Trucking news and briefs for Friday, May 12, 2023:
A coalition of eight groups penned a letter Thursday, May 11, to members of the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure urging them to oppose a bill that would bar the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from mandating speed limiters on heavy-duty trucks.
The bill, the Deregulating Restrictions on Interstate Vehicles and Eighteen-Wheelers (DRIVE) Act, was proposed last week. The coalition of groups is composed of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (Truck Safety Coalition), Institute for Safer Trucking, National Safety Council, Parents Against Tired Truckers (Truck Safety Coalition), Road to Zero, the Trucking Alliance group of large carriers, and Road Safe America.
The groups in their letter said “arbitrarily stopping FMCSA from this rulemaking process would compromise the agency from pursuing its stated mission -- to reduce large truck injuries and fatalities.”
[Related: New bill would block FMCSA from mandating speed limiters]
The groups noted that speed limiter rulemakings have “been delayed over 20 times in the past 10 years,” adding that they believed “truck speed limiters produce substantial safety benefits.”
Opponents to speed limiters argue that creating a larger speed differential between trucks and four-wheelers would increase interactions between cars and trucks, leading to crashes.
