The transport industry in the USA is waiting on the outcome of that country’s presidential electron in November, with the outcome set to change the complexion of the industry in some serious ways, particularly if former president Donald Trump wins back the White House.
One lobby group, the Heritage Foundation hopes Trump will embrace its policy playbook, which would reward the roll out of autonomous trucking while slowing the timeline for electric trucks.
Those objectives are outlined in the doctrine that has been put out by the Trump campaign, known as ‘Project 2025. The objectives for trucking were published in the chapter on the U.S. Department of Transportation as part of the massive the 900-page presidential transition manifesto entitled a “Mandate for Leadership” published by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
“Despite the department’s tremendous resources, congressional mandates and funding priorities have made it difficult for DOT to focus on the pressing transportation challenges that most directly affect average Americans, such as the high cost of personal automobiles, especially in an era of high inflation; unpredictable and expensive commercial shipping by rail, air, and sea; and infrastructure spending that does not match the types of transportation that most Americans prefer,” the document says.
“Transforming the department to address the varied needs of all Americans more effectively remains a central challenge,” it added.
While there is no guarantee Trump will endorse The Heritage Foundation’s proposals, under criticism from opposing Democrats Trump recently disavowed any connection with Project 2025. Part of the transformation Project 2025 advocates, involves ensuring that the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issue long-anticipated rules governing autonomous trucks.
“NHTSA’s and FMCSA’s current regulations were written before the advent of automated vehicles and driving systems,” Project 2025 pointed out.
“Both operating administrations have issued ‘advance notices of proposed rulemakings’, that begin the process of updating their regulations to reflect this new technology. However these regulations have stalled under the Biden Administration, which has chosen to use the department’s tools to get people to take transit and drive electric vehicles instead of helping people to choose the transportation options that suit them best.”
If Trump wins, the document recommends that his administration move on two regulatory initiatives, including that the FMCSA should work to clarify the regulations to align with the Department of Transport’s AV 3.0 guidance, which would allow the drivers to be safely removed from the operations of a commercial motor vehicle. In addition the document recommends that the NHTSA should work to remove regulatory barriers by focusing on updating vehicle standards as well as publishing performance-based rules for the operations of automated vehicles.
Part of the DoT’s AV 3.0, a transportation policy rolled out during Trump’s previous administration, is a policy that FMCSA regulations “will no longer assume that the driver is always a human or that a human is necessarily present onboard a commercial vehicle during its operation.”
The document said
The US Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association told the FMCSA, that such a policy has been critical to the industry’s progress, and it strongly encouraged the FMCSA to codify this interpretation to reduce potential for misinterpretation. in comments filed in response to the agency’s supplemental proposed rulemaking on automated trucks last year.
Daimler Trucks North America and autonomous truck maker Kodiak Robotics, among others, have also urged FMCSA to codify AV 3.0 into its regulations.
Project 2025 apparently also sides with much of the US trucking industry on the impact of the Biden administration’s climate policy and how it allegedly mandates a “too-quick” transition from internal combustion engines (ICE) to EVs.
While the document doesn’t call out trucks specifically, Biden’s climate policy, with regard to automobiles, parallels that of requirements imposed on heavy-duty truck manufacturers, requiring them to begin rolling out more expensive zero-emission vehicles starting in 2027. Those higher costs most likely would be passed down to the trucking companies and owner-operators who purchase them. Both the American Trucking Associations and the owner-operator Independent Drivers Association have apparently pushed back on the policy.
“In pursuit of an anti-fossil fuel climate agenda never approved by Congress, the Biden administration has raised fuel economy requirements to levels that cannot realistically be met by most categories of ICE vehicles,” the Project 2025 document contends.
“The purpose is to force the auto industry to transition away from traditional technologies to the production of electric vehicles and compel Americans to accept costly EVs despite a clear and persistent consumer preference for ICE-powered vehicles.”
A second Trump administration, according to the playbook, should reset standards issued by NHTSA “at reasonable levels that are technologically feasible for ICE automobiles and consistent with an increase in domestic auto production and healthy growth in the sale of safer and more affordable new vehicles.”
