Photo by Jessica Stewart / St. Joseph News-Press

The speed limit on Interstate 229 decreases to 55 mph after the Highland Avenue exit.

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A Nebraska man handled his tractor-trailer like a jungle gym Friday as he hastily crawled all over its purple cab and body at Farris Truck Stop this week.

Time is money, Mark Geyer said.

If discussions of a lower national speed limit come to fruition, he may have to pick up the pace even more during pit stops.

On his way to Kansas City to pick up a load of steel, Mr. Geyer secured his truck in the parking lot of the Faucett, Mo., gas station without a moment to spare.

“I’m on a 14-hour clock,” he said, out of breath from atop the semi-trailer.

A federal rule gives truckers 11 hours of driving time a day, but once he starts his engine for the first time, he must shut her down no more than 14 hours later.

If Congress heeds the recent suggestion of a Republican senator, meeting his daily deadlines could grow more difficult, he said.

A nationwide speed limit of 55 mph went into effect in 1974 because of a fuel shortage from the Arab oil embargo, but it was lifted in 1995.

High gas prices in 2008 prompted U.S. Sen. John Warner of Virginia earlier this month to ask the U.S. Department of Energy to figure out what speed limit provided optimum gas efficiency in today’s market and if the administration would support congressional efforts to force a lower speed limit, according to the Associated Press.

Any potential gas savings wouldn’t make dropped speed limits worth it for Mr. Geyer.

“That would be huge,” he said. “It would drastically cut down my (productivity). Not every day, but by the end of a year, there’d be a big difference.”

A local auto shop general manager said technology in vehicles has improved greatly since the 1970s.

“Most cars today, they’re so fuel-efficient anyway that I don’t think you’d see that drastic of a change,” Rodney Davis of A&B Carstar of St. Joseph said.

Different vehicles reach their highest fuel efficiency at varying speeds, but www.fueleconomy.gov points out that gas mileage typically drops at speeds higher than 60 mph.

Every five miles an hour you drive over 60 mph equates to paying an additional 30 cents per gallon, the site states.

“I can’t imagine putting another serious burden on people and their ability to make a living,” Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Mike Gibbons, R-Kirkwood, told the News-Press during a visit to St. Joseph this week.

Mr. Gibbons opposed any state efforts to lower the 70 mph interstate speed limit and said he’d prefer Congress look to environmentally friendly off-shore drilling to ease the fuel crisis.

“Our economy in Missouri is based a lot on transportation. In a fast-paced global economy — to slow that by roughly 20 percent is a pretty significant problem,” he said. “The price isn’t going to be at 89 cents again, but I don’t think 55 mph is going to help.”

Others aren’t so quick to reject the idea.

Missouri House of Representatives transportation chairman Rep. Neal St. Onge, R-Ellisville, is open to the notion. He said he put the question to representatives of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, who expressed concerns regarding enforcement.

“On the flip side, it would definitely save fuel, there’s no doubt in my mind about that, and we’d also be safer,” Mr. St. Onge said.

He said he had no plans to file legislation that would lower the speed limit, but he would like to learn more about it and welcomed committee hearings on the subject.

Sgt. Sheldon Lyon, the Highway Patrol’s Troop H spokesman for Northwest Missouri, noted traffic accidents would be less severe if drivers traveled at lower speeds

He recalled drivers almost instantaneously increased their speed when the limits were repealed in the 1990s, but he said if limits are lowered again, there would be a learning curve of compliance.

“It may not be popular for everyone, but $4 a gallon for gas isn’t popular either,” Mr. Lyon said.

At Farris Truck Stop, diesel fuel sold for $4.59 a gallon Friday, while regular unleaded gasoline ran $3.99 a gallon.

Alyson E. Raletz can be reached

at alysonraletz@npgco.com.