SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A transportation bill in Congress would allow bigger trucks on U.S. highways. Some say it's all about progress, but others are concerned about safety.
Some say it would increase productivity. A higher weight limit for trucks was first proposed, but has been postponed, at least for now. Longer trucks are still a possibility.
The Trailiner Corporation has been around since 1976, and Chief Executive Officer H.E. "Spook" Whitener has been in trucking even longer.
“I bought my first truck in 1955,” he said Wednesday.
Whitener can remember when semi-trailers were 36 feet long. Now, they're 53. The weight limit also was once much less than the current 80,000 pounds.
“Lord, I can't even remember -- maybe 50-something-thousand pounds,” Whitener said.
Up until a few days ago, the U.S. House transportation authorization bill proposed to raise the weight limit up to 97,000 pounds.
A video from the Coalition for Transportation Productivity, a trucking industry lobbying group, makes the case for allowing heavier loads inside today's bigger trailers.
"Many trucks on interstate highways today aren't even close to being full. They meet the 30-year-old federal weight limit with space left in the trailer. This means truckers use more fuel than necessary, shippers spend more money than necessary, and we all face more traffic than necessary," the video says.
Many have concerns about bigger trucks, one being safety.
“I think it's totally foolish,” said Whitener. “They want to tell you they'll be just as safe. You can't ever make me believe that. The more weight you put behind it, I don't think they can build a braking system that'll stop it, but even if they did, they're going to tear the roads up.”
“Any time we add more weight to our roadways, it increases how quickly they deteriorate. So we're not only worried about our interstates but, here in Missouri, we have about 28,000 miles of roads that are more farm-to-market type roads, and we worry about those roads, because they certainly aren't built to handle those heavier weights,” said Becky Baltz, the Missouri Department of Transportation district engineer in Springfield.
An amendment to the bill allows a three-year study of the effects of heavier trucks, but longer twin trailers -- five feet longer apiece -- are still part of the proposal.
“I've watched, and my drivers tell me that two-thirds of the wrecks that are called out here in snow and ice is because they're pulling doubles,” said Whitener.
MoDOT says there needs to be a nationwide discussion on the topic, including -- if heavier trucks are eventually allowed, how extra road maintenance would be funded.
Another reason that Whitener opposes it is he hasn't seen increases in load rates when trucking weights and lengths increased in the past.
