Debate rumbles over wider use of big trucks

Debate rumbles over wider use of big trucks    Trucking and railroads clashed over legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate and House on Tuesday.
   U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., introduced a bill that would extend the current limit of 80,000 pounds and maximum length of 53 feet for tractor-trailer trucks on the 44,000-mile Interstate Highway System to the much larger, 160,000-mile National Highway System. A similar bill was cosponsored in the House of Representatives by Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va.
   Lautenberg, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security, said the bill would improve safety and prevent excessive strain on the nation's roads, tunnels and bridges.

Lautenberg

   He said his bill, the Safe Highways and Infrastructure Preservation Act (SHIPA) of 2011, is a “balanced, common-sense approach to maintaining our highways, keeping our economy moving forward, and making sure our roads are safe for everyone traveling on them.'
   Asked to comment on the bill, the American Trucking Association pointed to a statement by its president, Bill Graves, which was entitled “ATA's Graves provides facts in response to industry critics' attempts to mislead.”
   'For years we've seen a number of organizations proselytize about the dangers posed by the trucking industry. These groups have for too long co-opted the legitimate grief of Americans who have tragically lost family members on our nation's highways in order to advance an agenda designed to hurt our economy and our industry and benefit trucking's competitors and well-heeled union interests,” Graves said.
   The “trucking industry has never been safer — and the continued improvement is due in part to the hours-of-service rule these groups have attempted to litigate and blackmail out of existence. The fact is, while operating under the current hours-of-service rule, trucking has been involved in far fewer fatal and injury crashes, and it has improved its fatality and injury crash rates by 34 and 39 percent respectively.”
   He said “alleged 'safety' groups have not made a serious proposal to address trucking safety. Their fix, arbitrarily cut working hours to advance labor's agenda, and further restrict truck size and weight to advance the railroad's agenda.
   “ATA, and the entire trucking industry, sympathizes with those who have lost loved ones on our highways. Those who claim to speak for them should be honest about their motives and stop misleading the public to advance a transparent labor and railroad agenda,' Graves said.
   The Association of American Railroads waded into the debate with its own statement, saying the legislation would “would keep our nation's highways safe and stop bigger trucks from adding to American taxpayers' already heavy federal budget burden.'
   'Big, heavy trucks today don't pay their full share of damage to our nation's highways, costing American taxpayers billions of dollars each year for pothole and bridge repairs,' said Patricia M. Reilly, AAR vice president of communications. 'Now isn't the time to increase the infrastructure subsidy enjoyed by trucks, which in turn increases the cost burden on taxpayers.'
   She said “the additional cost of repairing bridge damage alone caused by raising truck size 20 percent could be as much as $65 billion. That's not money that will come from the trucking companies. Rather, these costs will be paid by U.S. taxpayers and motorists to repair the damage trucks cause to our highway infrastructure — a cost that will be even higher if we allow heavier and longer trucks.'
   The Teamsters also endorsed the proposed law.
   'More than 600,000 of our 1.4 million members start their workday by turning a key in vehicle,' said Teamster President Jim Hoffa. 'That gives Teamsters a real-life perspective on the dangers involved in increasing the size and weight of trucks from their current levels. Heavier and longer trucks mean greater stopping distances and shorter reaction times. And the reality is that our highways and bridges are not equipped to handle the increased weight and size of these trucks.” ' Chris Dupin