Set the cruise control and mean it. Starting Monday, five states are putting extra eyes on the interstate, and Alabama is one of them.

Operation Southern Slow Down kicks off July 13 and runs through July 19, marking the ninth year that Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee have joined forces for a week of stepped-up patrols aimed squarely at speeding and aggressive driving.

What Operation Southern Slow Down Targets

This isn’t a random speed trap weekend. It’s a coordinated push, done in partnership with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, with more than 490 law enforcement agencies across the five states participating last year alone. In 2025’s edition, those agencies wrote north of 52,000 citations and warnings for speeding, plus another 1,440 DUI arrests and over 2,000 reckless driving citations.

The timing isn’t an accident either. This year’s campaign overlaps with the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s Operation Safe Driver Week, which runs July 12 through 18 across North America. That means truckers running the Southeast next week are looking at back-to-back weeks where the odds of a trooper clocking your speed just went way up.

Alabama’s Role in the Campaign

State and local agencies from Mobile to Huntsville will be running increased patrols on the interstates that carry the bulk of the state’s freight, I-65, I-20, I-59 and I-10 chief among them. Speeding and aggressive driving cause a disproportionate share of the serious crashes on those corridors, and professional drivers know better than anyone how much worse a bad decision looks at 70 miles an hour in an 80,000-pound rig.

The good news is this isn’t complicated. Run the speed limit, leave the following distance, and don’t let the get-there-faster instinct override years of common sense behind the wheel.

How Alabama Truckers Can Stay Ahead of the Radar

For fleet safety managers, this is the week to send a reminder down the chain of command. A citation during Operation Southern Slow Down doesn’t just cost a driver money. It follows a CSA score around for years afterward, and it can follow a fleet’s insurance premiums right along with it.

As Trucking’s Senior Director for Safety Intelligence and Regulatory Affairs, I specialize in consulting member companies on improved safety program and compliance systems. Please reach out about safety guidance and profitability recommendations anytime I can help you or your company.

Additionally, Alabama Trucking provides unique safety education through membership in its Safety & Maintenance Management Council (SMMC), and regularly offers new resources on driver safety compliance and CSA score management. Any fleet not yet plugged into that network should take a hard look at what ATA membership offers before the next enforcement blitz rolls around. Because in Alabama, there’s always another one coming.