Upwards of 4,500 comments were received by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration over the last three months on the agency’s proposed rule to mandate speed limiting devices on heavy trucks, and most trucker commenters railed against the rule and its potential effects on small business truckers.
The comment period for the proposed rule closed just before midnight Eastern time Wednesday, Dec. 7. In the proposal, FMCSA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sought input from the trucking industry on three potential speeds for trucks to be limited to – 60 mph, 65 mph and 68 mph. The rule stated all new trucks would be required to leave the manufacturer with the speed cap set if the rule were to be enacted.
A large majority of comments from truck drivers are in opposition of the rule. A sample of the comments from trucking industry stakeholders can be seen below:
“I have driven commercial motor vehicles for 22 years in a safe and timely manner. I firmly believe that limiting every commercial motor vehicle’s speed to a common speed will increase accidents, fatigue and road rage incidents across the United States. I implore you to reconsider this ruling and to not govern us in this manner. What may work in other countries and in eastern states will not work across all of our vast countryside. Stop over-regulating our industry and causing unsafe conditions amongst the drivers of this great nation.” – James Williams
“Yes I make my living driving a tractor trailer. With that being said, I am not in favor of the speed limiter. Put yourself in my shoes, with this option you are forcing us to work more hours for the same or less pay. General motoring public hates us trucks because he hold them up. no one wants to be ‘stuck behind the big ol slow truck!’ Govern all the trucks at the same speed (well under the posted speed limit) is a recipe for disaster in my opinion. The need for quality drivers is the wish of the government and the trucking companies, but the regulations are driving a lot of quality drivers right out of career choice.” – Mike Hemmeter
“Problems that I see that would arise from limiting the speed of trucks…you’re going to have more risky behavior by other motorists trying to get around all the slower trucks this is a bottleneck to them and will make matters worse… I ask you do a much larger scale study on what the effect would be. I ask that you not take lightly what this can do not only to our economy and our industry but to our roadways.” – Josiah Gonzalez
“I am an owner-operator with 36 years’ experience. For the last 19 years, I have been operating a one-man regional delivery business. In this business every minute counts, I have tight delivery windows and wholesale prices that change during the day. I have operated this business safely in a state that has a 75 mph limit. The most dangerous thing on the road is someone driving slower than the flow of traffic. Speed is not an issue, a number of western states have a 80 mph speed limit, with no problems. If this proposal becomes law I will be forced to close my business because I would not be able to operate it in a safe and efficient manner. In researching this subject I have found the frequency of interactions with other vehicles by a vehicle traveling 10 mph below the posted speed limit is 227 percent higher than when moving at traffic speed. More interaction of vehicles leads to a greater chance of accidents. The proposal argues that speed limiters are necessary in order to achieve fuel savings and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). But in fact under speed limiters, more trucks will be needed to deliver the same amount of freight, thus using more fuel and emitting more GHGs. Additionally, other vehicles will be speeding up to pass trucks and thereby using more fuel.” – Dan Chafetz
