• Letter on Maine and Vermont Truck Weight Exemption (Pdf)
• List of SHIPA supporters (Pdf)
• Members of Congress Join Truck Crash Victims and Safety Advocates Supporting Legislation to Keep Bigger, Heavier Trucks off the Road (Link)
• Recent Poll Shows that 85% of North Carolinians oppose 53 foot tractor-trailers on most state roads. (Pdf)
• Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat's Testimony (Pdf)

Press Release:

Dangerous House Bill Will Allow Overweight, Oversized Trucks on Highways. Diverse Coalition of Labor, Law Enforcement, Safety Groups, AAA, Local Government, Victims and Survivors Oppose Bigger Trucks Bill as Deadly Public Safety Threat ...

• View the Press Release (PDF)

Media Advisory:

Congress to vote on lifting triple trailer truck ban. Labor, law enforcement, AAA, victims and safety groups oppose bigger and heavier trucks bill ...

• View the Media Advisory (PDF)

Statements:

• AAA Says Size Does Matter on Issues of Truck Safety (PDF)
• Delaware State Trooper Thomas Brackin (PDF)
• Joan Claybrook (PDF)
• Jackie Gillan (PDF)
• Jane Mathis (PDF)
• Ed Slattery (PDF)
• Jennifer Tierney (PDF)

• 74% of Americans oppose the trucking industry’s efforts to have Congress change the current law and allow heavier trucks on the roads.

• Nearly three quarters of registered voters oppose increasing the national cap on truck size from 80,000 to 97,000 pounds.

• 66% of Americans oppose changing the current law and allowing trucks carrying heavier loads on U.S. highways. “Support for the measure is anemic (only 16% favor the efforts.) Opposition is deep and transcends gender, age, political identification, and region.”
• Eight out of ten (82%) Americans feel trucks pulling double or triple trailers are more dangerous than those pulling just a single trailer.

• By 77% to 16%, the public opposes increasing truck weight limits.
• 80% of Americans believe that trucks with two or more trailers are less safe than trucks with a single trailer.

• By 71% to 21%, a majority of the American people are willing to pay higher prices for goods in exchange for tougher truck safety standards.

• 88% of Americans oppose allowing bigger and heavier trucks on the highways.
• 80% are fully convinced that “trucks pulling two or more trailers are less safe than trucks pulling only one trailer.”

• Truck crash fatalities just went up by 9% in 2010.  3,675 people killed is unacceptable – we would never stand for this from airlines nor should we be forced to on our roads.
• The chances of a large truck crash resulting in death and serious injuries increase with each extra ton of weight over the 80,000 lbs. GVW limit in federal law.
• Heavier trucks take longer to stop and roll over more frequently.
• Overly heavy trucks, particularly 100,000 lbs. trucks, dramatically underpay their fair share of taxes and user fees for the repair of U.S. roads and bridges.  States and Congress are already struggling to find funds to address the backlog of road and bridge needs across the country.
• More than 26%, or 1 in 4, of our nation's bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete according to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
• Poor road conditions cost Americans $67 billion in repairs and operating costs. (ASCE)
• One third of America's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition. (ASCE)
• The "states rights" argument that each state should be allowed to set its own limits is disingenuous and will lead to larger truck limits whether roads and bridges are able to accommodate them or not. If all states bordering one state have higher limits, that one state will not be able to withstand the resultant economic pressures. Allowing states to individually decide weight limits on federal highways ignores the critical role of the federal government to facilitate interstate commerce and avoid a patchwork quilt of limits in interstate commerce.

Kraft Pushes for 97,000-Pound Trucks Called Bridge Wreckers

By Jeff Plungis - Dec 12, 2011

Emboldened by U.S. legislation allowing Maine and Vermont to keep 97,000-pound trucks rumbling on their interstate highways, Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) and Home Depot Inc. are pressing more states to follow.

Companies including Kraft, which says its trucks would drive 33 million fewer miles a year with higher weight limits nationwide, say they need to carry loads more efficiently to combat high diesel-fuel prices. Safety advocates say more heavy trucks would accelerate an increase in truck-related accident deaths, and question whether bridges can withstand the added weight.

“You’re starting to roll the dice,” said Andrew Herrmann, president of the American Society of Civil Engineers. “Do you really want to keep these heavy loads, have a lower factor of safety and start wearing these bridges out faster?”

Trucks can weigh a maximum of 80,000 pounds on interstate highways under U.S. law. Maine and Vermont are exceptions under a pilot program that Congress last month extended for 20 years.

