Federal speed-limiter mandate up for discussion again

Dave Wickenhauser on Mon, March 8, 2021

Last Updated: Sun, March 7, 2021

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Associated has entered the fray in the newly resurrected effort to propose a mandated Federal speed-limiter law.

The OOIDA is opposed to any legislation requiring speed limiters, and made its position known in a March 4 letter to the Department of Transportation asking the department to reject failed speed-limiter proposals.

"We are writing you to reiterate our opposition against a joint NHTSA/FMCSA Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would mandate speed limiting devices for heavy-duty commercial motor vehicles (NHTSA-2016-0087/ FMCSA-2014-0083)," OOIDA President and CEO Todd Spencer wrote.

The controversial subject of speed limiters for commercial trucks has come up again because the American Trucking Associations has teamed up with Road Safe America to send a letter dated March 3 to the U.S. Department of Transportation supporting a Congressional effort to mandate the speed limiters.

The 2016 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking concerning speed limiters could be up for reconsideration, with the push given to the proposal by the combined efforts of the ATA and Road Safe America.

OOIDA's long-standing position has been that speed-limiting devices are unsafe because speed differentials between cars and trucks increase congestion. And speed limiters make it difficult for trucks to switch lanes and make other maneuvers when they can't keep up with prevailing traffic speeds.

In the March 4 OOIDA letter, President and CEO Todd Spencer stated that speed limiters are dangerous for truckers.

"Additionally, speed limiters create serious operational challenges and dangers for truckers, including challenges navigating merges and running blockades (known as elephant races) that increase 'road rage' among other drivers," he said.

"Arbitrary speed limits make it difficult for truck drivers to switch lanes to accommodate merging traffic at entrance ramps – or to merge themselves. Other drivers often react to these situations in aggressive and unpredictable ways, creating unnecessary hazards for themselves and our members," he added.

"Furthermore, speed limiting trucks increases pressure and stress on professional drivers to complete their work. Truckers required to operate below the posted speed limit are forced to drive maximum hours to cover the same distance, which increases their fatigue and places even greater stress on them to comply with burdensome hours-of-service regulations."

ATA and Road Safe America are asking DOT to mandate that truckers operating vehicles weighing more than 26,000 pounds drive at less than the speed limit in virtually every state in the union – suggesting limits of 60 mph, 65 mph or 68 mph.

Large commercial carriers, who are in the constituency represented by ATA, are largely in favor of speed limiters because they're a tool they could use in fleet management, and they would be happy to have all trucks on the road mandated to the same top speed in order to create an even playing field for all.

OOIDA, however, sees a Federal mandate as a serious blow to the smaller carriers and independent operators.

The OOIDA letter stated that, "As part of the proposed rulemaking on speed limiters, FMCSA and NHTSA admitted that 'this joint rulemaking could put owner-operators and small fleet owners ... at a disadvantage in some circumstances.'"

Mandating one speed for all would eliminate the "one remaining competitive advantage for small trucking companies," and would drive owner-operators to hire as independent contractors to the mega carriers.

"If all of the affected owner-operators worked for trucking companies as independent contractors, they would lose $54 million in labor income. Smaller carriers working at the behest of the larger fleets is not ideal for safety, consumers, or the trucking industry," Spencer stated in the letter.

“Large carriers would love nothing more than to ensure every truck and carrier is stuck with these devices, so their drivers stop fleeing for jobs at more trucker-friendly carriers,” Spencer is quoted in an AP article.

OOIDA opposes potential speed-limiter mitigation effort

OOIDA is also concerned that efforts to mitigate the impact of speed limiters on all heavy duty commercial trucks by raising the speeds under certain contitions would come with its own set of problems.

During last year's Congress legislation was introduced limiting all commercial trucks to 65 unless they were equipped with "expensive and unproven technologies," OOIDA said.

The proposal was to set speed limiters at 70 mph for trucks equipped with automatic emergency braking and adaptive cruise control, which OOIDA claims are expensive to install, and that frequently require expensive maintenance which leads to down time.

"While this change is being proposed as a way to improve safety, it is nothing more than a backdoor maneuver by large carriers to gain a competitive advantage through extremely costly, burdensome, and unproven mandates," OOIDA's letter stated.

OOIDA cited members' experience that AEB, particularly, doesn't improve safety, but creates its own set of challenges and dangers.

The bottom line is that allowing a faster speed limit for those technologically equipped trucks means that experienced owner operators with millions of miles of accident-free driving who don't have this technology would find themselves limited to lower speeds, while a brand new driver working for a carrier equipped with this technology can drive at the faster speed.

"In no way can this be said to improve safety. Instead, it will hinder small businesses’ productivity and profitability," the letter stated.

OOIDA's letter concluded with, "Rather than mandating speed limiters and unproven technologies, the most efficient and cost-effective means to promote safer roads is simply enforcing existing speed limits, which Congress authorized states to set based on their own unique factors. We believe DOT and Congress should consider measures that would actually improve safety rather than technologies that have been proven to cause more crashes."

Dave Wickenhauser went on the road driving big rigs after retiring from 33 years in newspaper journalism. His trucking novel, "Crimson Highway" the first in the Hugh Mann series, is available as an Amazon paperback, and as an Amazon Kindle ebook.

Sources: AP, OOIDA letter PDF, CDL Life, Land Line, Transport Topics

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