New Tire Regulation for Tractor Trailers and CMV's Proposed
It has been 37 years since the current tire regulations for commercial motor vehicles (CMV) were enacted. At that time the maximum weight of a CMV was 73,280 pounds and the maximum speed was 55 mph. Now most CMV's carry 80,000 pounds and regularly exceed 65 mph. Tires have not kept up with the increasing speeds and weights, resulting in the tragedies we read about in the newspaper and see on the news. Having to deal with the aftermath of these tragedies every day, I am thankful the regulations are finally getting updated.
The current regulation is set forth in Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 119 which can be found at FMCSR 571.119. The purpose of this standard is to provide safe operational performance levels for tires and enough information on tires to permit their proper selection and use. The notice of proposed rulemaking was published in the September 29, 2010 Federal Register.
