News From ASET - July 3, 2008

CONGRESS TO HOLD HEARING ON TRUCK WEIGHTS JULY 9

ASET is happy to report that Congress has finally decided to hold a committee hearing on the issue of truck weights and size on July 9th in Washington, DC.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure's subcommittee on Highways and Transit will hold a hearing at 2167 Rayburn House Office Building at 10:00 am on Wednesday, July 9 to discuss the possibility of lifting the freeze on truck size and weight as part of an overall discussion of items critical to the highway reauthorization bill scheduled for passage in 2009.

Tom Carpenter of International Paper will testify on behalf of ASET. Tom has over 30 years of logistics and transportation experience to draw on and will be making the case that given the challenges facing the trucking industry coupled with the solid safety and environmental statistics available, the time has come to allow for heavier vehicles on at least a handful of Interstates in the form of demostration pilot projects in the reauthorization bill.

Along with Mr. Carpenter, the American Trucking Associations, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, the Farm Bureau, the Teamsters, the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association, and one so-called "safety" advocacy group will also have representatives testify before the subcommittee.

This marks the first time in over a decade that Congress has held a hearing on the issue of truck weight and size and is in part a response to the ASET fly-in event held in mid May in Washington, DC where ASET promoted a series of pilot projects to be included in the overall highway reathorization bill next year.

The hearing can be viewed live via web cam by visiting the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's web site.