WASHINGTON — Restrictive federal size and weight policies are causing U.S. motor carriers to lag in heavy-truck productivity when compared with other countries, a leading transportation researcher said at a presentation Jan. 13 at the Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting
In Canada, for example, “B-Train” trucks can be special-permitted to carry a gross weight of 137,500 pounds, producing a payload of 93,060 pounds, said John Woodrooffe, who is director of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute’s Commercial Research.
By comparison, gross weights on trucks in the United States typically are 80,000 pounds with a 46,600-pound payload.
The greater weight allowance in Canada results in a 68% fuel advantage over typical loads in the United States, largely due to fewer truck trips, Woodrooffe said.
“The goal is to maximize the efficiency of the vehicle to reduce the number of truck trips," he said. "It’s as simple as that.”
Likewise, a 10% reduction in vehicle miles traveled in the United States could save 330 lives annually and more than $16 billion in fuel and emissions and other costs, Woodrooffe said.
Canadian truckers have long been able to obtain special permits to haul twin 53-foot trailers on some interstates.
The privilege of being issued the special permits for longer and heavier trucks has created a culture of safety in Canada that has resulted in lower crash rates, Woodrooffe said.
In fact, Canada's longer truck configurations overall have not only improved safety crash rates by as much as five times, they also have improved productivity on certain highways by 44%, reduced fuel consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions by 32% and lowered vehicle miles traveled by 44%, he said.
“I don’t want to leave you with the impression that longer vehicles are implicitly safer,” Woodrooffe said. “It’s the policies that guide them. They can have terrific social benefits.”
Woodrooffe also said that the heavier trucks in Canada have been shown to reduce “infrastructure consumption” by as much as 40%, in part due to the increased number of axles on heavier trucks.
However, another presenter, Stephanie Everett, a transportation engineer at Purdue University, said research done by her institution showed greater wear and tear on highways.
Although she agreed that heavier-truck policies in Canada appear to be working, Everett said that a lack of data in the United States makes it difficult to predict the safety impact of heavier trucks on the nation's highways.
