Reflective Tape Retrofit Goes Ahead

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A rule requiring trucking companies to install reflective tape or reflectors on the sides and rears of older trailers will cost at least $228 million, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

Trucking officials say the actual cost to retrofit 815,000 trailers manufactured before Dec. 1, 1993, is closer to $1 billion.

“Making truck trailers more easily seen will help prevent crashes and thus improve the quality of life in communities across America,” said Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater.

Carriers have until June 1, 2001, to attach the reflective material. Those that have already retrofitted trailers with material or devices in colors or designs other than those stated in the new rules have until 2009 to conform.

Trailers manufactured since the end of 1993 come with the proper reflective attachments (3-29, p. 8).

The regulation was signed at a March 26 ceremony attended by representatives of trucking groups and highway safety advocates, including Beth Hall, a Doylestown, Pa., woman whose husband Carl was killed in 1993 when his tow truck hit a tractor-trailer backing crossing a state highway.

Hall was accompanied to the signing ceremony — which was closed to the news media — by Rep. James Greenwood (R-Pa.) who drafted language included in the 1998 highway spending bill, which required the rule to be published by June.

For the full story, see the April 5 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.