Increased lobbying
In recent months, the car hauling industry has stepped up lobbying efforts with lawmakers on key committees and officials at the Department of Transportation, Commerce and the White House National Economic Council, interviews with industry and administration officials show.
They have pled their case in face-to-face meetings, letters, and round tables. However, the move is firmly opposed by their rivals in the freight rail industry, and safety experts who warn heavier vehicles are harder to stop, easier to roll and result in more wear and tear on roads and bridges.
This is the latest effort by the trucking industry to leverage a political situation like growing interest in EVs to push for higher weight limits, something motorists oppose, says Cathy Chase, President of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.
“With any incremental change comes incremental danger, and that results in more fatalities,” Chase said. U.S. traffic fatality rates are higher than Europe, and deaths have jumped since the pandemic to nearly 43,000 people a year.
Congress, not Biden, will decide
The U.S. Department of Transportation declined to say whether it supports or opposes lifting weight limits on car haulers, noting the ultimate decision lies with Congress
Congressional committees overseeing transportation said they have yet to take a position on the issue.
However, Rodney Davis, a Republican lawmaker from Illinois who serves on the House Transportation Committee and is ranking member on the highway subcommittee, says he’s working to increase weight limits.
“The auto transporter industry needs a modest 5 percent to 10 percent weight variance. Otherwise, an already-challenged supply chain will require more tractor trailer rigs on the nation’s highways to deliver the same number of finished vehicles. That means more miles driven, more wear and tear on our roads, more fuel used, and more emissions,” Davis said.
The American Trucking Associations has asked lawmakers to increase the weight limit by 10 percent, to 88,000 pounds, saying the current weight limit is unsustainable given the trends.
That extra 8,000 pounds could allow car haulers to carry the same number of EVs as traditional cars: Ford’s new F-150 Lightning all-electric pickup truck weighs about 1,600 pounds more than its gas-powered F-150 counterpart. Similarly, the all-electric Volvo XC40 Recharge utlity vehicle weighs about 1,000 pounds more than a gas-powered Volvo XC40.
One industry idea is higher weights for up to 300 miles.
Haulers often unload a car by then, putting them under the 80,000 pound limit.California, which just passed a law banning sales of gasoline-powered cars by 2035 Read full story, has done essentially that, increasing weight limits for trucks carrying goods in and out of its ports to ease supply-chain bottlenecks and clear containers off the docks of Los Angeles and Long Beach.Temporary permits starting in November of last year lift weight restrictions for trucks to 88,000 pounds. The state hasn’t researched whether increasing the weight limits helped ease congestion or posed a safety risk.
“The department is also not aware of an collisions or other safety impacts of trucks that are utilizing these permits,” William Arnold, a California transportation department spokesman, said.
