On Speed Limiters
They're coming for what little driver agency remains.
There has been ongoing discussion lately, amongst those who drive desks for a living, about the speed limits of trucks driven by a different and better breed of person.
A glance through most trucking related publications shows that this discussion is now growing, as America’s trucking regulator, the FMCSA, or Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and their new, recently confirmed leader, Robin Hutcheson, are making moves towards taking further control from the human behind the wheel.
Over at CCJ Digital, Jason Cannon has a piece on Hutcheson and speed limiters.
”Speed limiter regulation appears to have a considerable head of steam, having resurfaced earlier this year and garnering more than 14,000 comments during an open comment period that concluded this summer. Speed limiters, for the first time, cracked the American Transportation Research Institute's (ATRI) annual Top Industry Issues report, which was released barely an hour before Hutcheson addressed ATA attendees.”
”Safety is a word you'll hear from Hutechson frequently”
The Thought Terminating Cliché from which there is no escape.
"Zero is the right number of fatalities on our nation's roadways," Hutcheson said
Well, if Safety and Zero Fatalities are of concern to our new head regulator, I would suggest that she, and you, read my previous substack on Safety.
Most of you will be familiar with my critiques of Fake Safety Nonsense versus what we can do to promote Real Safety, but given the track record of the FMCSA, and the government in general, I doubt we will see moves made towards real safety, such as -
Fundamentally Altering how we find and train new drivers.
My utter contempt for the CDL Mill Corporate Welfare Complex is well known and old news, but it’s worth repeating that new drivers cause a significant number of truck collisions and carnage, and putting speed limiters on trucks will change nothing about the lack of experience of these drivers.
And it is lack of experience that is the problem.
When combining all crash types, drivers with less than a year of CMV experience had “higher proportions of crash involvement” than drivers with more experience, regardless of age. Preventable crashes showed similar results, “with less-experienced CMV drivers having higher proportions of crash involvement across the majority of age groups.”
Instead of hamstringing a drivers ability to pass safely on two lane roads, perhaps Ms Hutcheson might consider legislation which would help solve the rampant retention problem in the industry.
Guaranteeing Overtime for Truckers Act, anyone?
Speaking of causing more accidents than it solves, let us check in with an Australian Truckie, where mandatory speed limiters have been the law of the land for decades.
Or, perhaps, Ms Hutcheson might go to Canada, where the provinces of Ontario and Quebec have had mandated speed limiters since 2009 - all big trucks must be governed at 105/kmh, or roughly 65 mph.
She can rent a car in Toronto and take a leisurely drive along Highway 401, maybe eastbound towards Montreal. Once the 401 reduces to 2 lanes in either direction out past Bowmanville, she can enjoy some ‘Elephant Racing’, where one rig doing 104.7 km/h is attempting pass another rig, whose tires might be worn a bit further, and is only doing 104.2 km/h.
I’m sure she will enjoy it.
One might ask why it is that the trucks being passed do not yield to those passing, in an effort to co-operate and make the roads a more pleasurable experience for everyone.
I will refer you to my numerous criticisms about CDL Mills - when you take any sub 90 IQ biped with a functioning heartbeat and attempt to turn them into truckers, it becomes apparent that you’re not dealing with the kind of people for whom thoughtful consideration of their fellow road users is front and center.
…
If you are someone who is antagonistic to my opinions on things, and are still here reading, congratulations, and thank you! You are probably also saying to yourself “This guy hasn’t yet addressed the very real problem of speed contributing to accidents.” and you would be right, so here are my thoughts on that.
When the province of Ontario was presented with the idea of mandating speed limiters (yes, the Ministry of Transportation did not come up with this - it was brought to them by a campaign headed by the Ontario Trucking Association - corporatism, anyone?) one of the issues they sought to address was big trucks tailgating cars (and each other) at rather unsafe highway speeds.
In the ensuing discussions that took place at the time, the Ministry of Transportation, and the Ontario Provincial Police, both stated that they did not want to commit officers to enforcing existing laws against tailgating or speeding, citing concerns for Officer Safety on the roadside. (I guess all of those other millions of times they pull people over don’t matter.)
Let that sink in for a minute.
The two entities whose mandate is to enforce the laws of the road didn’t want to do their damn jobs - so let’s have technology do it for us! Where have we heard this before?
If I were crowned King of The FMCSA for a day, or a month, or probably a couple of years, given how many people I would have to fire, and legislation I would have to cancel or completely rewrite, I would call a meeting with the head of every state DOT and put it to them this way - we need a “two strikes, you’re out” rule where it concerns Big Truck tailgating. One warning, and then on the second strike, your CDL gets pulled forever.
"Zero is the right number of fatalities on our nation's roadways," Hutcheson said.
The totally foreseeable consequences to a speed limiter mandate have already taken place in Canada, and Australia. They will do nothing for accidents which take place on roads with less than Interstate speed limits, and possibly increase them, given how much longer it will take for trucks to (legally) pass others. They will cause further aggravation and frustration to many truckers, who are already at the breaking point where it concerns government intervention into their lives.
In conclusion, I would submit to Ms Hutcheson and other regulators like her that there are alternative methods by which we can accomplish the goals of safer highways.
We need to keep better and more experienced drivers on the road, enforce existing laws against speeding, and show no mercy to repeat tailgating offenders and other dangerous drivers. Myself and many other Professionals, many with millions of miles of safe driving under our belts, decades upon decades of experience, do not deserve to be punished because of the behavior of a small number of bad drivers.
It is up to the FMCSA to reduce the number of bad drivers on the road, and the first place to employ the hammer of state is right in front of you.
"Those who drive desks" baahahaaa! Thank you for that, it made my morning. 💛
The 'Safety at all cost' cult is expanding in all facets of our lives.