Coalition asks Trump to stop speed limiter proposal
During President Donald Trump’s first term in office, a speed limiter proposal fell off the regulatory radar.
A coalition opposed to a speed limiter mandate on commercial motor vehicles has asked the president to do it again.
A coalition of 17 organizations, including the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, wrote to Trump on Jan. 16. The organizations contend that a speed limiter mandate would be “bad for road safety, driver retention and supply chain performance.”
The coalition represents several industries that would be subject to a mandate, including agriculture, construction and materials, along with small, medium and large trucking companies.
“In short, this mandate will be harmful for America’s truckers and small businesses, and it will be counterproductive to improving roadway safety,” the coalition wrote days before Trump’s inauguration. “As you consider deregulatory action for your initial days in office, our coalition believes that stopping this mandate would be an ideal way to start.”
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also were working on a speed limiter rulemaking in 2016. That year, the agencies unveiled a joint proposal and noted the rulemaking in the fall 2016 regulatory agenda. Trump then took office in January 2017, and the rulemaking was left off the spring 2017 agenda.
The effort returned in 2022 under President Joe Biden’s administration, but FMCSA failed to advance a proposal with a top speed before the end of his term.
“We ask that you again remove, and ultimately rescind, this (proposal) from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s regulatory agenda,” the coalition wrote.
Overwhelming opposition
One of the reasons the previous administration wasn’t able to get a speed limiter proposal to the finish line was the number of comments submitted to FMCSA. The advance notice of proposed rulemaking prompted more than 15,000 comments, the majority coming from truck drivers who were opposed to a speed limiter mandate.
Most truckers who submitted comments said they did not want speed-limiting devices on their trucks for a variety of reasons, including dangerous speed differentials, the inability to accelerate when necessary and decreased revenue.
“It is clear the majority of drivers do not want speed-limited trucks,” the coalition wrote. “Speed-limiting trucks takes control of the vehicle out of their hands and increases pressure on drivers to complete their work. Truckers required to operate below the posted speed limit must drive longer hours to cover the same distance, which increases their fatigue and places even greater stress on them to comply with burdensome hours-of-service regulations.”
OOIDA and the rest of the coalition members have also argued that forcing trucks to go slower than the rest of the vehicles on the road will create a safety issue. Truck safety groups want trucks to be limited to 60 mph.
“First and foremost, this mandate would make our roads less safe,” the coalition wrote. “By establishing a one-size-fits-all federal mandate restricting heavy-duty commercial motor vehicles to a speed separate from passenger vehicles, this regulation would create dangerous speed differentials between commercial motor vehicles and other cars. Decades of highway research shows greater speed differentials increase interactions between truck drivers and other road users, and studies have consistently demonstrated that increasing interactions between vehicles directly increases the likelihood of crashes.”
The latest regulatory agenda targeted May for when FMCSA would reveal a proposed top speed. However, the coalition is hopeful that the new administration will halt the rulemaking just as it did in 2017.
- Agricultural Retailers Association
- American Pipeline Contractors Association
- Associated Equipment Distributors
- Mid-West Truckers Association
- National Aquaculture Association
- National Asphalt Pavement Association
- National Association of Small Trucking Companies
- National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
- National Ready Mixed Concrete Association
- National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association
- National Utility Contractors Association
- North American Punjabi Trucking Association
- Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association
- Power & Communication Contractors Association
- Towing and Recovery Association of America, Inc.
- United States Cattlemen’s Association
- Western States Trucking Association LL