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TCA opposes 6th axle, 91,000-lb. CMV bill, writes letter to sponsor
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Citing financial pressures that it said could hinder the operations of up to 90 percent of the industry's truckload carriers, the Truckload Carriers Association Wednesday afternoon said it was opposing a bill that would allow individual states to decide whether they wanted to allow freight shipping trucks to carry a maximum of 91,000 pounds with the addition of a sixth axle, up from the current 80,000-pound standard.
The association made its position known in a letter sent to Rep. Reid Ribble, R-Wis., who on September 10 introduced the proposed weight increase as the Safe, Flexible and Efficient (SAFE) Trucking Act. Ribble is a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and serves on that committee's Highways and Transit subcommittee.
"The reality is that our roads are already overcrowded with families heading to school and work and trucks carrying the things we buy across the country. The U.S. population has almost doubled since our Interstate highway system was built, and demand for freight shipping is only going up," Ribble said. "The SAFE Trucking Act will help us safely move more of the things Americans want with fewer trucks taking up space on the road, and it is based on data to ensure that truck stopping times and pavement wear are as good or better than our current trucks. When we can increase efficiency, decrease traffic, and make everyone safer in the process, that is a win, and the SAFE Trucking Act is able to help us achieve all these objectives."
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association also opposes the bill; the American Trucking Associations has taken no position on the legislation.
In the letter, which was signed by TCA Chairman Keith Tuttle and TCA Highway Policy Committee Chairman Jim Towery, the association said the most readily apparent equipment modification necessary for 91,000 pound/six axle configurations would be retrofitting a trailer with a third axle.
Tuttle is founder of Motor Carrier Service of Toledo, Ohio. Towery is president of Steelman Transportation of Springfield, Missouri.
In addition to the third axle on a trailer, carriers would also need to consider trailer reinforcements, kingpin upgrades and engine improvements in order to accommodate the increased weight, the letter said.
"The cost to complete a trailer retrofit varies based on a trailer's manufacturer and its configuration for use in five-axle operations," Tuttle and Towery told Ribble. "The approximate cost to add the extra axle and lengthen (for dry vans) or replace (for refrigerated trailers) the axle slide bar ranges between $3,000 and $4,800 per trailer. The additional axle adds between 2,000 and 2,500 pounds to the trailer's weight and has an average 0.5 mpg negative impact on fuel economy. This is what is commonly referred to in the industry as 'rolling resistance' and occurs with the additional axle, regardless of whether or not the trailer is loaded."
To handle the heavier load, most carriers would have to upgrade their tractors, too.
Retrofitting current tractors with the upgrades could cost approximately $10,000 per tractor, the letter said, adding that new tractors with the necessary features for the heavier weight and sixth axle would cost an additional $5,000 to $7,000 more than tractors with standard (350-400 hp) engines with some estimates placing the premium as high as $20,000.
Some carriers also might need to upgrade tire specifications, the TCA said.
"Based on these figures, it could cost most carriers anywhere between $8,000 and $24,800, per tractor-trailer, to upgrade their equipment to haul the additional 11,000 pounds," Tuttle and Towery said.
Based on experience with prior industry shifts (maximum trailer length increasing to 53 from 48 feet, GVW increasing from 73,280 to 80,000 pounds), shippers will not encourage the operation of equipment that doesn't meet the maximum allowed size, the letter said, adding that as has happened before, maximum limits would become the norm and carriers would face tremendous pressure to adjust their equipment to accommodate the heavier weight despite the fact that they will likely never recoup the costs of the adjustment or haul loads requiring the sixth axle.
"Given that carriers are unlikely to see rate increases to parallel the increase in load weights, an increase in allowable GVW must have a low price tag," Tuttle and Towery wrote. "Proponents of 91,000/6 argue that allowing this configuration would not preclude any carrier from operating current configurations, yet history suggests otherwise. Despite the fact that only 10-20 percent of truckload carriers would be able to take advantage of any increase, market pressures would require all carriers to invest in new equipment in order to remain competitive and any capital investment into existing equipment would yield little to no return."
Ribble said his legislation was based on U.S. Department of Transportation safety and road wear data, and that the heavier trucks with six axles would be compliant with the existing federal bridge formula.
"Our counterparts in Canada and Europe have already had success with trucks over 100,000 pounds on their roads, and in Maine, which was granted a special exception to allow heavier trucks on their roads, road deaths are at 70-year lows," Ribble said.
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