Legislation calls for fair permitting of trucks up to 100000 pounds

[The Straight Story]

LEGISLATION CALLS FOR FAIR PERMITTING OF TRUCKS UP TO 100,000 POUNDS

U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) introduced The Commercial Truck Safety Act, legislation intended to ease interstate commerce and enhance safety on highways and secondary roads. The bill would eliminate what Snowe identifies as inequitable government regulation permitting six-axle trucks weighing up to 100,000 pounds to travel on some states’ interstate highways and not others.

“When it comes to trucks on our Interstates, the Department of Transportation has created an inequitable system where some states, including Maine, must seek individual exemptions from year to year while 27 states benefit from permanent exemptions,” says Snowe, a senior member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which has jurisdiction over truck safety issues.

Presently, trucks weighing more than 80,000 pounds in the remaining 23 states must either unload cargo or travel to their destination on winding secondary roads through numerous small towns and communities.

During a recent pilot program allowing six-axle trucks up to 100,000 pounds on Maine’s interstates, there were 14 fewer crashes compared to the previous year and no fatalities involving six-axle trucks.

http://www.ccjdigital.com/legislation-calls-for-fair-permitting-of-trucks-up-to-100000-pounds/