ATA asks DOT to set max truck speed at 65 mph

American Trucking Associations wants electronic speed limiters on all large trucks to be set at no higher than 65 mph.    The American Trucking Associations said the U.S. Transportation Department should finalize a rule to require electronic speed limiters on all large trucks to be set at no higher than 65 mph.
   The country’s largest trucking association first petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for the maximum 65 mph speed limiter setting in 2006 to improve large truck safety on the nation’s highways.
   “We waited patiently until the government finally said in January 2011 they would move ahead with a speed limiter mandate, but this commonsense regulation has been mired in bureaucracy for over four years now. It is long past time for NHTSA and FMCSA to move ahead with this rule,” said Bill Graves, ATA’s president and chief executive officer, in a statement.
   According to ATA, slowing trucks down will reduce truck-related crashes. “A speed limiter rule won’t prevent all of these crashes, but it will certainly help,” the association said.
   In fact, Graves said speed limits in some areas of the country – now exceeding 70 mph – are “reckless and are needlessly endangering millions of motorists.”
   Duane Long, chairman of Longistics in Raleigh, N.C., said the 65 mph maximum truck speed also makes “economic sense.”
   “We use less fuel because we limit speeds and we spend less on repairs and maintenance of our trucks because we limit our speeds,” he said.