Opinion: Heavier Trucks Deliver Safer, Greener Future
By Harry Haney
Associate Director, Transportation Planning
Kraft Foods
This Opinion piece appears in the March 8 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
The shipping industry in the United States has the opportunity in the next 18 months to dramatically improve its efficiency and ability to compete in the global economy. Pending highway reauthorization legislation could raise the interstate weight limit and create safer, greener, more efficient truck transportation — without increasing truck size.
The Safe and Efficient Transportation Act (H.R. 1799), introduced by U.S. Reps. Mike Michaud (D-Maine) and Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio), would allow each state to raise its individual interstate weight limit to as much as 97,000 pounds — but only for trucks outfitted with a sixth axle for safety. Without changing truck size, the additional axle maintains current braking capacity and weight-per-tire-distribution while minimizing pavement wear.
It is significant to note that H.R. 1799 is not a national mandate. It simply allows states to evaluate local safety and infrastructure factors and customize their own interstate weight limits connecting ports and intermodal facilities. At the same time, the bill restricts higher-productivity, 6-axle rigs to roads and bridges that can handle them safely.
With freight traffic on the rise, shipping and trucking interests alike recognize that H.R. 1799 would secure a safe, sustainable and productive future for our transportation network. Kraft Foods, International Paper and more than 140 other shippers and associations have formed the Coalition for Transportation Productivity to advocate for the proposal.
The coalition, based in Washington, D.C., has worked closely with American Trucking Associations to promote the legislation, which is consistent with the federation’s priorities for the highway reauthorization bill.
Commercial truckers know better than anyone else that we need to plan for the future. Highway congestion inhibits productivity and safety and puts unnecessary strain on the U.S. transportation infrastructure. With a higher interstate weight limit, many trucks that now “weigh out” before they “cube out” could safely maximize the space left in their trailers.
Simply put, we could mitigate congestion by minimizing the miles trucks travel to meet demand — making roads safer both for trucks and for the motoring public.
Academic studies and empirical evidence consistently have demonstrated that raising the interstate weight limit for heavier trucks will result in fewer highway accidents. Because vehicle accident rates are strongly tied to the number of vehicle miles traveled, consolidating freight on fewer vehicles would make roads correspondingly safer.
A 2009 Wisconsin Department of Transportation study found that if a law like H.R. 1799 had been in place in 2006, it would have prevented 90 truck-related accidents in the state that year.
H.R. 1799 also would allow the shipping industry to reduce its carbon footprint almost immediately. A recent study by the Northeast States Center for a Clean Air Future found that 6-axle trucks carrying 90,000 pounds achieve a 15.3% fuel and emissions reduction for high-density freight.
The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that raising the federal weight limit would save 2 billion gallons of diesel fuel annually.
My company, Kraft Foods, carefully researched H.R. 1799 before determining our position on the proposal. We found it would save 6.6 million gallons of fuel and eliminate 73,000 tons of carbon emissions from our shipments alone each year.
The reality is that the legislation would significantly reduce logistics costs for shippers whose products hit the weight limit before the trailer is filled.
Raising the interstate weight limit also is a matter of keeping the United States competitive in the global marketplace.
Canada, Mexico and many European countries already have increased weight limits safely for properly equipped vehicles without compromising safety.
For example, the United Kingdom raised its weight limit to 97,000 pounds for 6-axle trucks in 2001. Since then, it has experienced exactly what we want to replicate in the United States: more freight has been shipped, while VMT has leveled off and fatal truck-related accident rates have declined by 35%.
Harmonizing U.S. weight limits with the rest of the industrialized world would safely ease the cost of moving U.S. goods into international markets and improve the nation’s competitive position.
Closer to home, the benefits of harmonizing state and federal weight limits would take trucks off rural roads. More than 40 states have local weight limits that exceed the federal limit. Under the terms of H.R. 1799, those states could reconcile federal and state weight limits and give heavier vehicles access to the better-engineered interstate system, where accidents are much less likely to occur.
Maine and Vermont just launched pilot projects opening their interstates to heavier traffic, and truckers there say interstate access already has made their jobs safer and their vehicles more efficient. Kraft Foods and other CTP members are confident that H.R. 1799 — the Safe and Efficient Transportation Act — will bring the same benefits for commercial truckers across the country.
With truck traffic growing 11 times faster than road capacity, and the U.S. DOT predicting truck freight will double by 2035, now is the time for carefully crafted truck weight reform.
Through the proposed act, the trucking industry has the opportunity to protect motorists, reduce its environmental effects and boost the American economy. Please join us by asking your member of Congress to co-sponsor the bill.
With your help, we can drive the American economy into the 21st century.
Based at Kraft Foods’ Madison, Wis., facility, the author also is chairman of the Coalition for Transportation Productivity, Washington, D.C. Kraft’s international headquarters are in Northfield, Ill.
