Earlier this month, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association provided the U.S. Department of Transportation with recommendations about which regulations could be modified or repealed. Now, OOIDA is taking its deregulatory efforts to the Office of Management and Budget.
The Trump administration is prioritizing ways to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses and requested input from the public to identify regulations worthy of the chopping block.
On Monday, May 12, OOIDA filed official comments to OMB requesting regulatory relief from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. Specifically, OOIDA offered suggestions regarding speed limiters, electronic logging devices, the Unified Carrier Registration system, automatic emergency braking, side underride guards, safety fitness determinations and standards for emission and air pollution.
OOIDA, which started in 1973, represents about 150,000 small-business truckers.
“OOIDA is supportive of federal regulatory priorities that will remove excessive burdens, modernize regulations, enhance safety and improve working conditions for professional truckers in a commonsense, cost-effective manner,” the Association wrote in comments signed by President Todd Spencer.
Speed limiters
Although a mandate of speed-limiting devices on commercial motor vehicles has not been finalized, OOIDA is focused on stopping a proposal introduced by the previous administration. The Association has helped lead a coalition of 20 organizations to end the speed limiter proposal.
“As DOT considers deregulatory action through this public comment period, our coalition believes that withdrawing this proposed mandate would be an ideal way to achieve meaningful burden reduction while ensuring the safety of the U.S. transportation system,” OOIDA wrote.
FMCSA received more than 15,000 comments in response to the 2022 speed limiter proposal. The majority of those comments came from truck drivers who are opposed to making it a regulation.
“Professional truck drivers strongly object to any speed limiter mandate for several other reasons based on their own experiences,” OOIDA wrote. “Speed limiters take control of the truck away from drivers, denying them the ability to use the truck’s capabilities to avoid accidents and unsafe road and traffic conditions. Speed limiters increase driver stress and make drivers more fatigued because, in order to complete their work, they must drive longer hours or feel pressure to make up time on roads with lower posted limits, just to cover the same distance.”
ELDs
If the administration wants to identify costly regulations with no proven safety benefits, OOIDA said that the ELD mandate is a good place to look.
ELDs became mandatory for most commercial motor vehicles in 2017. OOIDA said that there is no data suggesting the devices have reduced crashes and that small businesses have been forced to bear the majority of the $1.8 billion price tag associated with the mandate.
“Given the lack of substantive highway safety improvements, DOT should repeal this costly mandate,” OOIDA wrote. “At the very least, we urge the department to exempt small carriers with a proven safety record from being forced to invest their capital on these unnecessary devices.”
UCR
Calling it nothing more than a slush fund for states, OOIDA said that it is time to remove the Unified Carrier Registration system.
The UCR system, which imposes taxes on motor carriers and distributes the revenue to 41 participating states, was established by Congress in 2005 for the purpose of maintaining a single national register of motor carriers conducting interstate travel.
OOIDA said the system no longer meets its objectives.
“Many states use UCR revenue as a non-federal match for Federal Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program funding, which is devoted primarily to enforcement,” OOIDA wrote. “Essentially, these states are utilizing a federally authorized tax on motor carriers to leverage additional federal funding for the policing of them. Rather than returning surplus funds to the depository, several donor states are currently flouting the UCR agreement and keeping revenues that exceed their entitlement. As DOT reviews wasteful spending programs, UCR is a prime candidate for repeal.”
Automatic emergency braking
The proposed mandate regarding automatic emergency braking systems is another that truckers are asking be withdrawn before it becomes a regulation.
OOIDA said that in order to mandate any technology, it should be perfected. However, there have been numerous reports of false activations associated with automatic emergency braking systems.
“Truckers are not opposed to a technology that will help improve their safety and the safety of other motorists,” OOIDA wrote. “But until the agencies can offer assurances this rulemaking can meet its desired safety objectives, they should not set forth any mandate.”
Side underride guards
Another costly proposal involves efforts to mandate side underride guards on commercial motor vehicle trailers and semitrailers.
In 2023, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking that considered requiring side guards on trailers. Although safety groups have long advocated for the requirement, the preliminary research provided by NHTSA indicated that the annual cost of the mandate would be as much $1.2 billion, while saving fewer than 20 lives each year.
“OOIDA opposes efforts that would mandate the installation of side underride guards on CMV trailers and semitrailers,” the Association wrote. “Over the last several years, NHTSA has considered numerous options involving side underride guards but has consistently concluded a federal mandate would be impractical and costly, thus outweighing possible safety benefits. Advancing any side underride mandate disregards this reality and ignores the safety, economic and operational concerns raised by small-business truckers.”
Safety fitness determination
OOIDA told OMB that the structure of FMCSA’s safety fitness determination has not been proven as a reliable methodology to assess a motor carrier’s ability to operate safely.
“Most of SFD’s shortcomings relate to the inaccuracy and inconsistency of the data that is collected and analyzed during a safety investigation,” OOIDA wrote. “As FMCSA pursues the development of a new methodology to determine when a motor carrier is unfit to operate, the agency must avoid relying on the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) and Safety Measurement Systems (SMS) programs.”
OOIDA said that CSA and SMS have failed to reduce crashes and that this will not change until the programs are focused on actual safety performance instead of compliance with regulations.
Greenhouse gas emission and air pollution standards
OOIDA also used its comments to point out problems with regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Association called many of the efforts “shortsighted,” including the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Phase 3 Emission Standards for heavy-duty vehicles.
“The Phase 3 rule attempts to rush production of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) while a national charging infrastructure network remains absent for heavy-duty trucks,” OOIDA wrote.
OOIDA said that the EPA must consider a more feasible timeline that would provide reliable and affordable heavy-duty vehicles for consumers. LL
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