NRMCA, mixer manufacturers caution feds on prospective truck underride guard rule

11 London 400

National Ready Mixed Concrete Association and its Truck Mixer Manufacturers Bureau (TMMB) affiliate question cost and weight factors attending a prospective National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requirement that heavy-duty trucks bear stronger rear underride guards than presently compliant models. Preliminary estimates indicate the newer guards would add $307–$453 and 169–210 lb. to vehicle cost and weight, and represent $925 to $1,505 in life cycle fuel consumption.

 
Read More

NRMCA, mixer manufacturers caution feds on prospective truck underride guard rule

Sources: National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Silver Spring, Md.; National Highway Transportation Safety Administration; CP staff

NRMCA and its Truck Mixer Manufacturers Bureau (TMMB) affiliate question cost and weight factors attending a prospective National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requirement that heavy-duty trucks bear stronger rear underride guards than presently compliant models. Preliminary estimates indicate the newer guards would add $307–$453 and 169–210 lb. to vehicle cost and weight, and represent $925 to $1,505 in life cycle fuel consumption.

 
Read More

Asphalt group: Underride guard rule unworkable in current dump trucks

Sources: National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA), Lanham, Md.; CP staff

While the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association cites cost and weight concerns surrounding prospective changes NHTSA outlines in “Rear Impact Protection, Lamps, Reflective Devices, and Associated Equipment, Single Unit Trucks,” NAPA sees new underride guard specifications fundamentally altering members’ truck and paving machine fleets.

 
Read More

Mixer truck regulations could ignite unintended carbon consequences

6 EPA 183

Testifying in the first of two public hearings last month on “Phase 2 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles,” National Ready Mixed Concrete Association Vice President, Compliance and Regulatory Affairs Kevin Walgenbach informed Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officials of the potential for conflicting outcomes if proposed regulations are applied to mixer trucks.

Read More

Feds set deadline for electronic stability control systems on Class 7-8 trucks

8 Bendix 150

A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) rule requires electronic stability control (ESC) systems on trucks exceeding 26,000 lb. in gross weight, and is to be implemented in three phases beginning August 2017. Agency officials estimate it will prevent nearly 50 fatalities and more than 1,700 crashes and 600 injuries annually. They also credit ESC systems’ potential to curtail more than half of untripped, rollover crashes—those caused by striking an obstacle or leaving the road.

 
Read More

EPA, DOT target HD truck fuel efficiency gains north of 20 percent

Sources: Environmental Protection Agency; CP staff

EPA- and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration-proposed performance standards covering 2021–2027 model year heavy- and medium-duty trucks would achieve up to a 24 percent reduction of fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions when measured against a 2018 vehicle. The agencies address concrete mixers and dump trucks within a larger Vocational Vehicles category of heavy- and medium-duty models, representing what officials estimate is about 20 percent of fuel consumption in the transportation universe their proposal covers.

Read More

Feds set deadline for electronic stability control systems on Class 7-8 trucks

Sources: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; CP staff

A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) rule requires electronic stability control (ESC) systems on trucks exceeding 26,000 lbs. in gross weight, and is to be implemented in three phases beginning August 2017. Agency officials estimate the rule will prevent nearly 50 fatalities plus more than 1,700 crashes and 600 injuries annually. They also credit ESC systems’ potential to curtail more than half of untripped, rollover crashes—those caused by striking an obstacle or leaving the road.

Read More