Editorial: 2005 Brings a Full Agenda for Trucking

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hen the new Congress assembles this month, lawmakers will consider an agenda that has major implications for the trucking industry.

Senators will be asked to confirm President Bush’s new nominees to head executive branch departments and other key agencies. So new leaders would take the helm and have the potential to affect policies at the departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, Commerce, Energy, Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency.

At this writing, the president still was considering possible replacements at the Department of Homeland Security as well as EPA. Whoever leads them would be responsible for policies with a direct impact on trucking.

Since DHS oversees border, port and transportation security issues, the leadership choice there can help make our cargo shipment systems safer. At the same time, this leader could add new layers of screening to what is already a time-pressed freight system. Even now, the latest DHS plan to require fingerprint-based background checks for drivers hauling hazardous materials faces challenges by major industry groups including American Trucking Associations and National Tank Truck Carriers.

EPA is rapidly approaching the next round of tougher restrictions on exhaust emissions from diesel truck engines. Truck fleet executives and equipment suppliers alike hope to avoid a boom-bust cycle in 2007 similar to the one that accompanied a big change in EPA’s diesel rules back in 2002.

Many carriers want EPA to help lobby Congress to pass new tax incentives to help fleets undertake the risks of investing again in new engine technology. If Congress votes for incentives, fleets may start buying new trucks once the 2007 models hit the market. Otherwise, they could stay away in droves.

The old Congress could not produce a final multiyear highway-spending bill that satisfied the House, Senate and President Bush all at the same time.

With Bush pressing for a tougher budget in the year ahead, and Congress facing the same tough issues — whether it starts over by rewriting the highway legislation or just picks up where the previous attempt left off — this high-dollar legislation could take months to resolve. The legislation affects infrastructure repairs and expansion all across the country, so trucking has a deep interest.

Those few items are just the start of a long list. Congress again may have to deal with proposals for new trucking tolls for certain highways, attempts to legislate changes in the long-awaited opening of the U.S. border to Mexican trucks, the regulatory timetable to change rules governing drivers’ hours of service, and of course tax law.

And have a happy, busy New Year.

This story appeared in the Jan. 3 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.

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