Proposed Speed Limits for Commercial Motor Vehicles (CMVs)

We expect the FMCSA to formally introduce a proposed rule requiring speed limiters on commercial motor vehicles. Since May of 2022, the FMCSA has received over 15,000 comments in response to its intent to propose a rule that would require certain CMVs to be equipped with a speed limiting device. While the public has shared mixed feedback, the FMCSA remains firm in its conviction that such devices would protect the public sharing the road with heavy duty trucks. 

In his December 2021 update to Thomson Reuters’ legal professional resource titled, “Litigating Truck Accident Cases,” Michael Jay Leizerman clearly lays out the case for instituting regulations requiring speed limiters in commercial motor vehicles (CMVs). Here are a few of the salient points:

• The United States lags behind other countries; Europe, Canada and Australia all require speed limiters.

• Notably, “Ontario’s, speed-related, at-fault crashes fell by 73% after mandatory speed limiter technology took effect in the Canadian province in 2019.”

• The FMCSA published a study showing a 50% lower crash rate in trucks with speed limiters.

• The Texas A&M Transportation Institute published a study showing when speed is a factor in a crash, the costs are 20% higher.

The FMCSA’s has proposed that motor carriers operating commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) in interstate commerce with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) or gross vehicle weight (GVW) of 11,794 kilograms or more (26,001 pounds or more), whichever is greater, that are equipped with an electronic engine control unit (ECU) capable of governing the maximum speed be required to limit the CMV to a speed to be determined by the rulemaking and to maintain that ECU setting for the service life of the vehicle. 

If you are impacted by this expected proposal, we’d love to hear what your thoughts are specifically if you have any statistics or data that my influence this proposed rule. We encourage you to contact us and we will put you in touch with our compliance expert – Iram Ibrahim.