Senate Bill Introduced!
We are pleased to report that on August 4, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) introduced gross vehicle weight reform in the Senate, as The Safe and Efficient Transportation Act (S 3705). Senators Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) joined Senator Crapo as original co-sponsors.

“Senator Crapo and his co-sponsors have brought to the Senate the bipartisan campaign to use our road system more efficiently, to reduce fuel consumption, emissions, and traffic congestion, while improving safety and supporting our land-based industries,” stated AgHaul Chairman Mike Branch. “With a bill in the Senate, the campaign for truck weight reform will continue to build momentum.”

Senator Crapo pointed out, “This bipartisan legislation gives states the option to increase interstate truck weight limits in a safe manner so that we can get more goods from the farm or factory to consumers in fewer trips and fewer vehicle miles.  Many trucks now hit the federal weight limit with space left in their trailers.  The U.S. DOT estimates that the use of six-axle trucks could save as much as $14.5 billion in shipping costs annually. SETA will also make U.S. goods more competitive in the global marketplace, as Canada, the United Kingdom, and many other countries already have higher weight limits.”

S 3705 is identical to legislation Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine) introduced in the House in 2009, and which now has 54 co-sponsors. Both House and Senate bills would give states an option to allow trucks weighing up to 97,000 pounds access to federal Interstate highways within their borders, provided the truck is equipped with a sixth axle, to reduce braking distances and pavement wear, and provided the operator is willing to pay a supplement to the federal Heavy Vehicle Use Tax, dedicated to accelerated bridge maintenance.

Contact Congressmen, Senators in Their Home Offices
With both chambers of Congress in recess from August 9 through September 12, and with mid-term elections three months away, that interval is the perfect time to secure commitments for co-sponsoring House and Senate bills reforming Gross Vehicle Weight limit policies on the Interstate system. Hearing from a constituent, in his or her District, that gross vehicle weight reform is a top priority will influence your Representative or Senator to co-sponsor HR 1799 or S 3705 or—if the legislator is already a co-sponsor—to strengthen his or her commitment to fight to include reform language in the Highway Reauthorization Bill, once those negotiations get underway.

Not sure if your House member is a co-sponsor of HR 1799? As of August 5, this list of co-sponsors was current: http://ag-haul.org/HR1799cosponsors.html. At this point, the Senate bill, S 3705, has only the original three co-sponsors (Senators Crapo, Kohl, and Collins), but that list may grow quickly.

Not sure how to locate your member’s home office? Googling his or her name will usually take you right to the official web site, which usually includes a reference (or link) to home office addresses and phone numbers on the home page. Still have questions? Contact AgHaul’s Neil Ward at nward@forestresources.org, 301-838-9385.

Points to make during your contact:

• Tell the member, or the aide, exactly why Gross Vehicle Weight reform is important to your business, in specific terms.
• Point out why it is especially important, in a competitive marketplace, to transport dense, low-value products efficiently.
• Note the limitations of rail—for instance, in transporting raw material from the forest or farm to a mill, merchandizing center, or woodyard.
• Remind the legislator that the proposal does not change the size or configuration of existing semi-trailers, apart from adding the sixth axle.
• Point to the benefit for public safety—that the legislation would direct heavy traffic away from local roads, away from cross traffic and pedestrian exposures, and place it on the Interstate.
• Note the potential to reduce traffic congestion, by consolidating loads and routing them away from urban areas.
• Demonstrate the savings in fuel and consequent reduction of emissions.
• Note that the proposal gives each state the right to “opt in” (or opt out) of the new policy, or to restrict it to isolated segments of the Interstate.
• Draw the legislator’s attention to the revenue measure included in the bill—to subject participating vehicles to a special Heavy Vehicle Use Tax assessment, to be dedicated to bridge maintenance and repair.

Legislators may be interested to learn that this configuration is not new but that several states already allow it (or greater weights) on state roads; that the state of Maine has just passed the mid-point of a one-year pilot program testing a 100,000-pound/6-axle configuration on its Interstate system; and that preliminary indications show strong support, both from the affected industries and from the Maine and Vermont public.

Be sure to conclude your contact by specifically asking for the legislator’s support—in co-sponsoring HR 1799 or S 3705—and in encouraging prompt action on Highway Reauthorization.

But most importantly: Show Up!

