In June 2019, Senators revived a plan that would “require all new commercial trucks with a gross weight of 26,001 pounds or more to be equipped with speed-limiting devices, which must be set to a maximum speed of 65 miles per hour and be used at all times while in operation.” If the S. 2033 legislation passes the Senate in 2021, carriers and independent owner-operators will have to install aftermarket speed limiters on all trucks.
OOIDA on the other hand stands against these mandatory speed limiters.
A letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
Despite ATA’s try to speed up the process with speed limiter legislation, OOIDA swiftly responded by sending an opposition letter to the Transportation secretary. Not only they don’t agree with the statement that the speed limiters will compromise safety, but they also state that they actually make roads less safe.
“The government’s proposal to mandate speed-limiting devices on large trucks would be dangerous for all highway users,” OOIDA states. “Such devices create speed differentials that lead to more crashes and promote road rage among other motorists.”
In a news release OOIDA President Todd Spencer also said:
“Studies and research have already proven what we were all taught long ago in driver’s ed classes – traffic is safest when vehicles travel at the same relative speed. What the motoring public should know is that when they are stuck behind trucks on long stretches of highway, those trucks are limited by a device to a speed well under the posted limit. This proposal would make that the norm for every truck on the road. Highways are safest when all vehicles travel at the same relative speed.” added also Spencer
The long history behind speed limiters legislation
It all starts back in 2006 when ATA and FMCSA filed a petition initially called for a rule requiring the use of limiters in commercial vehicles. It took several years when in 2016, the FMCSA issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making on a speed limiter mandate. No action was taken on the proposal during the different administrations so far. Not only but also it has been considered to be removed from the list of the Department of Transportation’s priorities.
Now with the new administration, speed limiters could once again be a subject of discussion.
Read more about the trucking regulations in 2021
photo source: Car vector created by vectorpouch – www.freepik.com