Regulation of Weights, Lengths, and Widths of Commercial Motor Vehicles Special Report 267 (2002) / Chapter Skim
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3. Regulatory Options
3. Regulatory Options
Pages 115-153
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From page 115... ...
; a modified version of the Truck Weight Limits proposal; and a proposal for more liberal federal standards that has similarities with cer~5
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From page 116... ...
In its direction for the present study, Congress asked TRB to review the merits of the Truck Weight Limits recommendations. The second proposal, the modified version of Truck Weight Limits, would share most of the objectives of the Truck Weight Limits proposal, but would respond to some of the criticisms the original proposal received when the study was published.
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From page 117... ...
The research agenda should be determined in a process open to proposals from the private sector, the states, and others. The following are examples of fundamental research questions, suggested by the gaps in knowledge identified in Chapter 2: - Effects of truck performance on traffic flow and pollutant emissions on urban roads: - Effects of configuration and other design features on accident involvement rates of existing trucks; and - Bridge costs of truck traffic and best practices for managing bridge systems, taking into account safety, bridge construction and maintenance costs, and highway transport costs.
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From page 118... ...
This organization, which might be called the Commercial Traffic Effects Institute, would be chartered to carry out a program of development of federal size and weight regulations and related highway management practices, recommend regulatory changes, evaluate the results of implementation of new regulations, and support state implementation of federal regulations. The Institute would be authorized to enter into agreements with privatesector entities to conduct joint programs of data collection, research, and evaluation.
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From page 119... ...
Legislation would specify its charge; its powers and responsibilities: and its governance, including the nature of state and private-sector involvement. Creation of the Institute, together with introduction of the federally supervised state permitting program discussed later in this chapter, would correct an anomaly in the manner in which federal size and weight regulation is administered.
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From page 120... ...
The solution proposed by the ICC, that Congress give it authority to set standards administratively for particular geographic or commercial circumstances, might have proven too cumbersome, and Congress did not act at the time on the {CC's recommendations. The state permitting program discussed later, under federal supervision and with support of the Institute, is an alternative that would avoid the problems with direct legislative standards setting identified by the ICC, make use of the technical competence and local knowledge of the state governments for selection of detailed standards within a range of alternatives, and ensure that federal interests are safeguarded.
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From page 121... ...
The objective of the Institute would be to reduce the public costs (including safety costs and the cost of publicly provided infrastructure) and private costs of commercial motor vehicle transportation.
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From page 122... ...
However, these three organizations are evidence that the proposed arrangement could be successful and indicate some of the keys to success. National Road Transport Commission The Australian NRTC, formed in 1991, is making progress on regulatory issues that defied resolution for many years.
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From page 123... ...
However, there is a gap at the federal level in this country in that no agency has ongoing administrative responsibility for size and weight regulations. FHWA has limited responsibility, but the major features of federal size and weight regulations are not enacted following the same mechanisms as, for example, the rules on truck driver hours of service or motor vehicle emissions that is, with an executive agency determining the specifics of regulations through rulemaking, following a policy directive from Congress.
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From page 124... ...
As in the case of the Australian NRTC, it was the need to reach agreement among all the provincial governments that provided the stimulus for the Canadian initiative. This exigency does not exist in the United States because of the established strong federal role in size and weight regulation.
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From page 125... ...
, or a set of impacts. The conduct of pilot studies would probably be the most visible function of the Institute.
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From page 126... ...
When pilot studies involved only a small number of vehicles, it would be reasonable to continue operation of the vehicles provided the pilot study results were sufficiently accurate to rule out serious deficiencies, and procedures were in place for continued close observation of the new vehicles' performance. A discussion of accident rate measurement problems presented in the DOT 2000 Truck Size and Weight Staidly implies that direct mea126
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From page 127... ...
