Roadcheck, the annual inspection blitz done by a joint effort of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and others, is set to take place next week, June 2-4.This year’s special emphasis will be cargo securement, though inspectors will still be primarily performing full 37-step Level I inspections — the most thorough inspection — throughout the week. Roadcheck, as most of you well know, I’d wager, is coming up as usual the first week of June, the 2nd through 4th to be exact. The nationwide inspection blitz, as it’s typically described, this year takes as its theme a focus on cargo securement (flatbedders, look out!), though the general routine during Roadcheck is the full Level 1 truck/driver inspection. It’s a big time for inspections all around the country, but at once, judging by nationwide inspection numbers of the last couple years, the “Roadcheck effect” in the numbers overall looks minimal in month-to-month view. The more observant among readers over the years have routinely remarked that law enforcement’s telegraphing of the event with announcements months ahead of time may dampen its impact. Good week to take a little well-deserved R&R for many truckers, such that that’s possible. June, the month the blitz has taken place the last two years, showed actually smaller numbers than the month preceding it in 2013, lending credence to reader reports of some states “getting started early” on the blitz, to paraphrase more than one May dispatch we’ve gotten over the years. June inspection numbers in 2014 were only slightly higher than May last year. As a general rule, too, activity is certainly elevated on the inspections front this time of year, as the Spring freight season heats up with temps. Good weather brings the inspectors out, too, with greater regularity and frequency. In 2014, the month of June accounted for 9 percent of total inspections throughout the year, nearly a percentage point above the 8.3 percent that would be an normative month for the year if inspection numbers were consistent month-to-month. (Data here and in the chart above are from the federal system, analyzed by Overdrive and the folks at RigDig Business Intelligence, unless otherwise noted. Access more via OverdriveOnline.com/csa, updated through 2013, with 2014 inspection and violation numbers and rates, maps and charts coming soon.)  Roughly 10,000 inspectors from state, local and federal enforcement agencies will  perform nearly 70,000 inspections on trucks and buses over the 72-hour period. They will be stationed at 1,500 inspection points around North America

A proposed federal rule to require the installation and use of speed limiters (aka governors) on all trucks weighing more than 27,000 pounds has been sent from the DOT to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget for its approval.

The rule, sent May 19 to the OMB, is being produced via a joint rulemaking by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Once the OMB stamps its approval on the rule, it will be published in the Federal Register and open for public comment for 60 days, according to the DOT’s latest rulemakings report.

The same report projects the rule to clear the OMB Aug. 15 and be published Aug. 27. The public comment period would last until late October.

Following the public comment period, the two DOT agencies creating the rule would then produce a Final Rule, which would go through the same review process as the proposed rule, except it would not have a public comment period.

The rule likely would go into effect two years following publication of the Final Rule.

NHTSA and FMCSA began work on the speed limiter mandate following a successful petition from the American Trucking Associations and Roadsafe America.

The American Trucking Associations and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, both of which separately sent letters to the Department of Transportation about the issue last week, stand on opposite sides of speed limiters. ATA favors a rule to require speed limiters on all trucks weighing more than 26,000 pounds, citing safety as its primary reason. It hopes to see trucks governed to 65 mph or less

OOIDA, however, says speed limiters will hurt highway safety, rather than help. “A speed limiter mandate will result in cars and trucks operating at different speeds on the highways,” OOIDA said in its letter. “When cars and trucks operate at different speeds on the highway, there is a significant negative impact on safety. Traffic is more dynamic and less predictable. Accidents increase. Your agencies must ensure you do not produce a mandate that will arbitrarily add dangerous car-truck speed differentials to our nation’s highways.”

ATA, however, called the regulation “common sense,” telling the DOT the rule is past due.

“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 miles per hour,” ATA President and CEO Bill Graves said. “We waited patiently until the government finally said in January 2011 they would move ahead with a speed limiter mandate, but this common sense 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.”

ATA says slowing trucks down will reduce the frequency and severity of crashes. They do, however, also support a national speed limit of 65 miles per hour for cars.

“In addition to slowing truck speeds, ATA believes in slowing down all traffic,” Graves said. “That’s why we back a national speed limit for all vehicles of 65 miles per hour 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. These limits are reckless and are needlessly endangering millions of motorists.”

The debate has been spurred on recently by states increasing their speed limits. South Dakota recently pushed its speed limit to 80 miles per hour, while Texas is alone at the top with speed limits on some highways up to 85 miles per hour.

OOIDA said many states have eliminated car-truck speed limit differentials over the last 15 years because it’s safer for cars and trucks to travel at a more uniform speed.