Trucking news and briefs for Monday, May 2, 2022:
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has long opposed speed limiter mandates on trucks and last week criticized a new announcement from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration about proceeding with a controversial speed limiter rulemaking.
The American Trucking Associations said last week it supported speed limiter regulation – a position ATA has held for many years. OOIDA said that policies and devices that limit speeds for large trucks create unnecessary congestion and dangerous speed differentials among vehicles, which lead to higher accident involvement rates.
In its notice of intent, FMCSA said it is preparing a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking to follow up on a 2016 joint proposal with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
“Studies and research have already proven what we were all taught long ago in driver’s ed classes, that traffic is safest when vehicles all travel at the same relative speed,” said OOIDA President Todd Spencer. “Limiting trucks to speeds below the flow of traffic increases interactions between vehicles which can lead to more crashes.”
Additionally, most crashes involving CMVs occur in areas with speed limits below 55 mph, mitigating the effect of any potential mandate, OOIDA added.
“What the motoring public should know is that when they are stuck behind trucks on long stretches of highway, those trucks are often limited to a speed well under the posted speed limit,” Spencer noted.
