Productivity-Enhancing Truck Regulation
In 1991 Congress placed a freeze on maximum truck weights and dimensions. Some safety groups were protesting against the safety implications of increased truck size and weight, and the railroads were objecting to the introduction of vehicles they deemed to have an unfair advantage. Railroads, unlike trucking firms, must internalize into their cost structure the capital costs of maintaining their infrastructure. The railroads contend that large trucks do not pay sufficient taxes to compensate for the highway damage they cause and the environmental costs they generate.
Although Congress apparently hoped it had placed a cap on maximum truck dimensions in 1991, such has not proved to be the case. Carriers operating under specific conditions have been able to seek and obtain special exceptions from the federal freeze by appealing directly to Congress (without any formal review of the possible consequences), thereby encouraging additional firms to seek similar exceptions. In the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, Congress requested a TRB study to review federal policies on commercial vehicle dimensions.
The committee that undertook this study found that regulatory analyses of the benefits and costs of changes in truck dimensions are hampered by a lack of information (Special Report 267: Regulation of Weights, Lengths, and Widths of Commercial Motor Vehicles; TRB 2002). Regulatory decisions on such matters will always entail a degree of risk and uncertainty, but the degree of uncertainty surrounding truck issues is both unusually high and unnecessary. The committee concluded that the uncertainty could be alleviated if procedures were established for carrying out a program of basic and applied research and if evaluation and monitoring were permanent components of the administration of trucking regulations.
The committee recommended immediate changes in federal regulations that would allow for a federally supervised permit program. The program would permit the operation of vehicles heavier than would normally be allowed, provided that the changes applied only to vehicles with a maximum weight of 90,000 pounds, double-trailer configurations with each trailer up to 33 feet, and an overall weight limit governed by the federal bridge formula. Moreover, enforcement of trucks operating under such a program should be strengthened, and the permits should require that users pay the costs they occasion. States should be free to choose whether to participate in the permit program. Those that elected to do so would be required to have in place a program of bridge management, safety monitoring, enforcement, and cost recovery, overseen by the federal government. (The specific safety issues addressed by the committee are discussed in the section on managing risk.)