A healthy vibrant freight rail industry is the backbone of the U.S. economy, supporting thousands of vital TCU/IAM jobs and investing record amounts of private capital needed to sustain and grow the nation’s rail system.
The 112th Congress rejected proposals by the Trucking Industry to increase truck size and weight allowances. Alternatively, the 2013 Transportation Bill (MAP-21) directed the Department of Transportation (DOT) to conduct and complete a comprehensive two-year study by July 1, 2014, to examine the impacts of trucks exceeding the current federal size and weight limits.
Today, 80,000-pound trucks only pay 80 percent of the cost of damage they cause to taxpayer-funded roads and bridges. The proposed 97,000-pound trucks would pay only 50 percent, amounting to an additional tax on other motorists and higher costs to federal, state and local governments at a time when neither can afford it. This subsidy to the trucking industry would divert traffic away from freight rail and cost the rail industry thousands of good jobs. Freight rail is the safest, most environmentally, and cost-efficient form of freight transportation. At the very least, Congress should defer consideration of any truck size and weight legislation until the congressionally mandated study is completed.
Click here and Vote “NO” today in the Politico online poll.
The trucking industry has enlisted grassroots participation in the poll to help generate support for heavier trucks. Please reach out to your family, friends and co-workers and ask them to go online and vote NO. Let your voice be heard on Capitol Hill. The Poll closes at noon on Sunday, April 14.
Also write or call your member of Congress and tell them to oppose H.R. 612 and defer consideration of truck size and weights until the DOT has completed its congressionally mandated study.
