Speed limiter comment period nearly over

Shawn Smith is one of the thousands of truck drivers who have told the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that speed limiters shouldn’t be mandated on commercial motor vehicles.

“How can we raise the speed on the interstates and then cut the speed of the trucks that pay for them? Regulations have done nothing but make the truck traffic worse,” Smith wrote in his comments to the agency. “More regulations would cause more truck traffic. Say you limit the speed to 60 mph, that would mean in a perfect world one driver can travel only 660 miles a day. One less mile could mean one less load, spread that amongst all the trucks in America and you end up with thousands of extra trucks. Especially with the economic crunch we are starting to see, why now?”

Smith is not alone. According to the regulations.gov website, FMCSA has received more than 14,800 comments on its advance notice of supplemental proposed rulemaking. A large majority of those comments come from truck drivers adamantly opposed to a mandate.

However, only days remain for the public to comment on the current notice.

In May, FMCSA asked for feedback on a proposal that would mandate speed limiters on most commercial motor vehicles. 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. A speed had not been determined, but previous proposals floated the possibilities of 60, 65 or 68 miles per hour.

The public has through July 18 to comment and join the thousands who have already done so.

OOIDA encourages all truck drivers to submit comments on the speed limiter notice before the July 18 deadline. The Association has made the process easy through its Fighting for Truckers website. The public also can go to the Regulations.gov website and enter Docket No. FMCSA-2022-0004.

The Association argues that a speed limiter mandate would be an example of government overreach and could lead to an increase in crashes.

“Studies and research have already proven what we were all taught long ago in driver’s ed classes – that traffic is safest when vehicles all travel at the same relative speed,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said. “Limiting trucks to speeds below the flow of traffic increases interactions between vehicles, which can lead to more crashes.” LL