The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association is asking its more than 150,000 members to file comments in opposition of any attempts to require side underride guards on trailers.
Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking that aims to “assess the feasibility, benefits, costs and other impacts of installing side underride guards on trailers and semitrailers.”
NHTSA’s notice doesn’t formally propose a side underride guard mandate, but it fulfills a directive from Congress to analyze the potential effects.
In hopes of ending efforts to propose a requirement, OOIDA on Wednesday, April 26, issued a Call to Action that asked its members to file comments to the agency before the June 20 deadline.
“NHTSA’s research has consistently shown that the costs of side underrides far exceeds any safety benefits,” OOIDA wrote in the email. “Additionally, the equipment creates numerous operational challenges for truckers.”
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.
“NHTSA’s latest research once again indicates there is absolutely no reason to mandate side underride guards on commercial trucks,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said in a statement. “The rush to mandate every gadget marketed as a safety device over the objections of professional drivers is a major reason crash rates continue to rise. We will not see improvements in highway safety until lawmakers and federal regulators prioritize the expertise of professional drivers above other interest groups. Proponents of side underride guards have never demonstrated how these devices will perform in highway conditions, yet we’re wasting more time reviewing another potential regulatory mandate where the costs outweigh the benefits.”
Although NHTSA’s research estimates that a side underride requirement would save 17.2 lives and 69 serious injuries annually, the yearly cost of the mandate would be as much as $1.2 billion. According to the notice, the resulting cost per equivalent life saved would fall in the range of $73.5 million to $103.7 million.
The analysis did not include any effects of side underride guards on port and loading dock operations and freight capacity. It did not take into consideration modifications to infrastructure, maintenance and practicability and feasibility of intermodal operations for trailers equipped with side underride guards.
Commenting made easy
Comments on NHTSA’s side underride guard advance notice of proposed rulemaking can be made here or by going to the Regulations.gov website and entering Docket No. NHTSA-2023-0012.
The agency seeks information regarding the effectiveness of side guards, unexpected costs and benefits and challenges that would be created by a mandate.
In addition to the Call to Action email, OOIDA has created a campaign on its Fighting for Truckers website and a “Comment Guide” to help members through the process. LL
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