Truckers: Safest to Keep Sizes and Weights Limited

GRAIN VALLEY, Mo. – The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, the nation’s largest representative of small business truckers, stood alongside lawmakers and safety and environmental advocates to announce a new bill to lock down the current size and weight of trucks and trailers on interstates. The SHIPA Act will benefit the safety of highway users and ensure the integrity of the nation’s infrastructure.

Todd Spencer, Executive Vice President, OOIDA, said “OOIDA members know from firsthand experience that heavier trucks put additional stress on our already deteriorating highways and bridges and endanger highway users. This bill is plain common sense.”

 The SHIPA Act, or H.R. 1618, “The Safe Highways and Infrastructure Preservation Act” was introduced by Rep. James McGovern, D-MA, and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ.

The bill will prohibit states from allowing trailers longer than 53 feet to operate on the National Highway System – which includes the Interstate System – unless the state allowed the longer trailers as of June 1, 2008. It also restricts combination trailers by setting the maximum lengths as of June 1, 2008. States will also be prohibited from allowing weights to exceed limits on the Interstate System unless it was lawful on July 1, 1956. The bill does not eliminate a state’s ability to permit oversize or overweight loads.

“Stability, mobility and maneuverability are substantially reduced on bigger and heavier trucks and therefore the larger and heavier the vehicle, the more problems it has interacting with other vehicles on the highway,” added Spencer.  

Beyond the safety of highway users in and around oversize and overweight trucks, Spencer also points to the toll they will take on the already weakened highway system.

 “Increasing allowable vehicle weights from 80,000 pounds to 97,000 pounds may be described by some as a minor change, but could have a dramatic impact on the safety and structural integrity of some federal aid highways,” Spencer said.

“If weights are increased, the already limited number of viable routes available to commercial motor vehicles would further be diminished. Efficiency in the trucking industry would be lost, not gained.”

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association is the largest national trade association representing the interests of small-business trucking professionals and professional truck drivers. OOIDA was established in 1973 and is headquartered in the greater Kansas City, Mo. area. The Association currently has more than 160,000 members from all 50 states and Canada.

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