The proposed Safe and Efficient Transportation Act, sponsored by Representative Michael Michaud, a Maine Democrat, would allow every state to decide how extensively 97,000-pound trucks can travel based on economic need and the condition of its roads and bridges.

The bill may be rolled into a multiyear highway policy bill Congress will work on next year, said John Runyan, executive director of the Washington-based Coalition for Transportation Productivity. The group had 120 company members, including Kraft, MillerCoors LLC, International Paper Co., Hershey Co., Owens Corning Inc. (GLW) and Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., as of Dec. 2. Seventy trade associations also backed the effort.

Home Depot

States are already allowed to set higher weight limits for secondary roads and 44 do, according to Runyan’s group. Twenty- eight states also allow a limited number of heavier trucks on interstates by permit, for certain vital commodities or for shipping containers loaded from ports, Runyan said.

Lindsay Chason, senior manager for environmental innovation for Atlanta-based Home Depot Inc. (HD), told Georgia’s transportation board Oct. 19 that 97,000-pound trucks were needed to keep up with a tripling of congestion since 1982 and diesel-price increases.

The average U.S. retail price for diesel fuel was $3.93 per gallon as of Dec. 5, according to the U.S. Energy Department, up 18 percent from the beginning of the year.

Wisconsin Loosening

Wisconsin last month passed a package of nine bills intended to loosen various truck size and weight limits. Governor Scott Walker,a Republican, said the new laws would create jobs.

Companies are trying to win higher weight limits rather than the ability to operate longer trucks, like triple trailers, Runyan said. Adding a sixth axle to 97,000-pound trucks on the interstates, as required by Michaud’s bill, would reduce road wear and improve braking, he said.

“When you’re filling a truck with a product and it’s 80 percent filled, you’re running around with a lot of trucks with extra space,” he said.

Bridge Stress

Companies can partially offset the heftier trucks’ added road wear by keeping the size of the trailer the same and spreading the weight over an additional axle, said Herrmann, head of the engineering group. The extra axle doesn’t offset the stress on interstate bridges, which were designed for 80,000- pound trucks, he said.

Herrmann’s group estimates that 25 percent of U.S. bridges need weight limits or restrict traffic because they’re not strong enough. The U.S. is spending about $10.5 billion a year to maintain bridges, and $17 billion is needed to keep up with the ongoing damage, he said.

“Those bridges already need work,” Herrmann said. “Now we’re saying let’s go back and reinforce all the bridges that need it, when we don’t have enough money to maintain the structures that we have.”

Kraft, the maker of Cheez Whiz and Oreo cookies, would make 66,000 fewer truck trips if the Safe and Efficient Transportation Act were passed, said Harry Haney, associate director of transportation planning with the Northfield, Illinois-based company. Heavier trucks in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and Ohio would help the company most, he said.

Kraft trucks would drive 33 million fewer miles a year and put 2.1 billion fewer pounds on roads with higher U.S. weight limits, Haney said. The biggest savings would be in shipments of products like Miracle Whip salad dressing, Oscar Meyer meat and Capri Sun juices, he said.

“We need to find ways to use our existing infrastructure more efficiently,” Haney said. “Members of Congress increasingly agree.”

Logging Trucks

Congress last month extended a one-year pilot program to allow 100,000-pound trucks on interstates in Maine and Vermont for 20 years, with support from Weyerhaeuser Co. and other forest-products companies.

Trucks are the only transportation mode that logging companies and paper producers can use to carry felled trees, wood chips and biomass from leaves and branches from forests, said Neil Ward, communications director of the Forest Resources Association in Rockville, Maryland.

Minnesota, Ohio

Minnesota, like Maine, is a border state where industry wants heavier trucks from Canada allowed on the interstates, Ward said. Ohio’s legislature is debating higher weight limits to accommodate agricultural products, depending on what Congress does, he said.

“In the cases where a state already has a state limit similar to what we’re proposing for the interstate highway, then it’s a quick and turnkey operation to get an opt-in” to the proposed House bill, Ward said.

In Minnesota, where a bridge on Interstate 35 collapsed in 2007, killing 13 people, the state transportation department supports allowing either 97,000- or 99,000-pound trucks with six axles on interstate highways, according to a March statement. Interstate bridges are equal to or better than those on state highways where heavy trucks already travel by permit, the agency said.

Safety Concerns

Maine and Vermont officials downplayed concerns raised by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration about the ability of interstate bridges to stand up under 100,000-pound trucks, according to officials at The Truck Safety Coalition, Parents Against Tired Truckers and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. The three safety-advocacy groups obtained documents about the two states’ pilot program under the Freedom of Information Act.

