WASHINGTON — An owner-operator-backed bill aimed at preventing a speed mandate for trucks is getting heavy pushback from safety groups aligning with small-business trucking’s big-business competition.
A coalition that includes Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Truck Safety Coalition, the National Safety Council (NSC) and Road Safe America are lobbying lawmakers to oppose the Deregulating Restrictions on Interstate Vehicles and Eighteen Wheelers Act, known as the DRIVE Act, which was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this month.
The proposal, which would prohibit the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from issuing a planned rulemaking requiring trucks to be outfitted with speed governor devices, was immediately opposed by the American Trucking Associations, whose members — many of them — have already invested in such devices for their fleets.
Safety groups are aligning with major trucking companies, warning that the bill would be a major setback at a time when fatalities from truck crashes are on the rise.
“Since 2009, truck crash deaths have increased by 71% with over 5,700 lives lost and nearly 155,000 injured in 2021 (the most recent year for which data is available),” the groups state in a letter to the leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “Fatalities to large truck occupants (largely truck drivers) surged past 1,000 for the first time in nearly 40 years.”
The coalition, which also includes The Trucking Alliance, a group backed by major truckload carriers, and The Road to Zero Coalition, an NSC-managed coalition of cities, counties and state governmental agencies, points out that “arbitrarily stopping FMCSA from this rulemaking process would compromise the agency from pursuing its stated mission — to reduce large truck crash injuries and fatalities.”
According to a recent Trucking Alliance survey, 98% of the 62,000 trucks operated by the group’s member carriers use speed limiter technology, they told lawmakers, with maximum speed settings ranging from 61 mph to 70 mph.
In addition to safety benefits, members of the coalition point to economic advantages of installing speed limiters on fleets.
“Aside from the research that shows speed limiters to be highly effective at reducing high-speed collisions, there is ample real-world use by leading trucking companies that show speed limiters diminish a company’s crashes and improve their profits,” said Road Safe America Co-Founder Steve Owings in a separate statement, referring presumably to money saved by reduced fuel use and other cost savings.
Speed limiters were a topic of debate at a Capitol Hill hearing this week. Lewie Pugh, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which backs the legislation, argued that studies find having different speed requirements for cars and trucks make the roads less safe. In addition, slowing down goods movement will require more trucks to move the same amount of freight, adding to congestion, Pugh said.
Asked to comment on the coalition forming against the bill, OOIDA underscored the potential for more accidents resulting from speed differentials.
“Nobody cares about road safety more than truck drivers,” said OOIDA President and CEO Todd Spencer in a statement.
“Truckers know this mandate will take safety in the wrong direction. The most significant step the trucking industry could take to improve road safety is to keep experienced, safe drivers in the workforce, so we challenge those who signed this letter to work with us on increasing driver compensation, ensuring restroom access, and expanding truck parking.”
Rufus
Trucker tailgate a little too much . Someone need to crack down on this behavior . Seen like no one knows they’re stopping distance anymore and reading signs . Matter of fact seem like they cannot read signs just crazy
Sheila
They are dangerous as any other vehicle when your not paying attention while behind the wheel. I believe they need to slow down the trucks and make them do a responsible speed these big trucks are all over the road not paying attention. And the just push there way in between vehicles either let them in or they will make it so you have to let them in. Truckers shouldn’t be allowed too block lanes because they can’t pass another semi. It’s all the time. They shouldn’t be allowed to drive over 55mph and that’s still not safe with the way they drive those big trucks.
