Side underride guards mandate? Tell NHTSA what you think
As the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration mulls the possibility of requiring side underride guards on trailers, truckers will have about two months to let the agency know why it is or isn't a good idea. On Friday, April 21, NHTSA published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking[1] 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. The agency plans to accept comments through June 20.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which represents more than 150,000 small-business truckers, was quick to get ahead of any attempts at a mandate. "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 released earlier this week[2]. "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."
Costs and benefits
The preliminary analysis indicates that a mandate would come with a huge price tag. 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.
Putting it in perspective for motor carriers, NHTSA's research shows that the average total cost of installing side underride guards on a trailer, including hardware and labor, would be "£2,990 in 2020 dollars." The side guards also would add to fuel costs. With a weight increase of 450 to 800 pounds per trailer, requiring side underride guards is estimated to increase lifetime fuel costs for new trailers entering the fleet each year by somewhere between £200 million and £430 million, according to NHTSA's notice.
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. "In estimating costs, the agency did not include the cost and weight of strengthening the beams, frame rails, and floor of the trailer to accommodate side underride guards," the notice states. "NHTSA seeks information on changes that would be required and the additional costs resulting from these changes."
How to comment
Comments on NHTSA's side underride guard advance notice of proposed rulemaking can be made here[3] or by going to the Regulations.gov website[4] 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. "NHTSA did not take into consideration the practicability and feasibility of side underride guards on trailer and semitrailer operations," the agency wrote. "Could side underride guards scrape or snag on the road surface when the vehicle travels over humped surfaces such as a highway-rail crossing, or when the vehicle enters a steep loading dock ramp?
Could this interaction of side underride guards with the ground disable movement of the trailer and significantly damage the side underride guards, thereby requiring their replacement?" LL
References
- ^ advance notice of proposed rulemaking (www.federalregister.gov)
- ^ OOIDA President Todd Spencer said in a statement released earlier this week (landline.media)
- ^ here (www.regulations.gov)
- ^ Regulations.gov website (www.regulations.gov)