ALEXANDRIA, Va. – American trucking companies wanting speed limiter legislation enacted in the U.S. now have clear support from the largest for-hire carrier lobbying group in North America.

The American Trucking Associations just wrapped up a press conference in which the group pledged it will petition the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to limit the maximum speed of large trucks to no more than 68 miles per hour. The ATA is also lobbying the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to prohibit the tampering or adjustment of those microchip devices in the truck’s ECM — known as speed limiters (or governors).

“For the sake of safety, there is a need to slow down all traffic,” said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves. “The trucking industry is trying to do its part with this initiative. No vehicle should be capable of operating at excessive speeds on our nation’s highways.”

The announcement comes two weeks after a group of large ATA-member carriers – including Schneider National, J.B. Hunt Transport Inc., and CR England — joined public safety interest group Road Safe America in calling for a U.S. speed limiter mandate.

The ATA has changed its tune from when it said
it would only endorse voluntary speed limiters

The speed limiter idea was originally borne north of the border where the Ontario Trucking Association first unveiled its speed limiter proposal in the fall of 2005. It promised at the time to export its idea across Canada and the U.S. in order to maintain uniform enforcement.

So far it seems to be working. Not only has the powerful ATA jumped on board, but a Canadian speed limiter rule is also currently making its way up legislative ladders in Ontario and Quebec. In a recent interview with Today’s Trucking, OTA President called the progress on both sides of the border “encouraging.”

The ATA, however, is sending a different signal than it did earlier this year, when, unlike its Canadian counterpart, it said it would not pursue a legislative mandate, but would instead encourage OEMs to voluntarily limit the maximum speed of large trucks, at the time of manufacture, to no more than 68 mph. The customer, then, would have the option of requesting a higher setting, an ATA spokesman confirmed at the time.

Now the group insists its amended policy is a matter of highway safety.

“The federal government’s lack of focus on speed in crashes involving large trucks represents a significant gap in its truck safety strategy,” said Graves. “The majority of the federal truck safety budget is focused on ensuring safe equipment, driver fatigue and preventing impaired driving, which the industry supports. Research indicates, however, that speed is a more significant factor in crashes involving trucks than any other factor that currently receives a larger proportion of government attention and resources.”

But the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) isn’t buying the safety angle. It’s about economics, says the group’s executive vice-president.

“These petitions are intended to be a Trojan horse for the true objectives of big trucking companies — doing away with current truck size and weight restrictions as well as increasing their importation of cheap, less qualified foreign drivers,” Todd Spencer stated in a press release. “They are aimed at limiting competition from the small trucking companies that make up the vast majority of the industry.

“It is no secret that large trucking corporations want to maximize their profits by opening all national highways to heavier trucks as well as double and triple trailer combinations,” he continues. “Those folks also wish to pad their bottom lines by bringing in exploitable foreign labor instead of paying appropriate wages to American citizens.”

A fact ignored by these petitions, says Spencer, is that reduced speed promotes safety only if all vehicles are moving at those same reduced speeds. Currently, 30 U.S. states have speed limits of 70 mph or higher on interstate highways. “Ironically, should these petitions come to fruition, America’s roads will become much more dangerous to motorists and truckers alike.”

In fact several studies cited by OOIDA and its Canadian counterpart OBAC (Owner-operator Business Association of Canada), show that a wide speed differential between cars and trucks would likely cause more highway accidents.

Both groups say speeding truckers are a minority on North American highways and they emphatically urge governments to step-up enforcement of traffic laws already on the books to keep speeding truckers and motorists off the roads.

“Technology cannot take the place of a well-trained driver,” says Spencer. “If the big trucking corporations were honestly interested in promoting safety, they would be petitioning for a requirement for comprehensive training for all new truck drivers.”