33-foot pups not dead yet, new Congressional measure would allow longer doubles

An amendment to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016, passed in December, has been introduced in the House of Representatives that would, in part, allow for 33-foot double trailers.

Introduced Jan. 12 by Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), the bill would up the current mmaximum of 28-foot doubles to allow 33-foot doubles.

Congress, with the passage of the FAST Act highway bill in December, removed language in a previous version of the bill that would have allowed for 33-foot doubles. The omnibus appropriations deal that passed in December also didn’t include language for 33-foot doubles that had been included in previous versions of the bill.

The American Trucking Associations has generally supported measures to increase size and weight limits on trucks, while the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and the Teamsters Union have voiced their opposition to increasing size and weight.