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T he battle over whether feder-al laws should expand truck weights and lengths or keep the present limitations is heating up. The Owner-Operator Indepen-dent Drivers Association, the Team-sters and safety groups support the current limit of 80,000 pounds and 53-foot limits for tractor-trailer trucks on interstate highways of the National Highway System. The NHS covers about 160,000 miles of highway, while interstates represent 44,000 miles The American Trucking Associ-ations, Nation-al Private Truck Council and some shipping organi-zations favor ex-panding these limits. They sup-port the Safe and Efficient Transpor-tation Act of 2009 or H.R. 1799. It was introduced by Rep. Michael Mi-chaud (D-Maine) March 30 and was referred to a House subcommittee with 12 co-sponsors. That legislation would allow trucks a maximum gross weight of 97,000 pounds, provided the vehicle has at least six axles, including a tri-dem axle group with a weight limit of 51,000 pounds. Axle weight in-creases of up to 2,000 pounds would be authorized at the state's option. The heavier weight limit would be allowed only if approved by a state legislature. The bill would increase the an-nual Heavy Vehicle Use Tax for ve-hicles qualifying under the bill to a maximum of $800. Funds gen-erated by the in-crease would be dedicated to pay for bridge proj-ects in states al-lowing the opera-tion of the heavi-er vehicles. The bill would require data on safety and infra-structure impacts resulting from the operation of the vehicles to be re-ported to the U.S. Secretary of Trans-portation, who would have the au-thority to terminate the operation of the heavier trucks on routes where safety problems were detected. The American Trucking Associa-tions say this would allow truckers to deliver more freight while making fewer trips, resulting in benefits in-cluding less fuel use and pollution. The NPTC commissioned the University of Michigan Transpor-tation Research Institute to study the issue. That research indicated significant improvements would be won in fuel consumption, cost, con-gestion, distribution efficiency and driver availability. This would be achieved by in-creasing the gross vehicle weight up to 97,000 pounds on a six-axle trac-tor-trailer from its current 80,000-pound maximum and adding cubic capacity through the use of LCVs specifically, two 53-foot trailers, or turnpike doubles. Conversely, Sen. Frank Lauten-berg (D-N.J.) and Rep. James Mc-Govern (D-Mass.) introduced leg-islation, The Safe Highways and M A X H E IN E Trucking groups are sparring over truck weight and length limits. FOR THE RECORD TRUCKING NEWS Is Bigger Better? Battle lines drawn over truck size JILL DUNN continued on page 80 JULY 2009 14 TRUCKERS NEWS P ERHAPS THE BEST STRATEGY IS THE ABILITY TO USE LONGER COMBINATION VEHICLES . SCOTT KRESS, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT,VOLVO TRUCKS NORTH AMERICA