The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, are constantly reviewing and updating their FMCSA regulations with one goal in mind: make our U.S. highways and roads safer for travel. It seems in 2025 there are four main areas where we might see new rules, that will change day-to-day freight operations, including speed limiter adoption, automatic emergency braking systems, elimination of MC numbers and english language proficiency enforcement. Let’s take a look into some of the new regulations that are scheduled to come into play and those that are still in talks for potentially later this year.

Speed Limiter Adoption ⏱

The use of speed limiters is to improve safety, make truck transportation more cost efficient and to environmentally benefit. The conversation surrounding speed limiters becoming mandatory in trucks has been ongoing since 2016. With the latest information released proposing that trucks weighing over 26,000lbs will need to be fitted with limiters. We’re still waiting on the Department of Transportation (DOT) to release finalized plans for speeds set, but the three speeds suggested are: 60mph, 65mph, and 68mph. This decision has been pushed back to May 2025, which allows carriers time to prepare and implement necessary changes.

Now, we don’t see this having too much of an effect on the industry because a lot of trucks on our roads already use speed limiters set between 60-65mph. Businesses have already put this in place to save on fuel consumption and create safer roads. Although 5mph might seem like a small increase in speed, the difference this extra speed can have in the case of a collision is huge. It can mean the difference between injury and death, especially since it’s a heavy semi-truck we’re talking about here.

What Does This Mean For You, The Shipper? 

At most, we could see ever so slightly longer transit times. Take this for example, some trucks on the road whether they’re “making up time” or see an open road might push it to 70mph. The difference over a long-haul journey, 500 miles as an example would take 7.7 hours at 65mph, at 70mph we’d see times of 7.1 hours, so roughly .6 of an hour longer once the speed is limited. We would argue the safety of our roads outweigh that minor time shift!

If the speed limiter rule takes effect, communicate effectively with your carrier to figure out time adjustments and build in extra time for longer-haul shipments. But don’t worry, it really won’t make much difference at all!

Automatic Emergency Braking Systems Implementation 🛑

The new FMCSA regulations don’t stop there, another proposed regulation that is looking to come into play this Spring is the implementation of automatic emergency braking systems in heavy trucks. If passed, this will apply to any truck weighing between 10,000 – 26,000lbs and any over 26,000lbs, which is any truck between classes 3-8, so essentially any truck from box truck to 80,000lb artics. The goal of adding this technology, is to reduce the number of RTA’s (road traffic accidents) across the U.S. annually.

What Does This Mean For You, The Shipper?

With automatic breaking systems in place, we expect to see less RTAs. Which is great news for the nation and also, in turn leads to lower cargo risk. Fewer collisions means, fewer product damages and loss. In the short term, your carrier might experience some capacity constraints due to upgrading their fleet with these systems, so, try and lock in freight asap.

Elimination of MC Numbers 📃

As of October this year, 2025 the new FMCSA regulations plan to eliminate the use of MC (Motor Carrier) numbers entirely, when they bring in their new registration system. Instead, only USDOT numbers will be used for identification of motor carriers. The aim of this change, is to majorly reduce fraudulant activity in the freight industry and simplify processes.

What Does This Mean For You, The Shipper?

This change might seem like it won’t really affect you. However, one huge upside to the elimination of the MC number is greater security. With this change, it will make it much harder for “phantom carriers” to operate, which means we should see reductions in cargo theft statistics. It will also streamline operations, onboarding new carriers and making claims will be much simpler and require less paperwork.

English Language Enforcement 🗣✍️

A new executive order is mandating that drivers of commercial vehicles must have a good level of spoken and written english language. This rule had previously been removed under the Obama administration during 2016, now as of April 28th Trump reinstated it as a federal law to take effect on June 25. At a minimum commercial drivers must be able to be proficient enough in english to understand road signs, complete paperwork and communicate with officials. There has been many split feelings on this, some say “it’s needed for better safety on the roads”, while others deem it unfair and say that “they may not be good at english but they can still handle their job”.

What Does This Mean For You, The Shipper?

It’s hard at this time to know how this will effect the industry. But one thing to bare in mind, is that we could see declines in capacity, if many drivers do not pass the english proficiency testing or are being put through english language training. Again, check with your carrier where they stand with this one and lock in your shipments as soon as possible.

2025 FMCSA Roundup 💭

With these new FMCSA regulations in talks this year, it looks like there is a common theme throughout. They all share the number one goal of, safety. Safety on our roads, and enhanced safety for your cargo. Most shippers might think the new FMCSA regulations are only important for carriers and freight brokers to understand. We disagree, we think it’s super important for shippers to understand what is changing and how it will directly effect them and their shipments. There are a ton more regulations in talks for later this year, we just hand picked those that have been most prominent and hot talk topics so far. To read more, head over to the FMCSA website.

Hopefully you’ve found this blog useful, and if you’re looking for shipping help with a partner who is reliable and 100% compliant then you’ve found us! We’d love to hear from you, get in touch on, Phone: 888-SHIP-911 or use the link below!

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