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Pilot Program as a Model TEA-21 authorized DOT to conduct pilot studies for the purpose of evaluating alternatives to existing federal motor carrier safety regulations or innovative approaches to motor carrier safety (Public Law 105-178, Section 4007~. This program provides a model for the pilot study concept, but initial experience also suggests pitfalls to be avoided in the conduct of monitoring and evaluation, thus highlighting the critical importance of the kind of technical oversight the Institute would provide.
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From page 128... ...
A federal pilot study program that included these general provisions would be suitable for evaluating the consequences of changes in federal size and weight regulations. However, conducting a successful pilot study of changes in size and weight regulations would require scientifically competent data collection and analysis to measure impacts.
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From page 129... ...
The association's proposal inclucles a plan for a training curriculum and procedures for supervision of cirivers, as well as support for a consortium of motor carriers and ciriver training schools expressing willingness to participate. However, the DOT proposal contains no provision for ciata collection and analysis to evaluate the safety effect of the pilot program.
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From page 130... ...
Truck Weight Limits was the product of a study conducted by TRB in response to a provision in the 1987 federal highway act. Federal truck weight regulations and numerous alternatives were evaluated, using the best available engineering and cost information.
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From page 131... ...
In evaluating the proposed new regulations, the committee assumed that each state would retain its length limits unchanged, although the committee anticipated that the federal permit program would be an Incentive tor some states to Increase their length limits so they could operate larger double-trailer configurations on the Interstates. Objectives and Benefits The TRB committee stated the objectives with respect to which it evaluated regulatory alternatives as follows: 131
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From page 132... ...
bridges; · To promote uniformity in the administration of truck weight regulations; · To balance the fecleral interest in protecting the national investment in the Interstate system anc! facilitating interstate commerce with the interests of the states in serving the neecis of their citizens anc!
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From page 133... ...
U.S. weight limits are lower than the limits of most of the nation's trading partners, and heavier six-axIe semitrailers operating under the Truck Weight Limits permit program would be well suited to carrying international containers.
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From page 134... ...
Criticisms of the Truck Weight Limits Proposal The most serious objections raised to the original Truck Weight Limits proposal upon its release concerned implementation. The proposal incorporated requirements regarding routes where permit vehicles would operate, user fees for permit vehicles, enforcement, and safety practices.
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From page 135... ...
not provicle strong assurance of safe operation of permit vehicles, even if it were vigorously implementecI. MODIFIED VERSION OF TRUCK WEIGHT LIMITS RECOMMENDATIONS In this section, a proposal for reform of fecleral size and weight regulations is outlinec!
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From page 136... ...
Two modifications to the Truck Weight Limits proposal are described below: changes in the earlier study's size and weight limit recommendations, and stronger and more specific provisions to ensure that implementation is effective in furthering the objectives of the regulations. The modified proposal retains the central feature of the original: a federally supervised, state-implemented permitting program, adopted at state option, to allow operation of certain trucks larger than those now allowed under federal law on the Interstates and other roads where federal restrictions currently apply.
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From page 137... ...
The six-axIe 90,000-Ib tractor-semitrailer, one of the vehicles that would be eligible for the permit program, is evaluated as carefully as existing information allows in the DOT 2000 size and weight study and in Truck Weight Limits. This vehicle is considered in the DOT and TRB studies because (~)
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From page 138... ...
The federal review of state permit programs would be permanent and ongoing, and as its effectiveness was strengthened through experience, the review process would yield results that would provide the needed guidance on revision of the limits. Implementation Provisions As explained in the preceding section, serious objections to the Truck Weight Limits proposal concerned implementation problems: How could the study's recommendations regarding adequate fees; adequate enforcement; and assurance of safe operation through imposition of vehicle, operational, and routing restrictions be made to work in practice, considering the history of federal and state failings in these areas?
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From page 139... ...
· Adequate and stable funding One of the possible federal actions listed in Truck Weight Limits is direct federal funding of state enforcement, possibly by amending the federal Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program. If federally funded enforcement were financed through federal truck user fees, this approach might be the most direct way to overcome state objections on enforcement grounds and to stimulate improvements.
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From page 140... ...
