Editorial: Tackling Trucking Productivity

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merican Trucking Associations’ board of directors decided to meet the problem of improving truck productivity head-on during its Winter Leadership Meeting in Tampa last week, agreeing to seek legislative changes that would allow trucks to haul bigger and longer loads.

While there’s some disagreement within the federation over a few of the details of these sticky size-and-weight issues, there’s no disagreement that trucking needs to explore every avenue as it struggles with the ever-growing volume of freight the U.S. economy generates.

The industry wants to be sure that any increase in the weight and length of trailers is done safely. Trucking has an admirable safety record, as the downward trend in the rate of fatalities per mile traveled shows. Anything that will reduce the number of trucks on crowded highways should help the rate continue to fall.

Annette Sandberg, who plans to leave the helm of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration next month, has often acknowledged trucking’s safety record but, like ATA’s President Bill Graves, she wants to do even better. She’s shifted FMCSA’s safety emphasis to focus on the human factor in avoiding accidents.

And, showing that trucking isn’t resting on its safety laurels, ATA’s board last week approved a resolution calling on truck manufacturers to build their tractors with governors that would limit their speed to 68 miles per hour.

While such devices might raise some issues in states with higher speed limits, many of the largest carriers already use speed governors, because they know that higher speeds generally don’t get the freight there any faster, but do increase the risk of accidents. The appropriate way to get freight delivered on schedule isn’t to drive faster, but to build enough highway capacity to keep trucks moving at a safe, steady speed.

Once again, trucking agreed that the way to do that isn’t by slapping more tolls on highways. In fact, tolls push trucks onto slower, smaller local roads that aren’t as safe as the interstates and turnpikes that are designed for through traffic.

But trucking understands that more and better highways aren’t free. There’s a hefty price tag attached to infrastructure improvements. The most equitable way to pay that price is to spread the costs broadly and fairly, and ensure that revenue generated by the tolls is used directly to increase road capacity and reduce congestion.

This editorial appears in the Feb. 20 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.