Trucking Executive Calls for Higher Weight Limits
Raising allowable truck weight limits by 21% would save carriers fuel, while reducing traffic and emissions, a trucking executive told Congress Wednesday.
Regulations with few exceptions set a maximum 80,000-pound limit for trucks on federal highways, but that should be raised to 97,000 pounds, said Mike Smid, president of YRC Worldwide’s North American transportation unit, Bloomberg reported.
Smid testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s highways and transit subcommittee on behalf of YRC and American Trucking Associations, which is pressing for regulatory changes to allow trucking companies to ship more cargo in fewer trips, Bloomberg said.
“Reform of size and weight regulations can, if employed responsibly, improve highway safety, relieve congestion, lower freight rates, alleviate the driver shortage, reduce energy use and improve air quality,” Smid wrote in his prepared testimony for the panel, Bloomberg said.
Under current federal and state truck regulations, freight demand growth will require a 41% increase in the number of commercial trucks, adding nearly 3 million trucks to the nation’s roads, Smid testified.
But Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) said that bigger trucks were more difficult to maneuver and do not handle as well as smaller vehicles, Bloomberg said.
Safety advocacy group Public Citizen also said that weight increases would make larger trucks more difficult to drive and would put more wear and tear on roads, Bloomberg reported.
YRC Worldwide is ranked No. 4 on the Transport Topics 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.
