February 8, 2017 Vol. 14 No. 03

Well, we’re a couple of tumultuous weeks into the new Trump administration south of the 49th, and it would seem chaos prevails. At least for the moment. With the new President having promised, implicitly and otherwise, something of a war on regulatory controls, some issues with an impact on trucking are up in the air.

And that’s not to mention the impending disaster if NAFTA is modified in some substantial way. I’ll leave that one alone here to focus on trucks and technologies.

The President’s campaign promise of eliminating two regulations for every new one enacted means that question marks abound. Expert Washington observers suggest that’s much easier said than done, however, so trucking is left to wait and see.

One proposal that seems bound to die by all accounts is the effort to mandate speed limiters on both new and existing trucks. It was years away from being enacted anyway, and no specific speed limit had been proposed. DOT proposed discussing a maximum speed at 60, 65, and 68 mph, but was prepared to consider other speeds based on public input. Critics, as they did when Ontario and Quebec went down this road, cite the near-total dearth of research backing  up the idea. I’ll bet that this one is toast.

THE ELECTRONIC LOGGING DEVICES mandate, on the other hand, is likely to move ahead unchanged. The ELD rule was mandated under a Republican House majority in 2012, and it was a non-partisan matter so we can assume it will go forward.

But who knows?

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced a final rule in December 2015 mandating the use of ELDs for all trucks model-year 2000 or newer engaged in interstate commerce. Carriers and drivers must transition to ELDs by Dec. 17 of this year. However, carriers and drivers using automatic onboard recording devices prior to Dec. 18, 2017, may continue using them through Dec. 16, 2019. Suppliers of ELDs must conform to technical specs, certify them, and register them with FMCSA.

ONE KEY RULEMAKING still in the pipeline is the complex set of greenhouse gas Phase 2 fuel-economy rules, and it seems they could be delayed or even abandoned outright. I’m not betting either way.

The Phase 2 greenhouse-gas/fuel-efficiency rule sets CO2 limits for model-year 2021 to 2027 trucks and tractors and model-year 2018 to 2027 trailers as entire vehicles. The rule also sets separate engine fuel-efficiency standards for each category of commercial vehicle and, for the first time, it also regulates trailers.