Logistics Quarterly Magazine - Volume 16, Issue 1, 2010

More Productive Trucks Means a More Productive Economy

The ATA supports the use of heavier trucks only on roads that are engineered to handle them. Decreasing the number of trucks needed to haul the same amount of freight can have many benefits, from more productive trucks to reduced road maintenance costs.

By Bill Graves

THE AMERICAN TRUCKING Associations (ATA) expects overall freight tonnage to increase more than 26 percent by 2020, with the modal share moved by truck increasing to 71 percent. To accommodate this boom in freight, the federal government must seriously consider the adoption of more productive trucks. The ATA supports allowing more productive vehicles - including sixaxle trucks, weighing up to 97,000 pounds - to operate on the Interstate Highway System, consistent with sound engineering standards and safety. More productive trucks alleviate the need for capacity expansion while reducing fuel use and emissions, and lowering costs to American manufacturers and consumers.

Making trucks more productive is not a new idea. Current Interstate Highway System axle weight limits, bridge formula, and vehicle width are based on a 1974 study by the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR), forerunner of Federal Highway Administration. The study called for truck weights up to 105,500 pounds on Interstates, without need for special permits. Increasing the allowable limit to 97,000 pounds brings us a step closer to the original Interstate design without compromising the condition of the highway system. Extensive research and experience in the United States and other countries show that implemented properly, size and weight increases will benefit America's economic productivity, improve safety, and reduce emissions.

Last June transportation experts from around the world met at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) to discuss a soon-tobe-released study that indicates the overly restrictive size and weight limits cause the United States to lag in truck productivity, safety, and sustainability when compared with Europe, Canada, Australia, and Mexico. Bringing U. S. federal regulations more in line with international competitors will reduce logistics costs for businesses and consumers, allowing them to better compete in the global economy.

At present, six-axle trucks weighing more than 80,000 pounds are used extensively throughout the industrialized world because of their economic, safety, and environmental advantages. Many states throughout the United States already allow trucks weighing more than 80,000 pounds to operate on secondary roads, and 26 states have grandfather rights to allow trucks exceeding 80,000 pounds to operate on safer Interstate highways that were designed to handle heavier trucks.

According to UMTRI, class of roadway is the leading factor in truck-involved fatal accidents. Interstates had the lowest accident rate and undivided roads had the highest rate. The UMTRI study also found trucks above 80,000 pounds had a lower fatal accident rate than trucks of less weight.

America's Interstates were engineered and constructed for commercial and military use and can easily handle weights much higher than the current federal restrictions. Interstates are safer than state highways because they are wider, have shoulders, have more flat inclines and declines, and better engineered curves. The ATA supports the use of heavier trucks only on roads and bridges that are engineered to handle heavier loads, as determined by state highway departments. By decreasing the number of trucks needed to haul the same amount of freight, more productive trucks lower pavement maintenance costs, mitigate traffic congestion along critical freight corridors, and reduce crash exposure.

The trucking industry is safer than ever before. Large truck crash, injury and fatality rates have reached their lowest point since the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) began recording statistics in 1975. The most recent figures from the DOT indicate that the truck