DOT Affirms Goal of Early Action on Reauthorization
Although most observers judge that action on the federal Highway Reauthorization Bill—our vehicle for Gross Vehicle Weight reform—is unlikely until the new Congress is seated in January 2011, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood expressed the goal of completing a bill this year, speaking at a meeting of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association in late July. That Secretary LaHood was not indicating a stripped down, or interim, bill was clear in his reference to “only one problem: trying to find $500 billion; that’s what it takes to do all the things that we want to do.”

To be sure, the Secretary was speaking to a gathering of road-building contractors, who would be pleased to hear an optimistic prognosis.

Interestingly—in view of his “can do” tone—he “repeatedly” ruled out a fuel tax increase and stated that there was “no support” for a vehicle-miles-traveled fee. He did mention funding mechanisms more commonly associated with Republicans: public-private partnerships and tolling, as well as creating something he called an “infrastructure fund.”

Highway work is currently funded through December of this year, through an extension of the funding formula adopted in the last Highway Reauthorization bill.

Sen. Boxer Opposes Truck Weight Reform
Perhaps it is a measure of the growing visibility of truck-weight reform that Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California), Chair of the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee, decided to take action to slow the momentum, by means of a July 14 letter to Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington), Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, urging them “to refrain from extending the pilot programs in Vermont and Maine, or making any additional changes to current weight restrictions,” while proposing that “longer and heavier trucks are hazardous because of their longer stopping distances, risk of rollover, and greater chance of the last trailer swaying into an adjacent lane,” while also noting “threats to America’s infrastructure.” View her entire letter on Sen. Susan Collins’s (R-Maine) web site at http://collins.senate.gov/public/trucks/Boxerletter.pdf.

Sen. Collins’s office also posts a concise rebuttal from the Maine Motor Transport Association at http://collins.senate.gov/public/trucks/MMTAletterBoxer.pdf, not only correcting Sen. Boxer’s misapprehension about “the last trailer [of a conventional semi?] swaying into an adjacent lane” and otherwise addressing her concerns, but also citing Maine truckers’ excellent safety record.

Sen. Collins is campaigning for an extension of the current Maine/Vermont pilot project—allowing trucks similar in configuration to that allowed in HR 1799 and S 3705 onto both states’ Interstates—in the next Transportation/HUD Appropriations Bill, in the event that broader reform is not achieved by this December.

Building AgHaul Membership—Contact Your Colleagues!
AgHaul’s campaign to reform gross vehicle weight limits on the Interstate system has come a long way in two years: the issue is squarely before congress, as an acknowledged and visible piece of the transportation efficiency amalgam; public support for workable reform is clear through the reactions to the Maine and Vermont pilot programs; and AgHaul and other coalitions find that as we make repeated contacts we spend less time reiterating the basic points about safety and road-surface conservation and more time probing into the details—what reform means for handling cargo at ports and barge transfers, for harmonizing commerce with Canada and Mexico, and for building a comprehensive program of bridge maintenance. We have seen the push for reform extend beyond forestry and agriculture to other basic materials, and to secondary manufacturing, particularly in high-density products such as beverages.

Continuing to broaden AgHaul's constituency is a very high priority for this year. We now represent 103 businesses and associations committed to pressing for the safety, conservation, cost-efficiency, and ultimately competitiveness goals that meaningful GVW reform implies.

Please review AgHaul's current membership at this link. If you have a business associate or belong to a relevant association that does NOT appear on this list, make our case to the decision-maker; it's free to sign up on line, and those who would like to provide a voluntary contribution to support AgHaul's work in 2010 should fill out and return the Form below.

The voluntary categories for financial support the AgHAUL Coalition are:

Associations:
Small associations - $500 (budget less than $1 million)
Large associations - $1000 (budget over $1 million)

Businesses:
Sales under $1 million dollars - $500
Sales of $1 - 5 million dollars - $1000
Sales of $5 - $10M - $2500
Sales over $10M - $5000

Friends of AgHAUL Coalition: $250 - $500

Please indicate your level of commitment and support below:

Company or Organization Name _____________________________________

Contact Person __________________________________________________

Address ________________________________________________________

Telephone ______________________________________________________

Email _________________________________________________________

Fax Number ____________________________________________________

Level of voluntary commitment/support for AgHAUL - $__________ Amount

Please request an invoice—or send payment (checks payable to: "AgHAUL Coalition") directly to:

AgHAUL Coalition
c/o Forest Resources Association Inc.
600 Jefferson Plaza, Suite 350
Rockville, Maryland 20852

Thank you!

Note: Contributions to AgHAUL cannot be treated as charitable donations or necessary and ordinary business expense deductions.