Letters to the Editor: Florida’s Left Lane, Texas Polution, Layoffs, State of the Union, California Waiver

These letters appear in the Feb. 18 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

Florida’s Left Lane

The left lane restrictions in Florida are a symptom of a growing and long-standing problem in America: making it “all about me” (click here for previous story).

The studies are unclear, but it’s more convenient for motorists not to be delayed by trucks, which, after all, are only delivering the lifelines for all citizens.

The trucking industry is straining from this mistreatment and has just about had enough. The public will pay the price.

Danny Schnautz
Clark Freight Lines
Pasadena, Texas

Texas, Pollution

I recently got about two-thirds of the way through the article titled “Texas is No. 1 Carbon Polluter in U.S.” (1-28, p. 13). I am not going to cite a lot of facts to contradict the claim that we are the “No. 1 carbon polluter.” A glance at a map of the United States will confirm that we are the largest of the contiguous states, with the second-largest population. Obviously, we leave a large carbon footprint.

As for the “penchant among ranchers and urban cowboys alike for brawny, gas-guzzling trucks,” try pulling trailers loaded with oil field drilling equipment, livestock and/or hay with a Volkswagen pickup.

Texas was a republic before it became the state of Texas, and Texans paid in blood to become a republic. We joined the United States of America by choice.

The article takes issue with the volume of coal we burn annually. I suppose we could burn the natural gas we constantly drill new wells for and extract from the ground and stop sending it around the country. Then the rest of the country could burn the coal instead. We could shut down some of the carbon-polluting refineries, and the rest of the country could look elsewhere for its diesel, gasoline and heating oil. That would conserve the “crude” for subsequent generations of Texans.

We also could reduce the size of the “gaseous” cattle herds and the rest of the country could look elsewhere to purchase its beef.

Texans love this country, but we could just as easily go back to being a republic. However, that begs the question, “How well could the rest of the country get along without us?”

Here is an old adage with a new twist: “It is not wise to bite the hand that feeds you — or the hand that supplies your energy requirements.”

I can’t believe I actually read this article in a weekly newspaper for the trucking industry.

Michael O’Neill
Vice President National Accounts and Vice President
Fleet Maintenance and Purchasing
Pegasus Transportation Group Inc.
Ennis, Texas

Layoffs

If tonnage is up and stock prices are rebounding, why are so many drivers on layoff (2-4, p. 1)?

Could it be that we are all just pawns in a game between the companies and the Teamsters? The company says things are so bad we cannot survive without concessions from the union. The union says we can’t make it without the money from the company.

Jeff Risden
Driver
Clinton, Texas

State of the Union

I found the economic portions of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ Democratic response to the president’s State of the Union address to be rather hypocritical.

The state of Kansas puts undue burden upon the trucking industry when it assesses equipment values for the purpose of taxation.

I find it rather appalling for the value of my equipment to be assessed year after year within my home state, Georgia (ad valorem tax). However, the fact that the Kansas Department of Revenue assesses my equipment for the same purpose is even more disturbing.

Sec. 79-6a03 of the relevant Kansas property tax statute states that “the director of property valuation shall determine the mileage ratio of miles operated in the state of Kansas to miles operated everywhere by use of the estimate of mileage furnished by such motor carrier, and apply the same to the assessed valuation of the equipment listed by such motor carrier to determine the assessed value of such equipment and the tax due thereon.”

That statute means, in addition to the fuel taxes and road taxes this industry pays dearly for every mile traveled within Kansas and every other state, we have to pay Kansas additional monies based upon the value of our equipment, which may not even be registered that state. Not only is this system unethical, I would certainly question its legality and/or constitutionality.

Many trucking companies passing through Kansas consist of operations with one or a few trucks, and their profit margins are borderline-go-bust with the many handouts to states like Kansas — plus fierce competition, taxation without boundaries, out-of-control fuel prices, tolls, equipment costs and maintenance. And the list is ongoing. I owned a small trucking company named Diligent Carriers, which I have put out of business for the reasons I have mentioned.

Everyone will share and absorb the costs and hardship placed upon transportation.

David Marsh
Driver
Grayson, Ga.

California Waiver

The biggest reason U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson isn’t granting the waiver for California’s greenhouse gas measures is the state’s underlying agenda (2-4, p. 4). The real purpose for this push for the Clean Air Act waiver, which would allow the state to implement its greenhouse gas emission standards for motor vehicles, is to remove trucks from California that are seven years and older.

I’ve been to plenty of meetings at the California Air Resources Board’s office in El Monte, Calif. They don’t seem to understand the economic impact that will hit the state, nor do they care. I’ve asked them to have an independent study done to address

this question, and they refuse to do this. By forcing every trucking company to buy newer trucks, they will have no choice but to raise rates by at least a third of the present amounts. That will be passed on to the consumer.

It would make California a border state with very few trucking companies to compete for freight, with states like Arizona, Nevada and Oregon to provide cross-dock freight or large drop yards for the line trucks that don’t meet California’s requirements.

The EPA is aware of this problem, and that’s one of the reasons they will not grant California the waiver.

Bob Stiles
Thaon Transportation
Hastings, Neb.