Mark Stack
If you want safety then put the patrols back out on the highway. All of you you want to defund the police got what you wanted. The other problem is untrained new drivers along with the other driver coming into the industry that don’t care. Then we have 4 wheels doing their social media, texting and movie watching while driving. This is all facts but special interest groups don’t want to here this. The drivers ed has been stopped or you have to pay. No with open borders people driver with no licenses no insurance and then they screw up its the trucks fault. Last but no least we have the eld. What a jokemy wife and I had 4 friends killed in truckstops because of drivers racing through to beat the clock . The same with out on the road yes it needs to stop . The fmcsa and the special interests groups need to look at the real problem. This all comes from someone who has 45.5 years experience and 4.5 million safe miles. The stupidity from the government is just that. If you lower the speed from 70 mph the price of goods will go up. The most important thing to remember is everything comes by truck and if it didn’t you would be hungry naked and homeless
Randy
Notice alot of the blame the truck driver reduce the speed truck never hear anything about shippers or consignee or 24 hour delivery window shouldn’t be your twenty minutes late so it’s going to take 7hours to reschedule be fore you get the boot what would help make it mandatory all major companies Manufacturing and distribution have truck rest areas With facilities Having over 12 years experience. I have seen a lot. If you load it we’ve got your bills go on and leave the premises property now.shouldn’t have to be like it but it all about a rush in an out start holding them accountable an your see alot of changes all truckers are trained to be safe an love what they do
Christina Thedford
I see all to often 4 wheelers can cause a bad wreck by cutting off trucks, a truck will always try to avoid an accident of course, but the 4 wheelers don’t care. They often drive like hell to get around a truck then hit their brakes. A driver with plenty of experience will know how to handle that situation. Drivers fresh out of school, another whole story. I’ve been driving 24 years, I will never claim to know it all nor will I say I’m a great driver and it won’t happen to me, wrong, anything an happen and no amount of experience can help in certain situations. If they cut back a trucks speed limit that’s only asking for bigger problems. Trucks have the same safety features as a car, telling the driver that the vehicle they are coming up on is driving much slower than the truck is traveling. If trucks are cut back, cars are allowed to drive sometimes 10 to 15 even 20 miles faster than the posted speed limit. Highway patrol seems to allow this and some only focus on the truck. If trucks are cut back, they come up on a 4 wheeler traveling much slower than the truck, the truck passes but in the meantime , other vehicles in the lane the truck is using to pass slows everyone down cuz the truck no longer has the ability to pass quickly enough causing everyone behind them to slow down and then all hell can break loose. The 4 wheelers think the truck done it on purpose. Slowing the trucks down also makes delivery dates longer, then people are upset cuz the product they need is not at their store yet. Slowing down trucks also can cause accidents cuz 4 wheelers are to impatient. There is more, but big companies have already done this. The company I drive for isn’t small, but in order to drive for this company you have to have 2 years of verified driving, so fresh drivers are not driving here. I know how can you get any experience if no one hires without experience, then where do you get it. Some drivers out of school are really great drivers, some, sorry to say need more training, some need about 6 to 8 months training. Some have no business even driving a truck. I was taught by the old timers, and they were very hard on me, but it shows I was good enough to keep driving
Brett Gentry
Just watch Dashcam Lessons on YouTube and see the effect speed limiters have on truckers. Why has the amount of fatalities among truckers increased so much since 2009? I’d hazard a guess it’s because that’s when speed limiters became a thing. The number one reported cause of fatal trucking accidents is speed, but no mention on whether it’s because the truck was going too fast, or because he was stuck going too slow for the self-entitled driver of a 4 wheeler that thought the truck driver should be punished with a big, fat brake check. I see a whole lot of the latter online.
The best way to increase safety is to increase education efforts, increase standard testing cost and requirements (let’s face it, the driving test is WAY too easy), and increase punishments for misbehaviors. I think speed limiter mandates will just cause more problems.
Joshua Ball
It’s not speeding. It’s new drivers from India, Africa that do not understand or care that the speed’s and reckless manner of their driving does not belong on this side of the ocean.
They drive semi’s like it’s the third world.
Stephen deyoung
Let’s put speed limiters on all vehicles and set there speed to the same as semitrucks in the name of safety and see how the safety groups react then,it’s not safety its control.only a fool would think otherwise