New underride regulations? Not yet.

An advisory committee formed by Congress to advise the Department of Transportation (DOT) — primarily National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) — on rear underride regulations for trailers has issued its majority report along with a dissenting report by other members of the committee. The majority report calls for much more than upgraded rear underride on trailers, but NHTSA is not bound by the committee’s recommendations. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA) included a section calling for stronger rear underride guards on trailers — not single-unit trucks. The law also required NHTSA to investigate and consider side underride guards on trailers — again, not single-unit trucks. Finally, the law called for an advisory committee to be formed to provide DOT/NHTSA recommendations for rulemaking based on the provisions in the IIJA. NTEA has been active with Congress and NHTSA for years, educating decision-makers on the very positive safety record of single-unit trucks regarding underride. The IIJA does not call for any changes to underride requirements for single-unit trucks. Current regulations When a trailer or semitrailer intrudes into the passenger compartment of a passenger motor vehicle as a result of an impact, it is known as an underride — most typically, it would be an underride into the rear of the trailer. Based on safety data and vehicle design, rear underride protection is already installed on both trailers and single-unit trucks. Trailers have NHTSA-required impact-absorbing guards, and work trucks have what is commonly known as an ICC bumper. Because tractor-trailers operate in situations that can make underride crashes more likely than for work trucks, many advocates have been calling for additional rear protections and even new side and front guards on all trailers and trucks, despite the lack of crash data to justify such changes. ACUP activity As a result of the IIJA law, NHTSA formed a volunteer committee, the Advisory Committee on Underride Protection (ACUP), to make recommendations based on the congressional mandate — which does not include work trucks. NTEA was not able to be appointed to the committee as the congressional mandate concerned only trailers and semi-trailers. The 16-member committee included family members of underride crash victims, truck safety organizations, crash investigators, law enforcement, organized labor, the insurance industry, and trailer manufacturers and users. Four members represented the trailer manufacturing industry and motor carriers. Per NHTSA, the ACUP is to provide consensus advice on ways to reduce underride crashes and fatalities. Congress stipulated the overall makeup of the committee, resulting in underride advocates holding a majority of the seats who ultimately voted to define a simple majority as “consensus.” The ACUP held six meetings between May 2023 and May 2024. In late June 2024, the committee issued a majority report. It is referenced as a “majority” report because several Committee members fundamentally disagreed with many of the Committee’s majority recommendations to NHTSA and prepared a dissenting report. Majority and minority reports The majority report’s non-binding recommendations to DOT/NHTSA include: Promulgate regulations requiring semitrailers and single-unit trucks manufactured after 1998 to be equipped with side guards capable of preventing injurious passenger compartment intrusion (PCI) when struck by a midsize vehicle at any angle, at any location, and at any closing speed up to and including 40 mph. (Note, NHTSA does not have the authority to require retrofitting of existing vehicles.) Regulate single-unit trucks with the same rear impact guard standards that currently apply to semitrailers. Require side guards to also prevent a vulnerable road user from passing underneath the guarded vehicle in an interaction with the side of the vehicle. Issue an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on front impact guards. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration should require single-unit trucks to adhere to conspicuity tape requirements. Expeditiously complete a heavy vehicle automatic emergency brake rulemaking for all classes of commercial motor vehicles. The DOT and NHTSA should prioritize additional research to prevent underride crashes. Note, NHTSA is not bound by ACUP’s recommendations, particularly those that exceed the committee’s congressional guidelines. The minority (dissenting) report calls for evidence and data-based research before creating new underride regulations. According to the minority report, “While the Advisory Committee on Underride Protection [“ACUP”] did offer some recommendations aligned with this goal, most of the Committee’s recommendations as contained in the Biennial Report reflect only the preconceived views and biases of a slim majority of Committee members, who wrote a report that both included significant material never considered by the ACUP in its deliberations and omitted items that did not further the majority’s desired narrative. “Lastly, the dissenting opinion recommends that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration [“NHTSA”] should prioritize crash-avoidance requirements and distracted-driver mitigation measures to prevent underride accidents proactively. On many of these issues, the ACUP demonstrated true consensus, particularly those recommendations emphasizing collision avoidance for both passenger vehicles and tractor trailers, and those promoting technologies that enhance driver awareness and encourage collision prevention.” The majority report to NHTSA calls for much of the same unrealistic regulations as legislation previously promoted by several of the ACUP members. That legislation, which did not see action, effectively called for front, rear, and side underride devices on all new trucks and trailers, as well as retrofitting all such vehicles produced since 1998. Based on a 2015 NHTSA proposal that questioned the need for additional underride protection on single-unit trucks, NTEA prepared a conservative cost estimate for NHTSA that found the cost to retrofit the existing fleet of Class 3–8 single-unit trucks would exceed $20 billion (exclusive of lost time and added lifetime costs for the additional weight on the trucks). The cost to retrofit all trailers is not included in this cost estimate. NHTSA recently issued new rules calling for stronger rear impact guards on trailers based on the 2015 proposal, conforming with the IIJA requirements. No changes were made to the regulations affecting single-unit trucks. In July, NHTSA denied a 2022 petition filed by family members of crash victims asking for standards exceeding the current Canadian underride standards. The petition was filed shortly after NHTSA upgraded the regulations based on Congressional requirements to be similar to existing Canadian standards. NHTSA denied the petition as “it does not provide new or different information that would warrant initiation of a rulemaking at this time.” Conclusion NTEA has worked successfully to educate Congress and NHTSA on the differing engineering and vehicle usage patterns between single-unit work trucks and tractor-trailer combinations. NHTSA, being a data-driven agency, has thus far recognized the satisfactory safety record of work trucks and regulated them appropriately. The recommendations from the ACUP with regard to work trucks are completely unwarranted, the costs of which to society would exceed any possible benefits by magnitudes. NTEA will continue to work with stakeholders to create reasonable regulatory frameworks based on data. Learn more about NTEA’s government advocacy efforts at ntea.com/advocacy.

New underride regulations? Not yet.

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