AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY
TRANSPORTATION REFORM COALITION
and forest products from farms and forests to processing facilities.
AgHAUL:
FACT SHEET
The Agriculture and Forestry Transportation Reform Coalition seeks to improve the efficiency of transporting raw agricultural and forest products from farms and forests to processing facilities. AgHAUL's key issue is to reform truck weight limits on America's federal highway system.
AgHAUL advocates reforms in the 2009 Highway Reauthorization Bill to enable transporters of raw agricultural products, forest products, and animal feed to move these essential commodities from point-of-origin to processing facilities in a fuel-efficient manner.
AgHAUL supports increasing the overall gross vehicle weight limits of vehicles transporting raw agricultural and forest commodities on federal highways not to exceed 97,000 pounds, and adjusting the federal bridge formula for axle weights to achieve this goal.
Cost-effective, safe, and timely transport and distribution of farm and forest products will be greatly enhanced with legislative reforms enabling these trucks to use our nation's highway infrastructure more efficiently. Today, over 60% of grain movement occurs by truck; of the non-grain commodities, that figure rises to 95%. The statistics are similar for forest products.
Enhancing these sectors' key position in the U.S. and world trade depends on reforming the raw material transport environment.
The reform of gross vehicle weight limits on the federal highway system, through the 2009 Highway Reauthorization Bill, will:
- Conserve fuel.
- Reduce total emissions, including carbon.
- Increase productivityof commercial agricultural transportation for raw agricultural commodities and forest products.
- Enhance safety and reduce traffic congestion by reducing the volume of trucks now forced to use state and county roads as primary hauling arteries, due to their exclusion from federal roads.
- Prevent the loss of more U.S. jobs to other countries, due to our uncompetitive truck weight restrictions.
As trucks continue to grow in importance in our country's agricultural and forestry economy, it is essential to reform truck weight limits on the federal highway system. NOW is the time to act. The 2009 Highway Reauthorization Bill must include these critical reforms and their significant benefits.
