Speed governors to be mandated on trucks due to rising road fatalities

During a recent broadcast of the weekly programme “Road Safety and You,” Chairman of the National Road Safety Council, Earl Lambert, issued a stark warning about the escalating dangers posed by speeding trucks and outlined the Government of Guyana’s plan to introduce mandatory speed governors (speed limiting devices) across the national trucking fleet. Lambert said the new Auto Control Speed Management System, widely referred to as ACSMS, represents the country’s most aggressive intervention yet to curb road fatalities involving heavy-duty trucks. “It is the Auto Control Speed Management System known as ACSMS,” Lambert told viewers as he opened the programme, noting that the system was recently the subject of stakeholder consultations with truck owners and industry representatives. According to Lambert, truck-related crashes have consistently ranked among the country’s worst road incidents. “Truck-related accidents have emerged as a persistent road safety challenge. In 2023, 30 truck accidents were recorded. In 2024, 25 truck accidents occurred,” he said.
He further noted that “over the past five years, trucks have accounted for approximately 40 per cent of all road fatalities, ranking second only to private vehicles.” Most of these deadly collisions, he said, involved “head-on collisions, jackknife accidents, and intersectional impacts, primarily caused by excessive speed on poorly maintained or high-traffic corridors.” “The data clearly establishes that speeding by large trucks is a national road safety threat requiring urgent technological and legislative reforms,” Lambert stressed.

Keeping trucks within legal speed limits
Lambert described the system as a digital, tamper-resistant method of keeping trucks within legal speed limits. At its core, the device selected, the NXS-4 speed limiter, is “a GPS-enabled programmable device that monitors, records, and controls truck speed according to preset legal threshold while maintaining full data traceability.” He explained that the ACSMS restricts acceleration automatically: “If it’s set at 80, the vehicle, no matter what you do, cannot go beyond that.”
The system incorporates real-time location monitoring, full route history, and built-in tamper detection. “GPS integration allows continuous location and speed tracking… and there will be real-time response,” he said.
“Any attempt to disable or manipulate the system triggers automatic alerts.”
Lambert emphasised that enforcement will be automated: the device will transmit data directly to the Guyana Police Force (GPF) Traffic Department. He said the integration “enhances transparency, eliminates subjectivity in enforcement, and supports the national objective of reducing fatalities through automated compliance verification.”

Guyana’s advancing road network challenges
Lambert said the enforcement gap widened as the country’s highways expanded.
“Traditional police methods reliant on manual observation and speed gun detection have proven insufficient for continuous monitoring of heavy vehicles across a growing national network.”
He also revealed that many trucks originally imported with regulated speed controls had their devices disabled: “These trucks come with the device to regulate that speed. But some or the other, it has been tampered with or readjusted.”
“There’s no way you can self-regulate it,” he added, highlighting the financial incentive some drivers have to speed. “The way the trucks are operated, the drivers are paid by trips. And if they make a certain amount of trips, their earnings increase.” Lambert pointed to the harsh realities of Guyana’s road network as an aggravating factor. He noted that major corridors, including the East Bank Demerara (EBD) Highway, East Coast Demerara (ECD) Highway, and the Georgetown–Soesdyke Highway, are heavily trafficked by commercial trucks serving mining, construction and oil and gas operations.
These routes, he said, are compromised by “structural vulnerabilities such as flood-prone surfaces, uneven pavements, narrow lanes and limited nighttime visibility,” all of which “heighten collision risk.”
The result has been “a persistent pattern of high-severity crashes involving commercial trucks on major highways”, he said.

Multi-agency efforts
Lambert detailed the multi-agency mobilisation currently underway to implement the new system. The Ministry of Home Affairs, he said, is the “lead Ministry and the policy driver,” responsible for overseeing implementation, budget, and communication. The GPF will act as the operational arm, managing “installation, verification, enforcement, data analytics and compliance audits.” The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) “will certify device standards, calibration, accuracy and approve installers and the workshops.”
Meanwhile, the National Data Management Authority (NDMA) will handle “data transmission, security, hosting and integration with the command centre.” Legislative changes are also required. Lambert noted that “Attorney General’s (AG) Chamber drafts and gazettes the legislation amendment to chapters 51 or 2 and associated regulations.” Stakeholder consultations are ongoing, with one such session held recently “at the Police Officers Annex at Eve Leary,” where truckers raised concerns about the impact on their earnings and operations.
Lambert framed the speed-governor initiative as a major step forward in Guyana’s national development. He said the ACSMS “aligns with the country’s development trajectory by ensuring that the expansion of commerce and infrastructure does not come at the expense of human life or road safety.” “As Guyana continues to expand its transportation corridors in support of national development, the implementation of this system ensures that progress does not come at the cost of safety.” Calling the initiative “a bold, necessary, and forward-looking measure,” Lambert said it aims ultimately “to secure the lives of citizens and the integrity of the nation’s roadways.”