FMCSA to Proceed with Speed Limiter Rulemaking. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety administration has announced its intent to proceed with a rulemaking to require speed limiting devices on commercial motor vehicles over 26,000 pounds GVW (or CVW weight rating, whichever is greater). The agency intends to issue a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking to follow up on a joint proposed rule that is published with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2016.
Speed limiters would be required on all vehicles 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.
FMCSA said it is considering making the rule only applicable to CMVs manufactured after a certain date, such as 2003, because this is the population of vehicles for which ECUs were routinely installed and may potentially be used to govern the speed of the vehicles.
PHMSA Requesting Info for Commodity Flow Study. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, in conjunction with the U.S. Census Bureau, has begun sending letters to companies requesting information in order to develop a new commodity flow study for hazardous materials transportation.
The agencies intend to collect data in 2022 and publish a report in 2023. Companies are required by law to respond to the request for information.
The study will examine and quantify:
- the type of hazmat transported;
- the type of container used to transport hazmat;
- the quantity/weight of the product transported; and
- the mode of transportation employed.
The information collected will be used to assess the risks of injuries, fatalities and environmental damage in transporting hazardous materials in order to adjust emergency response priorities and potentially to address any regulatory shortcomings. The last commodity flow study conducted by PHMSA used data from 2012.
