Mandating speed limiters has officially evolved from an ongoing disagreement between the U.S. Department of Transportation and trucking organizations to a political football.
Just one year ago, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) renewed its intention to craft a speed limiter rule. Public comment was extended longer than usual as more than 15,000 people made their feelings known. Perhaps to the chagrin of the FMCSA, the vast majority were against requiring the devices on heavy-duty commercial motor vehicles.
The federal agency wasn’t necessarily inquiring about whether to mandate them or not. The tone and tenor of the situation was whether the top-end speed for tractor-trailers would be capped at 60, 65, or 68 mph. It appears staunch opposition from the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), and other advocacy groups, helped whip up enough members of Congress to push back across, what now seems like, party lines.
“This overreach by the Biden administration has the potential to negatively impact all facets of the agricultural and trucking industries,” Republican Rep. Josh Brecheen reportedly stated. “I know from experience driving a semi while hauling equipment, and years spent hauling livestock, that the flow of traffic set by state law is critical for safety instead of an arbitrary one-size-fits-all speed limit imposed by some bureaucrat sitting at his desk in Washington, D.C.”
Rep. Brecheen introduces the Deregulating Restrictions on Interstate Vehicles and Eighteen Wheelers Act. He was joined by Republican co-sponsors that include Reps. Pete Sessions, Lauren Boebert, Scott Perry, Eric Burlison, and John Moolenaar.
What’s interesting is that just two years ago, the Cullum Owings Large Truck Safe Operating Speed Act was introduced with bipartisan House support from Georgia Democrat Lucy McBath and New York Republican John Katko. The measure had been floated in the U.S. Senate in 2019. Had it become law, speed limiters would have been mandated. Neither time did it get out of committee for a floor vote.
The reasoning behind the anti-speed limiter stance stems from uneven traffic flow. Trucking outfits point out that forcing big rigs to travel slower than other vehicles increase interactions. They argue that’s how collisions occur.
“The physics is straightforward – limiting trucks to speeds below the flow of traffic increases interactions between vehicles and leads to more crashes,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer reportedly said.
The Washington, D.C., speed limiter rulemaking process began in 2016, during the Obama Administration.
Sources:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3523/all-info
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/2033
https://www.truckinginfo.com/10144336/truck-speed-limiter-bill-introduced-in-house
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