Industry Groups Blast Bill in Congress that Imposes Truck Size, Weight Limits

This story appears in the May 9 print edition of Transport Topics.

WASHINGTON — Trucking industry groups last week criticized a bill introduced by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) aimed at freezing truck size and weight limits on the 160,000-mile National Highway System, saying it would block increases in truck productivity.

The bill, named the Safe Highways and Infrastructure Preservation Act, was introduced May 3, following a similar measure that was introduced last month in the House of Representatives by Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.).

“Allowing states the flexibility to make decisions on more productive trucks would not only cut shipping costs during this fragile economic recovery, they would allow trucking to better utilize its safest, most efficient and greenest vehicles,” American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves said in a May 3 statement.

The Coalition for Transportation Productivity, a group pushing for a 97,000-pound weight limit on trucks with six axles, also blasted SHIPA, saying it “would have significant negative consequences for our transportation network.”

At a press conference backing the bill, Joan Claybrook, chairwoman of the board of directors of Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways, said, “Families and truck drivers are being slaughtered on our highways because of the truck industry’s relentless push for bigger, overweight trucks.”

In addition to Claybrook and McGovern, speakers at the press conference included Teamsters union President James Hoffa, former House Transportation Committee Chairman James Oberstar and relatives of deceased victims of truck crashes. Lautenberg did not attend the press conference.

“They say bigger trucks will be more efficient and result in fewer trucks on the road,” McGovern said.

“Unfortunately, the evidence does not support these claims.”

States are currently free to set size and weight limits on most highways, but federal maximums apply to the Interstate Highway System and some other roads. Some states have higher limits on those roads that were grandfathered when federal maximums were set.

Under SHIPA, states would be prohibited from increasing limits above the ones that currently exist on NHS roads. The bill would not affect any trucks currently allowed to operate on NHS roads; it only would prevent states from increasing weight and size limits.

“SHIPA takes away each state’s ability to set weight limits according to local safety factors and is built on the flawed logic that truck weight increases, not economic growth, drive demand for more trucks,” CTP Executive Director John Runyan said in a statement.

The Truck Safety Coalition, which backs SHIPA, released the results of a survey it said shows “overwhelming support” for both size and weight limitations and a change in truck driver hours-of-service regulations to allow only 10 hours of driving per day.

The survey by Lake Research Partners said 74% of Americans oppose heavier trucks and 79% favor a reduction to 10-hour driving days.

However, ATA took issue with the wording pollsters used, accusing the groups involved of using incorrect figures and misleading respondents.

“Given how misleading and slanted the questions were, I’m surprised they didn’t find unanimous support for their positions,” said ATA spokesman Sean McNally. “This is a push poll of the worst kind and proves that while figures don’t lie, liars can figure.”

McNally said, for example, that the poll-takers told respondents that “about 4,000 people are killed as a result of crashes involving large trucks” each year, while that number was 3,380 in 2009, the most recent year of statistics, he said.

The poll also said “driver fatigue is a factor in up to 40% of all fatal crashes involving large trucks,” a figure that came from a study focusing only on truck accidents that were likely to have been caused by fatigue, McNally said.