The American Trucking Associations (ATA) has once again called for the nationwide mandate of speed limiters on all large trucks. They’ve recommended that the Department of Tranportation set the industry wide maximum-speed limit to 65 miles per hour.

The ATA first made the recommendation almost nine years ago and believes that limiting all trucks to 65mph will dramatically reduce the amount of semi truck related crashes.

ATA CEO and President, Bill Graves, displayed his dissatisfaction with government’s lack of action:

“In 2006, as part of our longstanding commitment to highway safety, ATA petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to require the speed limiter on all large trucks be set in order to electronically limit their top speed to no more than 65 mph,”

“We waited patiently until the government finally said in January 2011 they would move ahead with a speed limiter mandate, but this commonsense regulation has been mired in bureaucracy for over four years now. It is long past time for NHTSA and FMCSA to move ahead with this rule.”

Graves backed the organization’s arguments by pointing to federal data that indicated that 18% of all fatal semi crashes, where the truck driver was at fault, were caused due to excessive speeds.

In addition to just limiting trucks, the ATA believes that a nationwide limit of 65 miles per hour should be imposed on all vehicles. “That’s why we back a national speed limit for all vehicles of 65 mph and are disturbed by the recent trend of states raising their speed limits to 70, 75, 80 or in some areas even 85 miles per hour” Graves added. “These limits are reckless and are needlessly endangering millions of motorists.”

While safety may be their primary reason for mandated speed limiters, it is not the only factor. ATA Chariman Daune Long also discussed the added economic benefits that would come with the changes.

“We limit the speeds of our trucks to 65 mph because it makes good safety sense, and as a bonus, it makes good economic sense. Our safety record is better because we limit speeds, we use less fuel because we limit speeds and we spend less on repairs and maintenance of our trucks because we limit our speeds.”

Currently, roughly 70 percent of trucking companies already equip their rigs with speed limiters, however Graves says it’s “not enough.”