Wyoming truckers who say they were dreading a federal regulation to put speed limiting devices on their trucks are praising President Donald Trump's reversal of the Biden-era agenda preparing them to go into effect.
Daniel Ratzlaff, co-owner of Cheyenne-based American Trucking LLC, said the devices — called speed governors — are often to blame when one trucker driving 68 mph tries to pass another going 67 mph, and the maneuver takes several minutes and bottlenecks the interstate.
Many major carriers govern their trucks at around 68 mph for insurance purposes, he said.
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced last week that, in response to Trump’s April executive order to push trucker-friendly policies, the agency is reversing its earlier call for speed-governor mandates.
“Mandating speed limiters on heavy-duty trucks isn’t just an inconvenience — it is a safety hazard when drivers are forced to go slower than the flow of traffic,” says the June 27 announcement,
The U.S. DOT is withdrawing its proposed rules on speed governors, which its sub-agency the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration had announced during the Biden administration in 2022.
The FMCSA later floated a proposed top speed of 68 mph for commercial trucks, some outlets reported.
The Shortcuts
Governors introduce other hazards by making truckers who are limited both in the speed they can go and the number of hours they can drive in a stretch by law feel rushed — and likelier to undertake other shortcuts.
“He’s more apt to rush, period, to get that load delivered and get to that next pickup,” said Ratzlaff. “Running stop signs; running red lights — he’s more apt to be a dangerous truck driver than somebody that can actually do the speed limit.”
As for Ratzlaff, he knows his tires are rated for 75 mph, so he sets his cruise control for that. He added that he’s confident enough in the tires to pass people at 78 mph when needed.
“And I think that’s more than fast enough,” Ratzlaff said.
To Paul George of Casper-based 2G Trucking LLC, the change of course is great news.
“I think it’s bullshit that they ever thought they should govern trucks,” said George.
He referenced studies concluding that zones with differing speed limits for large carriers and the motoring public are more dangerous than one-speed highways.
“Four-wheelers,” or the motoring public, have gotten sloppier with their driving, George said, adding that both high school curricula and society should return to an emphasis on driver skill and safety.
“It’s about time that someone within the government started looking out for the real people, instead of just making more laws to prohibit people,” said George in support of the DOT’s new course.
Steel Signs Aren't Green Flags
Truckers driving too fast for conditions are a problem in interstate-traffic heavy Sweetwater County, Sheriff John Grossnickle told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.
But the answer isn’t a blanket federal mandate, he said. It’s a culture trend toward commonsense driving and some alert enforcement measures on the state and local level.
“This goes for anybody that drives, especially the truck drivers: they’d obey the speed limits we have, and drive prudent to the conditions, we wouldn’t have an issue,” said Grossnickle. “We’ve seen this (get) better since Wyoming has put up the variable speed signs across I-80.”
Many speed limit signs along Interstate 80 change with the conditions.
“Where you have those (fixed) 80 mph signs, it seems like they see that and want to drive that speed regardless of conditions,” said Grossnickle.
Besides variable speed limit signs, the Wyoming Department of Transportation has also grown more flexible and responsive about closing roads due to high winds, he said.
Sheriff’s spokesman Jason Mower elaborated, saying, “We’d have multiple vehicle pileups on I-80 East of Rock Springs back in my Wamsutter days — you’d have 15-plus vehicles involved.”
(That's a reference to when Mower was the lone sheriff’s deputy in the tiny town of Wamsutter.)
“And it would still take, like, an act of Congress to get Wyoming Highway Patrol or the governor’s office to close the interstate,” Mower said.
That’s not an issue lately, Grossnickle added.
Open. Borders.
Shannon Everett, co-founder of trucker advocacy group American Truckers United, said speed governor mandates are not the key issue lately. The past four years of “open borders” are taking a toll on the industry, he said.
Many Wyoming truckers echoed that in past interviews, telling Cowboy State Daily that non-English speaking truckers in particular are posing safety hazards across the nation’s highways.
The Trump administration in response is launching an investigation into states’ issuance of non-domicile commercial driver’s licenses and tightening enforcement of trucker English proficiency.
“If we’re going to continue to have open borders, absolutely I think we need speed limiters,” said Everett. But otherwise, “our industry does a pretty good job of self-regulation, and always has up until the recent past couple years, where we’ve had a change in culture, really.”
On June 28, Alexis Osmani Gonzalez-Companioni was driving an 18-wheeler east on Interstate 20 toward Terrell when, according to a Texas Department of Public Safety report, he fell asleep and rear-ended a Ford F-150 and killed at least five people.
Cuban news outlets are reporting Gonzalez-Campanioni, now charged in the victims’ deaths, is a Cuban national.
With authorities also eyeing signs that Gonzalez-Campanioni was fatigued, Everett said the evidence in this and other recent, harrowing trucking tragedies point to the industry taking advantage of non-citizens via overwork and underpay — diminishing both the safety and quality of truckers behind the wheel.
“It’s dangerous. This isn’t mowing lawns,” he said, adding that he hopes the Trump administration does more than simply investigate the states’ non-domicile CDL issuance. “These are 80,000 pound trucks that wipe out entire families.
“You cannot lower these standards. We’ve got to put the standards back, and we’re going to keep screaming until they do.”
Grossnickle told Cowboy State Daily he supports the president's initiative to pull truckers who can't speak and read in English out of service.
The Governor Squad
In 2022, Biden’s FMCSA touted its intent to advance speed-governor mandate rules due to “concerns about the number of (commercial motor vehicle) crashes and fatalities traveling at high speeds.”
In 2019, said the agency, there were 860 fatal crashes in areas with posted speed limits of 70-75mph and 24 in areas posted at between 80-85 mph, comprising 20% of fatal crashes.
The American Truckers Association — which is not affiliated with Everett’s group — in 2023 time voiced support for a 70 mph universal governor in trucks with automatic emergency braking and adaptive cruise control; and 65 mph in trucks without those features.
The group indicated that these concessions were a compromise.
“To be clear: a USDOT rule on speed limiters is coming,” wrote ATA at the time. “We will continue to fight efforts by anti-truck groups to pursue a speed-limiter rule setting speeds in the low 60s.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
