In 2006, the American Trucking Associations (ATA) and Road Safe America (RSA) petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to consider requiring speed limiters in trucks. This set in motion a rulemaking process that has yet to come to fruition as of 2011.
A speed limiter is a device that limits the top speed at which a vehicle can travel. Both petitions sought a rule requiring the installation of speed limiters-set at 68 miles per hour-in trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating greater than 26,000 pounds. Proponents of speed limiters assert that the devices improve safety.
For the last four years, NHTSA has been gathering information and comments in preparation for granting the petitions of ATA and RSA. Of the nearly 4,000 comments received, several carriers, as well as many private citizens who support limiters, commented.
Schneider National is one of these carriers, along with J.B. Hunt Transport, that already limit their trucks, and joined RSA in its petition. Schneider National attributes 40 percent of their serious collisions-prior to the company's installation of speed limiters-to those trucks that did not have limiters. Schneider says these trucks only accounted for 17 percent of the total driving miles of the company trucks.
While safety organizations support the devices as a way to potentially reduce trucking accidents, opponents of speed limiters point to potential risk with speed differential, which can be dangerous. NHTSA counters this by stressing that the risk from the trucks speeding outweighs any risk from the possible differential.
Additionally, speed limiters may operate on more than just a safety level. Another positive result is better gas mileage, as well as possible environmental benefits.
While NHTSA has taken four years to grant the petitions and has not yet proposed a rule, it has committed to publishing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in 2012. While this notice may not result in the rule actually being made, most consider it a step in the right direction, although the United States is a little late to the game. Limiters have been used on trucks in Europe, Australia, Japan and parts of Canada for years.
