DRIVE Act shifts gears

If the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration keeps to its schedule, the agency will take its next step toward mandating speed limiters on commercial motor vehicles before 2023 is over.

In the meantime, however, legislative efforts to stop the rulemaking continue to build momentum.

The DRIVE Act, which would prohibit FMCSA from issuing any rule or regulation that would require heavy-duty vehicles to be equipped with a speed-limiting device, is gaining support in the House and Senate. In addition, as of press time in early November, the transportation appropriations bill in the House included a provision to strip all funding that would be used for a speed limiter rule.

S2671, which was introduced in July by Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., was up to nine co-sponsors as of press time. The House version of the DRIVE Act, which was introduced in May by Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., had 31 co-sponsors.

“Montana truckers play an essential role in the Treasure State’s economy, and ensuring they stay safe on the job is one of my top priorities,” Daines said. “Overreaching, out-of-touch D.C. mandates oftentimes make truckers’ jobs harder and can even put their lives at risk. I’ll keep fighting for Montana truckers and against big government.”

Proponents of the DRIVE Act, which include such organizations as the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Association of Small Trucking Companies and the Livestock Marketing Association, say that states – not a federal agency – should determine speed limits.

Where does the speed limiter proposal stand?

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s September 2023 Significant Rulemaking Report, FMCSA plans to publish on Dec. 29 a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking to require most commercial motor vehicles weighing more than 26,000 pounds to be equipped with speed limiters.

FMCSA is expected to release a proposed maximum speed at that time. Safety groups have lobbied for as low as 60 mph, while the American Trucking Associations wants the top speed to be 70 mph for trucks equipped with other safety equipment and 65 mph for everyone else.

Most truckers oppose a federal speed limiter mandate at any speed, but the proposed maximum will determine how drastic the speed differentials could become. Given that there are speed limits in the United States as fast as 85 mph and trucks could be limited to speeds as slow as 60 mph, resulting speed differentials between cars and large trucks could reach 25 mph, 30 mph or more.

FMCSA initially indicated in the September report that the maximum speed would be 68 mph. However, it removed that language hours later and told Land Line that a maximum speed had not been determined.

“A top speed has not been determined … The limit of 68 mph is one of the options being considered, as it was included in the petitions for rulemaking and discussed in the 2016 notice of proposed rulemaking,” an FMCSA spokesperson said. “It should be noted, however, that no final decision has been made on the maximum speed limit that would be proposed in the forthcoming supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking.”

It is unclear whether FMCSA intends a top speed of 68 mph but had to pull back the entry to follow procedure, or if the inclusion was completely in error.

Either way, FMCSA indicated that significant rulemakings must be reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget before they can be published and sent out for public comment. Among these is “the maximum speed setting to be proposed,” FMCSA said.

But it remains to be seen whether FMCSA will be able to unveil the proposal before the end of the year. As mentioned, OMB will have to approve the proposal before it can be published in the Federal Register. That process often can take months. In fact, a previous speed limiter proposal was under review at OMB for 15 months.

Once a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking is published, the public will have an opportunity to comment. The agency will then have to review what will likely be thousands of comments before it can determine whether or not to move forward with a final rule. Even if FMCSA moves at a brisk pace, it would most likely be well into 2025 before any rule could take effect.

OOIDA and other groups, however, will be working to prevent it from ever getting to that point.

“The frustrating part of this for drivers is that they have to live with the ramifications of whatever rules that these folks come up with,” Spencer said. “Of course, they live in the real world, where they have to interact with traffic. This isn’t really a complicated issue. The ideal speed policy for any agency to take, whether it be federal, state or local, is to do something that tries to keep traffic moving at or close to the same speed.”

OOIDA encourages truck drivers to go to the Fighting For Truckers website to learn how to fight against a speed limiter mandate. LL