The American Trucking Associations and the Coalition for Transportation Productivity on Tuesday, Jan. 31, both praised the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and Chairman John Mica for their work to craft the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, a reauthorization bill the groups say also will modify federal transportation programs.
ATA said the surface transportation bill not only will make needed improvements to the nation’s highway system, but also will make that system safer for trucks and cars. “This bill is a major step forward, not just for trucking but for all users of our transportation system,” said Bill Graves, ATA president and chief executive officer. “From reforming how projects are delivered and refocusing the federal highway program on issues of national interest like freight movement, Chairman Mica has laid the groundwork for significant improvements in how Americans travel.”
Graves said ATA also is pleased that the bill includes a number of safety provisions, ranging from the creation of a drug and alcohol testing clearinghouse to stricter driver training requirements, and takes steps toward establishing crashworthiness standards for large trucks that ATA has championed. ATA also praised the legislation for addressing truck productivity and hours-of-service.
“We’re pleased that for the first time in 30 years, despite unfounded yet curiously well-funded attacks on the safety of our industry, the House appears set to make much-needed reforms to federal truck size and weight limits,” said Dan England, ATA chairman and chairman of Salt Lake City-based C.R. England Inc. “Allowing states to choose to open their interstate highways to more productive trucks is an important step to reducing costs to American consumers and reducing congestion on our highways.”
England said ATA also was thankful that the bill directs the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to initiate a field study of its proposed hours-of-service changes, specifically the impacts of the proposed modifications to the 34-hour restart provision. “The researchers whose work was used to justify these changes said a field study was needed to understand the safety, cost and operational implications of such a change, and we agree wholeheartedly,” he said.
CTP, a group of 200 shippers and allied associations seeking increased federal vehicle weight limit on interstate highways, praised the truck weight reform proposal’s inclusion in the bill. The legislation would reform the federal vehicle weight limit by giving states the authority to permit larger single-trailer trucks on interstate highways within their borders.
