DRIVE Act Seeks to Prohibit Federal Mandate for Speed Limiters on Large Trucks

The "Deregulating Restrictions on Interstate Vehicles and Eighteen-wheelers Act," or DRIVE Act, proposes a straightforward change: it would prevent the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) from requiring speed limiting devices on commercial trucks weighing over 26,000 pounds that operate across state lines. Essentially, this bill aims to stop the federal government from mandating technology that caps the maximum speed for these large vehicles.

No Federal Speed Cap Mandate

At its core, Section 2 of the bill explicitly forbids the FMCSA Administrator from issuing any rule that forces trucking companies to equip their rigs with speed limiters set to a specific maximum speed. Speed limiters are electronic systems that can prevent a vehicle from exceeding a pre-set speed. This legislation doesn't remove an existing mandate, but rather preempts the possibility of the FMCSA creating such a requirement in the future for trucks involved in interstate commerce.

On the Road: What It Means

If the DRIVE Act becomes law, the decision of whether or not to use speed limiting technology, and at what speed to set it, remains largely with trucking companies and individual owner-operators, subject only to existing state speed limits and company policies. This means no new federal compliance costs or logistical hurdles related to installing and maintaining mandated speed limiters. However, it also means that a potential tool federal regulators might consider for managing highway speeds and potentially improving safety for large trucks would be off the table. The practical outcome is that speeds for large commercial vehicles wouldn't be federally capped by this type of technology, maintaining the status quo where speed management relies on drivers, company policies, and state law enforcement rather than a mandated technological limit.