Lawmakers Propose Higher Truck Weight

Senators Thursday introduced a bill that would let states decide whether to allow tractor-trailers as heavy as 97,000 pounds on Interstate highways.

The legislation, known as the Safe and Efficient Transportation Act, mirrors a bill introduced in the House last year backed by shippers and trucking companies.

It's the latest action in a long-running battle over the freeze on federal truck size and weight limits Congress imposed in the surface transportation law of 1991.

Highway safety advocates are opposed to lifting the 80,000-pound weight limit, fearing it would lead to more deadly truck crashes.

Truckers and shippers say they need more productive, heavier trucks to reduce fuel consumption, carbon emissions and operating costs to remain competitive.

Under the SAFE Act, states would be able to permit 97,000-pound trucks as long as they have six axles and the weight on any one axle doesn't exceed 20,000 pounds.

Senators Susan Collins, R-Maine, Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Herb Kohl, D-Wis., are sponsoring the bill. Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, sponsored the House bill.

Each of the sponsors hails from a state where businesses produce and ship heavy goods such as lumber and paper that would benefit from bigger trucks.

The bill "will finally create a level playing field for truck weight limits on Interstate highways in all states, including Maine, which has been at an economic disadvantage for too long because of discrepancies in truck weight limits," said Collins.

The bill would help keep heavier trucks on the Interstates, she said, rather than on secondary roads, where they operate during Maine's logging season.

Collins last year added language to the transportation appropriations bill that established a one-year pilot test of heavier trucks on Maine's federal highways.

That program is set to expire Dec. 18, and Collins wants to extend it.

"I believe the results will be fewer accidents, lower fuel use and emissions, and more jobs for truckers and industries dependent on trucking," she said.

-- Contact William B. Cassidy at wcassidy@joc.com.