“If one assumes that greater than a 10 percent ‘overstress’ is unacceptable, then these results show that every 100,000 lbs. truck is a problem,” a FHWA analysis concluded.

Justin Nisly, a spokesman for the highway administration, declined to comment, saying the agency’s analysis wasn’t final.

Extra fees proposed for overweight trucks won’t cover the costs of reinforcing or rebuilding bridges that weren’t designed for the higher weight, with car owners and taxpayers picking up the tab, said John Lannen, executive director of The Truck Safety Coalition, based in Arlington, Virginia.

‘Ripple Effect’

“The ripple effect will be catastrophic,” Lannen said of the pressure on other states to increase weight limits. “The entire country’s motoring public will be put in grave danger.”

Commercial truck-related fatalities, including people in cars struck by big rigs, rose 8.7 percent in 2010 to 3,675, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Dec. 8. The American Trucking Associations said the same day that 2010 was still among the safest years on record and the trucking fatality rate, adjusted for miles driven, has fallen over the past two decades.

In Pennsylvania, John Rafferty, the Republican chairman of the state’s Senate Transportation Committee, and John Wozniak, the panel’s senior Democrat, warned the state’s congressional delegation that Pennsylvania already needs $3.5 billion a year to upgrade and maintain roads and bridges. More than 5,000 bridges remain structurally deficient, they said in a Nov. 14 letter.

“We cannot afford larger trucks on our roads and bridges,” the senators said.

The Safe and Efficient Transportation Act is H.R. 763.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Plungis in Washington at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bernard Kohn at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

AAA Mid-Atlantic says Congress should resist lobbying efforts, protect state's drivers and roads by saying no to huge new vehicles

Despite significant improvement in truck crash rates, large trucks on the road today have a fatal crash involvement rate 40 percent higher than that of passenger vehicles, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Increasing the weight or size of trucks will only make trucks more dangerous. In its 2000 Comprehensive Truck Size and Weight Study, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) pointed out that heavier trucks tend to have a higher center of gravity because the additional weight is typically added vertically. This higher center of gravity increases the risk of rollovers and creates concern about the ability of truck operators to maintain their brakes with heavier loads. This could drastically affect the stopping distance of these trucks. The Department of Transportation also found that the risks of long-doubles and triple-trailer trucks increased the likelihood of trailer sway, as well as the possibility of a higher overall fatal crash rate than single-trailer trucks.

In addition to motorist safety, there are also concerns about the impact heavier trucks would have on our roads and bridges, which are already severely stressed. As it is, there is not enough money to repair or rebuild our transportation infrastructure. Maryland, for example, has more than 1,322 highway bridges classified as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, according to the Department of Transportation's 2010 National Bridge Inventory. That's an important part of the equation, because Congress is considering pushing our roads and bridges past their breaking point with these big-truck measures. We cannot, in good conscience, allow that to happen without a fight. At minimum, Congress should comprehensively study the impact of such a move before even considering passing such laws. Decisions on increasing truck weights by 81/2 tons or allowing huge triple trailer trucks will impact the safety of everyone.

I urge all Maryland motorists to make their voices heard on this issue. It is time to put a roadblock in front of the bigger-truck lobby — and public participation in the process is the best way to do that.

. Find out more about this issue at http://midatlantic.aaa.com/PGA/issuesactioncenter.

Please contact your Members of Congress with the following message on bigger trucks.  Your Representatives can be contacted at www.senate.gov and www.house.gov.

As you deliberate on the surface transportation authorization bill, I urge you to retain current federal truck size and weight limits and reject any special interest pilot projects or other attempts to increase these limits.  I ask that you support the Safe Highways and Infrastructure Preservation Act (SHIPA) H.R. 1574/S. 876 which would “freeze” truck weights and lengths in every state and prevent dangerous overweight trucks from being on our already compromised roads and bridges.

On average 4,000 people are killed in truck crashes annually and 100,000 more are injured.  The annual cost of truck crashes exceeds $19 billion.  In the past 10 years more than 48,000 people have needlessly died and over 1 million have been injured in truck crashes.  In fatal 2-vehicle crashes involving a passenger vehicle and a large truck 98% of the deaths are occupants of the passenger vehicles.  Adding even more weight to a big truck dramatically increases the risk of death and serious injury.

[INSERT PERSONAL STORY]

It is time for Congress to say enough is enough.  Please take action now to protect innocent motorists and truck drivers from the inherent dangers of overweight trucks which would also further damage our infrastructure and lead to more fuel consumption and more emissions.  Please support SHIPA.  Thank you.