Speed-limiter proposal hot topic of House hearing

Washington — Members of the House Highways and Transit Subcommittee veered from the focus of a recent hearing by challenging legislation that would require speed-limiting devices on heavy trucks.

During the Dec. 13 hearing on implementing provisions of the Infrastructure Investment and Job Act, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration head Robin Hutcheson fielded heavy questioning about the agency’s May 2022 advance notice of proposed rulemaking.

The ANPRM, however, isn’t part of the law.

“We share your commitment to drivers and certainly their safety and the safety of everybody who travels,” Hutcheson said in response to critical remarks on the ANPRM from Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO). “We are underway in a process of rulemaking; however, we have not yet issued any notice of proposed rulemaking.” 

Burlison interjected: “Well, I would encourage you to not implement that rule. I think you would have an outcry from [the trucking] community.”

The Department of Transportation’s Fall 2023 regulatory agenda lists December as a target date for publication of a second proposed rule.

In May 2022, FMCSA introduced an ANPRM that would mandate the installation of speed limiters on trucks, buses and multipurpose passenger vehicles weighing more than 26,000 pounds. The advance proposal expanded on a 2016 joint proposal from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and FMCSA. The latter is the lone agency listed on the ANPRM, which doesn’t suggest a top speed. The 2016 proposal specified capping speeds at 60, 65 or 68 mph.

FMCSA received nearly 16,000 comments on its updated advance proposal, which requested feedback from stakeholders on prompts including:

• What percentage of the commercial motor vehicle fleet uses speed-limiting devices?
• If in use, at what maximum speed are the devices generally set?
• What training or skill sets are needed for motor carriers’ maintenance personnel to adjust or program electronic engine control units to set speed limits?

During the hearing, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) advised Hutcheson to “listen to the truckers” who believe the measure regulates them too strictly. “I think they would know better than the bureaucrats and, specifically, Congress on this.”

Said Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ): “Nobody’s asked for this. This is another creation of big government, in my opinion.”