In The News

"Relax the Freeze"
Traffic World - April 23, 2001

Truckers seeking longer, heavier trucks oiling congressional lobbying machinery

Longer combination vehicles should be permitted at the option of the states and not limited by Congress, says a policy statement released by the American Trucking Associations. Moreover, says the ATA, any federal limits on gross vehicle weight should be based upon three factors: the number of axles, the distance between axles and the weight on each axle. It is this combination of engineering factors - not simply gross vehicle weight -that determines pavement and bridge damage, says the ATA.

It is unlikely this year that Congress will consider thawing the nationwide LCV freeze it imposed in 1991 or increasing maximum weight limits to 97,000 pounds on Interstate Highways as sought by many truckload carriers. But a trucking industry lobbying effort has commenced in anticipation of the congressional renewal of the $218 billion highway and transit spending program. That 1998 Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century must be reauthorized in 2003. As part of the reauthorization, many shippers and trucking companies want federal limits lifted on two- and three-trailer-long LCVs as well as on maximum vehicle weights. The LCV freeze applies to an approximately 210,000-mile-long federal-aid highway network and the 80,000-pound weight limitation to the 43,000-mile long Interstate Highway system.

"For the economy to grow, we must move more freight. That either means more trucks on the road or more productivity from the trucks we have;' said ATA President Walter McCormick.

Congress imposed the LCV freeze as part of the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. States were halted from allowing an expansion in operation of two- and three-trailer-long LCVs. Some 20 states already had authorized, over specific routes, two- and three-trailer LCVs. Exceptions to the LCV freeze are permitted for demonstration projects approved by Congress. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, then chairman of the House transportation committee, opposed that 1991 ISTEA freeze. The 80,000-pound Interstate Highway weight limit - with an exception for grandfather authority - was adopted by Congress in 1982.

In opposition to any thawing of the LCV freeze is the railroad industry and the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Minnesota's Jim Oberstar, who actually supports a roll-back of existing length and weight limits. "The freeze will be ended over my dead body;' Oberstar told Traffic World last year. T&I Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, has not committed himself except to say he supports increased spending on highway construction designed to minimize congestion. Truckers also must contend with Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., whose home state trucking association supports the LCV freeze.

Meanwhile, a Department of Transportation study released last year said that in exchange for the productivity improvements delivered by LCVs, highways and bridges would suffer substantially increased pavement damage from their operation because state length liberalization has been accompanied by state weight liberalization. "Instead of relying on sound science and research data, the DOT study is based on vehicle configurations that have never been used, running on unrealistic highway networks in states where longer combination vehicles don't operate;' said the ATA's McCormick at the time.

Distribution and LTL Carriers Association President Kevin Williams said DOT's own data show no additional bridge costs associated with 115,000-pound triples that his members seek to operate on an expanded route system. The increased bridge damage warned of by DOT came from operation of assumed 131,000-pound loads that Williams said are unrealistic.

Almost 125 House members - more than a quarter of the body - signed a resolution in 1999 opposing any thaw in the LCV freeze. Clearly, the ATA has a Mount Everest to climb if it is to persuade Congress to relax LCV limits as part of highway spending reauthorization.

A study due this summer from the Transportation Research Board of the American Academy of Sciences on the economic and safety impacts of longer and heavier trucks is going to provide heavy artillery, but whether it will be aimed in the direction of the truckers or those supporting a continued freeze is unknown. In 1990, a year before the congressionally imposed nationwide freeze, the TRB recommended that individual states determine maximum length and weight limits. The TRB truck size and weight committee meets April 26-27 to finalize its conclusions that will be made public in the final report. An ATA source told Traffic World that the committee is expected at its meeting to adopt a conclusion that LCV's have an excellent safety record and that any freeze on truck lengths should not be based upon accident concerns. A 1997 Federal Highway Administration study found that LCVs have an accident rate half that of other configurations.

By Frank N. Wilner