Rail industry fights new bills allowing bigger trucks on highways

A coalition of rail, municipal, labor and law enforcement groups are asking House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee members to oppose a measure that would allow heavier trucks on the nation’s highway system.

In letters sent yesterday to the T&I Committee, American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) and the Coalition Against Bigger Trucks (CABT) officials say they are opposed to H.R. 3372, which would establish a 10-year pilot program in which states could allow commercial trucks operating on the Interstate Highway System to weigh as much as 91,000 pounds, up from the current maximum of 80,000.

The committee is slated next week to mark up a large group of supply-chain-related bills, including H.R. 3372, which is modeled on Section 8 of H.R. 471, the SHIP IT Act. The legislation includes the measure to allow the truck-weight-increase pilot program.

Calling the proposed 10-year pilot a "farce," the bill would result in a "wholesale evisceration of federal law governing the weight of vehicles on America’s roadways," wrote ASLRRA President Chuck Baker.

"There is no short-term or 'pilot program' nature to the bill — 10 years spans the average life cycle of two full surface transportation reauthorization bills," Baker wrote. "There are no constraints on the program; for the next decade, under a vague and hazy new framework, [the U.S. Department of Transportation] would be forced to let any state that so desires increase its permissible commercial truck weight by almost 14%."

Studies of the potential safety and federal cost implications of allowing heavier trucks to operate on the nation’s highways are already underway, Baker noted. Proponents of the legislation claim allowing bigger trucks would result in fewer trucks on the highways, he wrote.

"In the real world, trucks and freight rail compete fiercely for traffic every single day — dramatically increasing the size and weight of trucks shifts the economics of freight transportation and would shift more freight onto public highways," Baker’s letter stated.

According to Baker, the bill would:
• shift a significant amount of freight traffic from privately owned railroads operating on isolated right of way onto publicly owned highways;
• wreak havoc on the supply chain and spark new inflation on consumers;
• create significant new dangers on American roads;
• cause more disrepair on roads and impose new costs on American taxpayers; and
• unleash more pollution and greenhouse gases.

In addition to ASLRRA and the Association of American Railroads, others opposed to the proposed legislation include trade groups representing city and county public officials, law enforcement,independent truckers, labor and safety advocates.