GREEN BAY, Wis. — Some of the largest for-hire carriers in the U.S. are following the footsteps of Canadian fleet owners north of the border in urging government to legislate mandatory use of speed limiters on all trucks in the nation.

Schneider National — along with eight other carriers, including J.B. Hunt Transport Inc., CR England Inc., Covenant Transport Inc. and Dart Transit Company — have joined public safety interest group Road Safe America in petitioning the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to mandate electronic speed governors set at no more than 68 mph.

The proposed regulation would affect class 7 and 8 trucks manufactured after 1990 (in 1991 speed governor capability became standard through a microchip in the truck engines ECM).

Bill Graves, president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations, has submitted a letter of support for this measure to the FMCSA. The petition will be available for public comment as soon as it is docketed for rulemaking by the federal agency.

American carriers are now on the speed limiter bandwagon.
Like in Canada, U.S. o-o’s will have something to say about it too

Last year, the Ontario Trucking Association was the first trucking lobby group to propose speed limiters on trucks. The group pledged at the time it would export its idea across North America.

Since then, the OTA — which has argued speed limit set at 105 km/h would reduce accidents, save fuel, and cut emissions — has been successful in getting the endorsements of other provincial trucking associations and continues to market the idea nation wide under the banner of the Canadian Trucking Alliance.

The alliance has been marketing the plan on environmental grounds lately, and should be encouraged by recent progress in at least two jurisdictions.

In May Ontario Progressive Conservative environment critic MPP Laurie Scott introduced a speed limiter bill on the grounds the plan would cut greenhouse gas emissions. That private member’s bill has quietly moved up the legislative ladder at Queen’s Park and has been referred to the Legislature’s Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs for further analysis before perhaps advancing to third reading.

Quebec proponents have arguably gotten even more traction in that province, where a Plan of Action on Climate Change contains a speed limiter provision along with 22 other measures to reduce climate change. Out of all the measures recommended, the one referring to speed limiters is reportedly the easiest to turn into a regulation since it can be done with a simple amendment to the Quebec Road Safety Code, which is up for reform this fall.

U.S. supporters point to FMCSA’s Large Truck Causation Study which states “traveling too fast for conditions” was the single most frequently cited factor in large truck crashes where trucks were assigned a critical reason.

“The 80-mph, 80,000 lb.-truck has no place on our highways,” said Steve Owings, who co-founded Road Safe America after he lost his 22-year-old son, Cullum, in a high-speed truck accident. “This petition is a matter of life and death for drivers of passenger cars, as well as for professional truck drivers. And it is a matter of economic common sense for the companies that put trucks on the road.”

Don Osterberg, vice-president of safety and training for Schneider National, joined Steve Owings in supporting what he called “one of the most important safety initiatives in commercial vehicle transportation in the last 20 years.”

Schneider, like the majority of carriers in Canada and the U.S. that support speed limiter legislation, already voluntarily maintain a governed speed on their trucks below 68 mph.

The proposal has several vocal opponents on both sides of the border, however. Both the Owner-Operator’s Business Association of Canada and the Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) in the U.S. have submitted documents and studies to Canadian authorities that shows a wider gap in speed between cars and trucks can increase the likelihood of highway accidents.

Both groups, as well as countless independent owner-operators, also point out that if reducing the speed of trucks — which statistically are the slowest-moving and safest vehicles on the roads — was the “real issue,” then police should step up enforcement of laws already on the books.

As for the environmental claims, OBAC Executive Director Joanne Ritchie finds some of them dubious. She says, by the carrier community’s own admission, the large of majority of truckers currently don’t go over 105 km/h, and would therefore not cut down on the hundreds of kilotonnes of greenhouse gases the associations insists would be saved.