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Jul 31, 2009

Trucks Weight * USA - Pilot Project Moves Forward In Senate

Trucks weighing up to 100,000 pounds to operate the full length of the interstate highway system in the state

Maine,USA -MPBN -30 July 2009: -- A Senate Appropriations sub-committee has given approval to a pilot project proposed by Maine’s Congressional delegation allowing trucks weighing up to 100,000 pounds to operate the full length of the interstate highway system in the state... Under the proposal, truckers with the loads weighing above 80,000 pounds will be able to use all of the interstate instead of being required to leave the interstate north of Augusta for a year to allow a study to see if allowing the greater weight poses a safety issue... The measure is part of an appropriations bill and faces further votes in the full Senate and the House...


* Hundreds of angry truckers protest Bossier law

Shreveport,LOU,USA -Shreveport Times, by Drew Pierson -July 30, 2009: -- Hundreds of angry truckers descended on a somewhat impromptu Bossier Police Jury meeting Wednesday in Benton to express their displeasure with a recently enacted parish law against overweight trucks... Bossier Parish's commercial vehicle enforcement unit consists of only one enforcement officer who has authority to drive throughout the parish, pull over trucks he suspects of being overweight and weighing them. The parish spend months notifying local companies of the program, which began July 20... But the truckers at Wednesday's meeting said many of their trucks routinely weigh more than the state's and parish's maximum load limit, which is 88,000 pounds, because of the type of equipment they haul... The cost of a permit from the parish in addition to one from the state, plus the concern that other parishes soon might start enforcing programs of their own, is too much, said Glenn Beaty, head of Beaty Logging Co... The parish reports having lost more than $8 million, four bridges and countless hours trying to repair damage in only the past three or four years from overweight trucks, particularly saltwater trucks, which are needed for the "fracking" process used to extract natural gas from the shale. Parish staffers have heard reports of saltwater trucks weighing as much as 160,000 pounds driving on local roads... To date, no tickets have been issued by Bossier...

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Jul 16, 2008

HIGHER TRUCK WEIGHT * USA - Possible limits concern state officials

Facing a $19 billion shortfall for state highways over the next decade, Arkansas highway officials are carefully monitoring trucking industry lobbyists' efforts to get Congress to increase weight limits on roads

Little Rock,ARK,USA -The Arkansas News Bureau, by Jason Wiest -Jul 16, 2008: -- ... The industry is lobbying federal lawmakers to increase the 80,000-pound maximum weight on interstate highways to meet greater demand for over-the-road transport. Some lawmakers say there are too many state-level exemptions and too little federal enforcement for the weight standard established 26 years ago to be effective... Increasing weight restrictions to 97,000 pounds would lessen the total amount of wear on roads by decreasing traffic, but would accelerate wear on bridges, said Steve Williams, CEO of Maverick USA Inc., which operates 1,500 trucks in the U.S., Canada and Mexico... Should the weight limit increase be allowed, trucking companies also would have to increase capital spending, Williams said, but hauling 97,000 pounds on six axles would be 17 percent more fuel efficient, he said... "It's appropriate that we pay a higher highway use tax for the use of this more productive vehicle because, make no mistake, the more productive vehicle does have incremental bridge wear," Williams said... Not all companies support the proposal. Some companies that do not usually haul the current maximum weight limit fear they also may have to pay higher fees and taxes for the ability to haul 97,000 pounds, even though they might never do that, Lane Kidd, spokesman for the Arkansas Trucking Association said... The proposal asks to spare those companies from any increased costs, he said...

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