Redefinition of Federal and State Responsibilities The permit program, implemented with effective federal oversight of safety, fees, and enforcement, would constitute a redefinition of the federal role in size and weight regulation. The federal government would have diminished involvement in defining numerical dimensional limits on the Interstates and other federal-aid highways, since the states would 140
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From page 141... ...
However, the federal government has paid little attention to how its numerical limits affect the performance of the highway transportation system. It does not systematically monitor how federal and state regulations, exemptions, permits, and regulatory violations combine to determine the characteristics of trucks in operation; federal oversight of state enforcement of the federal limits has been imperfect; and evaluations of the regulations' impacts in the federal truck size and weight studies have been infrequent and have been weakened by methodological flaws and data gaps.
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From page 142... ...
Second, the federal oversight function would provide a formal mechanism for states with similar needs to develop common regulatory responses. As a hypothetical example, if each of a group of neighboring states saw a need to provide in its size and weight regulations for special requirements of a regional industry (and the changes were not possible under present federal rules)
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From page 143... ...
PROGRAM FOR LARGE REDUCTIONS IN SHIPPER COSTS The TRB and DOT size and weight policy studies described in Chapter 2 considered regulatory alternatives involving liberalization of limits beyond the Truck Weight Limits recommendations. The methods and assumptions used by those studies imply that liberalization would yield benefits up to a point where trucks substantially larger than those now in use were allowed in those regions where road and traffic conditions were suitable.
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From page 144... ...
The size and weight provisions in the proposal are as follows: · Replacement of existing federal weight regulations with a new federal bridge formula without a weight maximum, but retaining the present federal single- and tandem-axIe weight limits. Candidates for the formula would include the "Uncapped TTI HS-20" formula or the "Combined TTI-HS-20/Formula B" defined in Truck Weight Limits (pp.
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From page 145... ...
The strong federal role might be justified because leadership would be important in making such a large change in regulatory practice and also perhaps because funding needs might be very unevenly distributed among the states. Potential Benefits Truck Weight Limits evaluates application of the Canadian interprovincial limits to the United States.
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From page 146... ...
States would also encounter costs for early replacement of bridges because of accelerated fatigue deterioration. Providing the necessary institutional and financial support for improved bridge management and for justified bridge replacements would be a challenge for the state highway agencies.
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From page 147... ...
weight regulations anc! relatec!
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From page 148... ...
Although Truck Weight Limits recommends that fees related to costs be adopted to accompany the proposed new size and weight limits, that study's evaluations of regulatory alternatives assumes that no changes in the structure of user fees would occur. As a consequence, even in regulatorv options that show large net benefits in the evaluations, changing 148
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From page 149... ...
Even if the highway agency understands its bridge costs well, charging trucks for bridge impacts of the federally supervised permit program outlined above would present difficulties. As described in Chapter 2, the cost of a passage of a permit truck would vary greatly from bridge to bridge, and therefore fees truly reflective of costs would have to depend on the routes each permit vehicle used.
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From page 150... ...
Finally, estimates for the DOT 2000 truck size and weight study presented in Chapter 2 indicate that the cost to highway users of traffic delays caused by bridge construction is significant, sometimes exceeding the highway agency's construction cost for bridge replacements or improvements. One purpose of charging fees to permit trucks would be to ensure that the costs to the public of operating the trucks did not exceed their benefits, and the fees should on this principle reflect the delay costs as well.
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From page 151... ...
Valid concerns have been raised that the Truck Weight Limits study underestimates the difficulty of putting into effect the enforcement, safety, and fee provisions recommended to accompany new federal weight limits. A modified version of the Truck Weight Limits permit program might constitute a package of reforms with greater credibility.
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From page 152... ...
Incorporating performance standards and rational pricing would magnify the effectiveness of any of these regulatory reforms. The federal oversight of state permit programs could evolve toward regulation based on performance standards, but research is essential to link measurable vehicle performance indices to actual on-the-road safety and economy.
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From page 153... ...
TRB.1990a. Special Report 225: Truck Weight Limits: Issues and Options.
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