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NEW STUDIES * USA - Battle for bigger trucks
USA -Fleet Owner, by Skil Carr -July 14, 2008: -- “Bigger trucks are more dangerous trucks. Lifting truck weight and size limits would turn big rigs into time bombs.” –James P. Hoffa, general president, International Brotherhood of Teamsters... You’ve got to give Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters credit: they know how to fire off good sound bites. The above quotation comes from the latest Teamster broadside aimed at heading off an effort to review federal truck size and weight limit laws... Right now, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is proposing to launch a pilot program that would allow heavier and longer combination vehicles (LCVs) to operate on U.S. highways in “border states,” presumably those along the U.S.-Mexican border... While I haven’t turned up anything official about such an FMCSA study, there’s no doubt that the truck size and weight issue is again coming to a boil as the trucking industry not only searches for ways to boost productivity without adding more expensive equipment to our already-clogged roads, but to improve its environmental footprint as well... Indeed, the industry is already conducting new size and weight studies of its own. The National Private Truck Council (NPTC), for one, approved an informal technical proposal to conduct a study on the benefits of larger trucks for those businesses operating private truck fleets back in April this year... The study, to be conducted by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), is designed to benchmark the current transportation efficiency by looking at the operations of archetypal private fleets, focusing on: over-the-road operating costs, cargo transported, miles traveled and safety performance... One thing is for certain – with diesel fuel costing $5 a gallon on average in the U.S. now, with equipment costs forecast to rise an additional $5,000 to $10,000 to meet 2010 emission regulations, and with truck drivers still in short supply, the debate over putting more LCVs on our highways won’t be going away anytime soon...* REPORT - Trucking Insurance Industry Journal Roemer's Report: Proposed legislation to allow rigs to carry up to 100,000 lbs. on federal interstates when diesel fuel reaches a certain price per gallon
Toledo,OH,USA -Insurance News Net - July 14, 2008: -- The July edition of trucking insurance industry journal, The Roemer Report, discusses what is being described as trucking’s biggest shakeout since 1980, when the industry was deregulated. The Roemer Report notes that small operators are the hardest hit. In the first quarter of 2008, 935 small motor carriers went out of business as compared to 385 the year before... The Roemer Report has been published by Roemer Insurance for more than 30 years. The publication is distributed free of charge in both print and electronic formats... According to The Roemer Report, a pilot program proposed by senators from Maine, may help truckers cope with the escalating cost of diesel fuel. The two-year program would allow rigs to carry up to 100,000 pounds on the federal interstate system whenever diesel fuel reaches a certain price per gallon. The higher weight limit would allow trucks to carry more cargo and eliminate the need for drivers to move onto local roads that require more fuel and idling time. The Maine Department of Transportation conducted a study four years ago and found that higher weight limits would be safer and save money... The July edition of The Roemer Report also notes that truckers in the U.S. are not alone in feeling the devastating effects of oil prices. Truckers in Spain, France, Portugal, India, Nepal, and Hong Kong have recently staged large and far-reaching strikes to protest spikes in diesel fuel prices that are over $10 per gallon in Europe...
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