of this year but it was struck down in August by a U.S. Court of Appeals, which said the FMCSA had failed to assure the devices would not be used to harass drivers.

As a result, the agency in November dropped the remedial rule, and has sought to revise its proposed EOBR rule for all interstate drivers.

FMCSA now says it will, in effect, consolidate the two rules into a universal mandate for nearly all interstate carriers with new language intended to address the courts driver harassment concerns.

Speaking at a session of the Transportation Research Board, FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro said her agency plans to schedule "listening sessions" to gather input for the proposed mandate.

"We have an opportunity in the months ahead to do a series of listening sessions to learn more from drivers and carriers and others what is meant by harassment," Ferro told TRB attendees.

The agency will incorporate technological recommendations from the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Board and other information it has gathered throughout the previous rulemakings, she said.

"We will work very aggressively to continue to advance an electronic onboard recorder rule that makes sense," Ferro said.