ATA says more work is needed on DOT’s speed limiter proposal

The American Trucking Associations (ATA) took the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) to task this week over DOT’s recent proposal calling for the requirement of electronic limiting of truck speeds.

This stems from a late August announcement from the DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx, when he announced that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) want to propose equipping heavy-duty vehicles with devices that limit their speeds on U.S. roadways.

Although the government is not saying exactly what the top speed of the governors would be, the proposed ruling would require those devices be set to a maximum speed. Foxx says the safety measure that could save lives and more than $1 billion in fuel costs each year.

The DOT proposal would establish safety standards requiring all newly manufactured U.S. trucks, buses, and multipurpose passenger vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating more than 26,000 pounds to come equipped with speed limiting devices.  The rule would not require retrofitting of older trucks.

The proposal discusses the benefits of setting the maximum speed at 60, 65, and 68 miles per hour. But Foxx said the DOT “will consider other speeds based on public input.”

Since 2006, ATA has adopted a policy in favor of limiting the maximum speed of new trucks to 68 miles per hour. Later that year, the ATA petitioned FMCSA and NHTSA to issue a regulation requiring their use. In 2008, as part of ATA’s 18-point highway safety agenda, the federation endorsed a national speed limit of 65 mph for all vehicles.

While the ATA was initially somewhat receptive to the DOT proposal in late August, calling proposed rule as “a potential step forward for safety,” it seems to have changed its tune.

ATA President and CEO Chris Spear said at the time that carriers who already voluntarily use speed limiters have found significant safety, as well as fuel efficiency and equipment lifespan benefits with little to no negative impact on productivity, adding that the ATA would be carefully reviewing and commenting upon today’s proposal.”

A few weeks later, ATA appears to be sticking with its ongoing stance of limiting the maximum speed of 68 miles per hour.

“After review and thorough, thoughtful consideration by its members at its recent board meeting, ATA is preserving our pro-safety policy on speed limiters, set forth in our 2006 petition to the U.S. Department of Transportation,” Spear said in a statement. “Despite ATA's decade-old, pro-safety policy on speed, the new joint rulemaking from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Federal Motor Carrier Administration proposes a menu of three speed options for commercial trucks, not one. It provides insufficient data, and fails to make a recommendation regarding which of the three proposed speeds it believes is best and why. Most disconcerting is the fact that DOT's new rulemaking does not address the differentials in speed that would exist between any of the three proposed national speed limits for trucks and the speed laws of multiple states – allowing passenger vehicles to travel at much higher speeds than commercial trucks. This lack of data and direction only elevates the safety risks to the motoring public. A mandate for a one-size-fits-all speed limiter will squelch innovation in technologies to enhance safety and accommodate not only highways, but potentially secondary roads and beyond.”

In early September, the ATA and several state trucking associations penned a letter to DOT Secretary Foxx, asking for a 30-day extension to the public comment period to allow more time to solicit member views on the rulemaking and assemble data that underscores the associated risks the rulemaking would have on safety.

The letter explained that in the nearly ten years since ATA concurrently petitioned NHTSA and FMCSA for action on this issue, much has changed in vehicle and motor carrier safety, with various useful safety technologies having been deployed and adopted, while motor carriers have endured greater scrutiny over regulatory compliance with CSA program and the pending rollout of electronic logging devices.

“These developments, along with new state laws and speed limits, have changed the way motor carriers view and respond to safety concerns,” the letter stated. “In addition, the proposed rule’s dramatic departure from ATA’s initial petition in terms of tamper proofing, the lack of a retrofit requirement, and the Agencies’ reluctance to specify a governed speed requires additional time for ATA and its federation partners to reengage membership on these important issues.” 

At the FTR conference in Indianapolis last month, Schneider CEO Mark Rourke said that his company’s fleet has been utilizing speed limiters for 7 years, while seeing an increase in fuel economy and a reduction in crashes.