ATA Backs Setting Limits on New Trucks at 68 Mph

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merican Trucking Associations Tuesday endorsed a move to limit the maximum speed of large trucks, at the time of manufacture, to 68 mph.

The action was taken by ATA at the group’s annual winter leadership meeting being held this week in Tampa, Fla.

“There has been a growing sense within the trucking industry for the need to slow down the large truck population as well as all traffic,” said Bill Graves, ATA’s president.

“With speeding as a factor in one third of all fatal highway crashes, it makes all the sense in the world to work to reduce this number,” he said.

The move is aimed at reducing the number and severity of speed-related crashes among all vehicles on U.S. highways, and is part of a comprehensive trucking industry highway safety initiative that has produced a record low large truck fatality rate, ATA said in a statement.

The maximum governed speed effort follows a study of the issue by ATA motor carriers and truck safety experts. A working group found that nearly 75% of the trucks evaluated in the study already had speed governors and that most were set at 70 mph or lower.

Other ATA safety initiatives include a call for universal primary safety belt laws in the fifty states and the enforcement of traffic laws against unsafe driving actions around large trucks.