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The nation’s roads and bridges already received concerning grades in the latest infrastructure report card. So, why not go ahead and make trucks even heavier? What could go wrong?
According to the National Association of County Engineers, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and others, increasing truck weights could lead to big problems.
“If you want to put heavier trucks on the roads and the bridges, you’re asking for some sort of catastrophe at some point,” Kevan Stone, the executive director of the National Association of County Engineers, said earlier this year.
Meanwhile, OOIDA believes increasing a truck’s size and weight is bad not only for the roads but also for the truckers themselves.
“Increasing size and weight is all cost and no benefit for truckers,” OOIDA wrote in a letter to transportation leaders in the House and Senate on Tuesday, Aug. 26. “Proponents of weight increases portray these new limits as completely optional and maintain that carriers won’t have to haul at these weights if they don’t want to do so. But inevitably, the higher limits become the new standard as businesses and shippers seek out carriers that offer the increased capacity.”
The current weight limit is 80,000 pounds. In recent years, there have been efforts in Congress to increase the limit to 91,000 pounds. Those efforts are ramping up as Congress begins working on the next highway bill. The current surface transportation authorization bill, which is commonly referred to as the highway bill, expires on Sept. 30, 2026.
“Our opposition extends to proposals that would increase weight limits across the board, including ‘pilot’ programs that would allow states to opt-in, as well as industry-specific carveouts, such as HR1487 and HR2166, which would give special treatment for logging trucks,” OOIDA wrote in the letter signed by President Todd Spencer. “Industry-specific proposals are problematic because once one industry secures its carveout, there will inevitably be multiple new industries coming to Congress with their case for special treatment. In previous years, there have been proposals to increase limits for trucks hauling EVs and certain agricultural commodities, among other industries. Giving in to one industry will lead to new requests that will be difficult to turn down once a precedent has been set.”
During a House hearing in March, OOIDA, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Truckload Carriers Association all spoke out against efforts to increase truck weights.
Cole Scandaglia, the Teamsters’ transportation policy advisor, said that increasing truck weights would create safety concerns and cause damage to the nation’s roads and bridges.
“Critically, the Teamsters adamantly oppose efforts to raise maximum allowable gross vehicle weight rating/gross vehicle weight,” Scandaglia said. “Simply put, these proposals threaten safety, increase wear and tear on our nation’s roads and add unnecessary operational difficulties for drivers.”