It’s time for FMCSA to rescind the speed limiter rulemaking
The time has come. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration needs to stop efforts to create a speed limiter mandate on commercial motor vehicles and, instead, focus on ways to more effectively improve highway safety.
In July, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced yet another delay in the agency’s proposal. Previous agency projections for the proposal’s release included June 2023, December 2023 and May 2024. Now, FMCSA is targeting May 2025.
Instead, the agency should see this as an opportunity to put the controversial idea on the shelf.
You see, the effort to require speed limiters on commercial motor vehicles is not a new one.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published a report on the topic all the way back in 1991, and the American Trucking Associations petitioned NHTSA to limit trucks to 68 mph in 2006.
The effort resurfaced in 2016, when FMCSA and NHTSA issued a joint notice of proposed rulemaking. But the proposal was shelved after a new administration took office in 2017.
Then in 2022, FMCSA revived the effort again when it issued an advance notice of supplemental proposed rulemaking. The notice suggested that commercial motor vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of 26,001 pounds or more and that are equipped with an electric engine control unit capable of being governed would be subject to the mandate.
To no one’s surprise, truck drivers pushed back against the idea. FMCSA received more than 15,000 comments to the advance notice. Raising concerns about dangerous speed differentials, road rage from passenger vehicles and the inability to accelerate to avoid a crash, the majority of the comments came from truck drivers.
Many of those truck drivers told the agency that they would turn in their keys if speed limiters were mandated.
Since then, FMCSA’s efforts to move forward with a rulemaking have been filled with delays and mishaps, while opposition has strengthened.
The abundance of comments, which FMCSA is required to read, led to the first delay. Then in September 2023, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Significant Rulemaking Report mistakenly indicated that FMCSA planned to propose 68 mph as the top speed for commercial motor vehicles.
“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.”
Then in January, Robin Hutcheson, a driving force behind the speed limiter rulemaking, stepped down as FMCSA administrator.
With Hutcheson no longer in charge, it is unclear whether there’s as much enthusiasm for the mandate within the agency.
Meanwhile, lawmakers introduced the DRIVE Act in the House and Senate. The bill would prevent FMCSA from mandating speed limiters. Additionally, a House committee included a provision to stop the rulemaking in its appropriations bill.
Also, it is worth mentioning that FMCSA is attempting the rulemaking without any directive from Congress. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned the longstanding Chevron doctrine, issuing a speed limiter mandate likely would open up the agency to additional legal scrutiny.
So instead of continuing down this speed limiter path, FMCSA should use this as an opportunity to focus on efforts that will improve safety.
Enhance entry-level driver training standards. Stop predatory lease-purchase arrangements. Address the detention time issue. Continue efforts to keep experienced and safe drivers behind the wheel rather than ones that will force them out of the industry. LL