Note: This article was updated May, 4 at noon CT to include comment from the American Trucking Associations.
A bill introduced in the House Tuesday would effectively end an ongoing push by the Department of Transportation to mandate speed limiters on heavy trucks.
Speed limiter regulation was listed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in late 2022 as a rulemaking proposal it expected to pursue this year, and mid-last year the agency opened (and extended) a comment period on the topic for more than two months and received more than 15,000 comments.
Introduced by Congressman Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.), the Deregulating Restrictions on Interstate Vehicles and Eighteen-Wheelers (DRIVE) Act would "prohibit the Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from issuing a rule or regulation requiring certain vehicles to be equipped with speed limiting devices, and for other purposes." It has been referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
The bill is co-sponsored by representatives Pete Sessions (R-Texas), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Scott Perry (R-Penn.), Eric Burlison (R-Missouri) and John Moolenaar (R-Mich.). Among the groups voicing support for the bill were the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA); Western States Trucking Association; American Farm Bureau Federation; Livestock Marketing Association; National Association of Small Trucking Companies (NASTC); and National Cattleman’s Beef Association (NCBA).
“The physics is straightforward: limiting trucks to speeds below the flow of traffic increases interactions between vehicles and leads to more crashes,” said OOIDA President Todd Spencer.
Brecheen called looming speed-limiter legislation "overreach by the Biden Administration" with the "potential to negatively impact all facets of the agricultural and trucking industries. I know from experience driving a semi while hauling equipment, and years spent hauling livestock, that the flow of traffic set by state law is critical for safety instead of an arbitrary one-size-fits-all speed limit imposed by some bureaucrat sitting at his desk in Washington, D.C.,” he said.
