Proposed Law Would Limit Speed Of Trucks, Buses

The Federal government and the trucking industry recently came to a consensus: trucks and buses need to be slowed down. A new proposal released August 26 would require all new trucks, buses, and passenger vehicles that weigh more than 26,000 pounds to be fitted with speed limiting devices. This would force such vehicles to travel at a max speed somewhere between 60 and 68 mph. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) want speeds within that range to help protect the environment, as well as protect the lives of drivers across the country.

The government said limiting speeds for new large vehicles will reduce the 1,115 fatal crashes involving heavy trucks that occur annually, as well as save $1 billion in fuel costs.

The trucking industry, for the most part, has been resistant to implementing any speed limiting switches in their rigs for decades. But now, they are in line with the DOT-NHTSA proposal, wishing to have their speed capped at 65 mph.

American Trucking Association (ATA) spokesman Sean McNally said in a statement that, "We know the cliché ‘speed kills’ is true when it comes to driving. Speed is a factor in a third of all vehicle crashes and 23 percent of all truck crashes, so slowing our vehicles down can have tremendous safety benefits."

Fourteen states have speed limits that are either equal to or exceed what truck tires are designed to handle, and five of those states have limits of 80 mph or more. Most truck tires aren’t built to exceed speeds of 75 mph and the tire manufacturers say that traveling faster than the tires are rated to go could cause them to blow out, increasing the risk of an accident.

While this technology would help truckers use less fuel and, therefore help their rigs become more sustainable, the safety benefits mentioned by McNally are perhaps the biggest reason for this proposal.

This legislation would only apply to newly manufactured vehicles, not older models. NHTSA said that retrofitting vehicles produced after 1990 with this speed-limiting technology would be too expensive, costing anywhere from $100 to $2,000 per vehicle depending on when it was built. Changes to some engines would also be required, as heavy vehicles made before 1990 wouldn’t don’t have the capacity to add this technology. This would also add to the cost of retrofitting older trucks and buses.

The 26,000 pound target is roughly equivalent to the same weight as 4.5 Chevy Suburbans or 3.9 Ford F-250 pickups. So should this law pass, it would affect big rigs and buses, as well as garbage trucks, refuse haulers, and all large work trucks.