Climate Debate Seen Aiding Larger Trucks
By John D. Schulz, Special to Transport Topics
LAS VEGAS — Growing concern about global warming will help trucking’s push for longer and heavier vehicle limits, an issue that may be gaining “buoyancy” in Congress, Bill Graves, president of American Trucking Associations, said recently.
“A great deal of the debate on Capitol Hill with the whole global warming thing has brought focus on the kind of fuel savings you get with more productive vehicles,” Graves said.
Graves made his comments during an interview at a meeting of the North American Transportation Employee Relations Association, held here Oct. 7-10.
There’s heightened interest on Capitol Hill in how more productive vehicles could help alleviate global warming by reducing the number of trucks on the nation’s highways and burning less fuel, Graves said, and it’s helping the industry’s argument for longer and heavier trucks.
Though nothing is set in stone, he said, “There are a lot of pieces that are coming together that give it buoyancy that previously we didn’t have.”
Seconding Graves’ comments, C. Randall Mullet, vice president of government affairs for Con-way Inc., said a convergence of rising energy costs, global warming, driver shortages, capacity constraints and increased congestion results in a “once-in-a-20-year opportunity” to gain greater productivity.
“If we don’t make it in the next highway authorization, we might have to wait another 20 years,” Mullet said. Congress must renew basic transportation legislation in 2009.
Graves said ATA’s official position is to improve truck productivity, with a 97,000-pound weight limit, up from 80,000 pounds currently, as part of an overall package that could include an increase in the 23.4-cent federal tax on diesel fuel.
In the interview before his speech here, Graves also said railroads, which traditionally have opposed longer and heavier trucks, may be changing their view.
“Some in the railroad industry continue to communicate they would have significant concerns about any increase in trucking productivity,” Graves said. “But others in the rail industry have expressed a degree of accommodation that both modes — rail and truck — have enormous challenges on how to obtain necessary capacity to handle more freight.”
Total ground freight volume is forecast to grow 31% by 2017, with rail volume increasing by 27%.
To handle that surge, there is a forecast of 9.3 million commercial trucks needed by 2017, up from 6.6 million currently, Graves said.
“Some in the rail industry are starting to ask, ‘Why have we been engaged in such a fierce battle when we have all this freight to move?’” he said.
“We are going to have so much freight to move we are going to need all the trucks, all the drivers and all the capacity we can find,” Graves said.
But he emphasized that trucking will remain the dominant mode. “Intermodal is such a small piece of what we do that it’s not going to solve the problem.”
Graves noted that trucking companies such as UPS, Yellow Transportation and Roadway are some of the biggest railroad customers.
But not everyone in the trucking industry is sold on the higher weight limits. For example, the Truckload Carriers Association has expressed reservations about heavier load limits out of concern that such a change would lead fleets to expand their capital investments on new equipment.
“Right now, there is certainly a professional accommodation of one another that we have a different view on this issue,” Graves told TT. “By mid-2008, we will have to establish with one another what our policy is, going forward on this.”
Graves said longer and heavier trucks also would help the industry offset rising fuel costs by allowing some carriers to use less diesel.
“We’re not going to catch a break on fuel,” Graves said during his speech. The trucking industry is expected to spend more than $107 billion on fuel this year, compared with $44.7 billion in 2002. “It’s astounding to me that we are paying more than $80 a barrel for crude oil.”
LAS VEGAS — Growing concern about global warming will help trucking’s push for longer and heavier vehicle limits, an issue that may be gaining “buoyancy” in Congress, Bill Graves, president of American Trucking Associations, said recently.
“A great deal of the debate on Capitol Hill with the whole global warming thing has brought focus on the kind of fuel savings you get with more productive vehicles,” Graves said.
Graves made his comments during an interview at a meeting of the North American Transportation Employee Relations Association, held here Oct. 7-10.
There’s heightened interest on Capitol Hill in how more productive vehicles could help alleviate global warming by reducing the number of trucks on the nation’s highways and burning less fuel, Graves said, and it’s helping the industry’s argument for longer and heavier trucks.
Though nothing is set in stone, he said, “There are a lot of pieces that are coming together that give it buoyancy that previously we didn’t have.”
Seconding Graves’ comments, C. Randall Mullet, vice president of government affairs for Con-way Inc., said a convergence of rising energy costs, global warming, driver shortages, capacity constraints and increased congestion results in a “once-in-a-20-year opportunity” to gain greater productivity.
“If we don’t make it in the next highway authorization, we might have to wait another 20 years,” Mullet said. Congress must renew basic transportation legislation in 2009.
Graves said ATA’s official position is to improve truck productivity, with a 97,000-pound weight limit, up from 80,000 pounds currently, as part of an overall package that could include an increase in the 23.4-cent federal tax on diesel fuel.
In the interview before his speech here, Graves also said railroads, which traditionally have opposed longer and heavier trucks, may be changing their view.
“Some in the railroad industry continue to communicate they would have significant concerns about any increase in trucking productivity,” Graves said. “But others in the rail industry have expressed a degree of accommodation that both modes — rail and truck — have enormous challenges on how to obtain necessary capacity to handle more freight.”
Total ground freight volume is forecast to grow 31% by 2017, with rail volume increasing by 27%.
To handle that surge, there is a forecast of 9.3 million commercial trucks needed by 2017, up from 6.6 million currently, Graves said.
“Some in the rail industry are starting to ask, ‘Why have we been engaged in such a fierce battle when we have all this freight to move?’” he said.
“We are going to have so much freight to move we are going to need all the trucks, all the drivers and all the capacity we can find,” Graves said.
But he emphasized that trucking will remain the dominant mode. “Intermodal is such a small piece of what we do that it’s not going to solve the problem.”
Graves noted that trucking companies such as UPS, Yellow Transportation and Roadway are some of the biggest railroad customers.
But not everyone in the trucking industry is sold on the higher weight limits. For example, the Truckload Carriers Association has expressed reservations about heavier load limits out of concern that such a change would lead fleets to expand their capital investments on new equipment.
“Right now, there is certainly a professional accommodation of one another that we have a different view on this issue,” Graves told TT. “By mid-2008, we will have to establish with one another what our policy is, going forward on this.”
Graves said longer and heavier trucks also would help the industry offset rising fuel costs by allowing some carriers to use less diesel.
“We’re not going to catch a break on fuel,” Graves said during his speech. The trucking industry is expected to spend more than $107 billion on fuel this year, compared with $44.7 billion in 2002. “It’s astounding to me that we are paying more than $80 a barrel for crude oil.”
