The group, in an Aug. 8 letter led by the Coalition Against Bigger Trucks (download below), asked the House leaders to reject requests to bring H.R. 3372 to the floor for a vote. The bill was introduced May 16, 2023, by Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.); passed the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee later that month; and placed on the House calendar Jan. 18, 2024. Co-sponsored by Reps. Jim Costa (D-Calif.), Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.), and John S. Duarte (R-Calif.), it would have the U.S. Transportation Secretary “establish a voluntary, state opt-in, five-year pilot program to increase truck weights on Federal Interstates up to 91,000 pounds on six-axle vehicles, in order to promote efficiencies in our Nation’s supply chain.”
Because “[s]tates are not required to allow heavier trucks on their roadways,” the proposed pilot program “permits states to opt in,” according to Land Line, a publication of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), another member of the coalition. Land Line’s report pointed out that while “the program is set to run for five years, the bill aims to authorize the transportation secretary to continue it for an additional five years.”
ASLRRA President Chuck Baker in May 2023 called the pilot program a “farce” in a letter to the House T&I Committee. Baker wrote: “The legislation claims to create a ten-year pilot program for heavier trucks, but it is really a wholesale evisceration of federal law governing the weight of vehicles on America’s roadways. There is no short-term or ‘pilot program’ nature to the bill – ten years spans the average lifecycle of two full surface transportation reauthorization bills. There are no constraints on the program; for the next decade, under a vague and hazy new framework, USDOT would be forced to let any state that so desires increase its permissible commercial truck weight by almost 14%. And then, at the end of those ten years, the ‘pilot program’ could be extended an additional ten years based on similarly scant, ill-defined criteria. And while the so-called ‘pilot program’ requires some data collection efforts, any information gathered is useless – there is no obligation whatsoever that any action be taken regarding any data on the many new problems that will be presented by the new law.”
OOIDA, in a 2023 letter to House T&I, Agriculture, and Appropriations committee members, urged rejection of the bill, “claiming heavier trucks benefit large carriers only while hurting small-business trucking companies,” according to Land Line. “OOIDA said it would cost a small carrier $10,500 per truck to upgrade an axle configuration to haul at 91,000 pounds.”
Fast forward to this month, the coalition pointed out to House leaders Johnson and Jeffries that “Congress is all too familiar with these bigger truck proposals and has wisely rejected them over the years.” The proposed pilot, it said, “would put heavier semi-trucks on federal interstates and connected roadways for a decade-long experiment at the expense of our infrastructure,” and “Congress has consistently rejected any increase in national truck weight limits because of concerns for infrastructure damage.”
According to the coalition, the House in 2015 voted on a bipartisan basis to maintain the federal limits, and the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2016 delivered its three-year Comprehensive Truck Size and Weight Limits Study Report requested by Congress. That report, the coalition said, found “heavier trucks would impose additional costs to our highway infrastructure,” and USDOT recommended that Congress not approve any heavier trucks. “As we look to rebuild our roads and bridges, allowing heavier and longer trucks would only make this task more difficult,” the coalition told House leaders. USDOT “studied the impact of various longer and heavier truck configurations on interstate and U.S. highways and found that the additional cost of damage to both roads and bridges would require billions of dollars in new federal spending, adding to our budget deficit. Increases in truck size and weight would have especially severe consequences for local roads and bridges because bigger trucks are not limited to the interstates. These heavier and longer trucks need to run on state and local roads to pick up and drop off freight, as well as for ‘reasonable access’ for fuel, food and other necessities. Local roads and bridges face significantly more damage than interstates because they may be older, built to lower standards, or are already in poor condition.”
Local bridges, in particular, the coalition pointed out, “will be the most at risk to heavier trucks:
“• A recent analysis of over 470,000 local bridges from March 2023 found over 72,000 that are not rated to safely accommodate 91,000-pound trucks.
“• These local bridges would need to be posted and eventually replaced, costing over $60.8 billion.
“• Allowing heavier trucks will only add to the pressure on state, county and municipal governments to find funds to repair these bridges when, at the same time, there are not sufficient revenues today to cover infrastructure maintenance costs.”
“If proponents are serious about collecting more comprehensive information about the impacts of heavier trucks,” the coalition concluded, “they should support the comprehensive research plans initiated by USDOT and the Transportation Research Board. Improving the collection of crash and travel data in the states where heavier trucks already operate is the logical next step as opposed to expanding the operation of more dangerous trucks.”
The other coalition members are:
- AAA
- American Public Works Association
- Institute for Safer Trucking
- International Brotherhood of Teamsters
- National Association of Counties
- National Association of County Engineers
- National Association of Towns and Townships
- National League of Cities
- National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association
- Railway Engineering-Maintenance Suppliers Association
- Road Safe America
- International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division
- Towing and Recovery Association of America, Inc.
- Truck Safety Coalition
- The United States Conference of Mayors
