Two truck light manufacturers have filed exemption requests with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Both companies want the ability to equip commercial trucks and trailers with lights at the rear that flash and/or are amber in color. One system is tied to the truck’s braking system. The other product activates when it senses that a rear-end collision is imminent.
Truck-Lite Co. LLC
Truck-Lite has applied for an exemption from § 393.25(e) to allow motor carriers to continue to operate CMVs equipped with Truck-Lite or ECCO-branded auxiliary amber brake-activated pulsating warning lamps on the rear of commercial trucks and trailers. The auxiliary lamp operates as a Class II amber strobe that pulsates (up to four seconds) with each application of the service brake and then transitions to a steady burning red signal; the auxiliary lamps remain off when the brake circuit is inactive.
These auxiliary lamps would be used in addition to the steady-burning brake lamps required by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs). Truck Lite cites FMCSA research to support the potential safety benefits of using the auxiliary lamps. Field experience and docketed operator reports for lamps operating under previous exemptions show decreases in rear-end events and otherwise support a finding that such lamps provide an equivalent or greater level of safety compared to vehicles without the lamps.
Grote Industries LLC
Grote is requesting an exemption to allow motor carriers the use of one or more non-steady-burning auxiliary lamps installed symmetrically about the vertical centerline on the rear or sides of CMVs when used in conjunction with Grote’s Rear-End Collision Warning (RCW) system. Grote states that the RCW system uses rear-facing, long-range radar to calculate time-to-collision (TTC) for vehicles approaching from behind and activates auxiliary warning lamps when a collision risk threshold is reached.
The system activates a signal circuit when the TTC is less than or equal to a specific safety threshold—typically between 2.1 and 4.0 seconds—which represents the average time required for a driver and vehicle to react to a hazard. Under the request, when the RCW system detects an imminent risk, the auxiliary lamps would either be red in color and flash 4–16 times within four seconds, or amber in color and function as an SAE J595 Class 3 or Class 2 strobe lamp for up to four seconds. Following either initial sequence, the lamps burn steady red for the remaining duration of the warning event as long as the collision risk persists.
Once the potential risk has subsided and the TTC exceeds the safety threshold, the signal circuit is deactivated, ending the warning event and turning off the auxiliary lamps. Grote emphasizes that it is not seeking relief from existing safety requirements, but rather permission to install additional safety equipment beyond that required by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, and believes granting the exemption would achieve a level of safety equivalent to or greater than the level of safety achieved without the exemption.
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