Highway bill goes to Obama after passage by House, Senate

June 29, 2012
In a last-minute scramble, the US House of Representatives and US Senate passed a transportation bill that includes more than $100 billion in funding for highway projects over two years and adopted several critical initiatives sought by tank truck carriers, and the trucking industry at large

In a last-minute scramble, the US House of Representatives and US Senate passed a transportation bill that includes more than $100 billion in funding for highway projects over two years and adopted several critical initiatives sought by tank truck carriers, and the trucking industry at large.

The measure passed the House of Representatives 373 to 52 on June 29 just days before a July 1 deadline. All of the members who opposed it were Republicans. The Senate passed the measure hours later by a vote of 74-19. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill in the next day or so.

A key part of the legislation for tank truck carriers, especially fuel haulers, is a measure that will prevent the Department of Transportation and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration from issuing a wetlines final rule, which was expected as early as August. The legislation instructs the general accounting office to conduct a new study for both houses of Congress, and no wetlines ban can be proposed until that study is finished.

This is a big win for National Tank Truck Carriers and its members. “The issue will be studied and we will try to continue our message that the proposed ban and retrofit is both not necessary and likely counterproductive to safety,” says John Conley, NTTC president. “As we have said before, victory has a thousand fathers. I know that the efforts of our carrier and associate members over the past few years made this positive development possible.”

The American Trucking Associations (ATA) saluted the legislation as a safety-conscious highway bill that lays a solid foundation for addressing America’s need for an efficient goods movement network. “This legislation, while not all we could have hoped for as an industry and as users of the highway system, makes tremendous strides in the safety arena and puts down a marker for future improvements to our nation’s freight infrastructure,” says Bill Graves, ATA president and chief executive officer.

Graves said of particular importance was the committee’s inclusion of several initiatives advocated by ATA, including a requirement that commercial trucks use electronic logging devices (ELDs) to record drivers’ compliance with hours of service limits, the creation of a clearinghouse to track drug and alcohol test results, a study of crashworthiness standards for large trucks, the establishment of standards for systems to provide employers with timely notifications of drivers’ moving violations, and mandatory testing of new carriers entering the industry to verify their knowledge of safety requirements.

“Despite misinformation from a vocal minority, this legislation has set our industry on the path to even greater improvements in safety by requiring the Department of Transportation to mandate that truck drivers use electronic devices to record their compliance with the hours-of-service requirements,” Graves says. “This is a tremendous leap forward for trucking, which will bring our compliance systems into the 21st Century, leveling the playing field for our industry and lead to even fewer crashes on our nation’s highways.

“In addition to the ELD requirement, the bill also requires DOT to conduct a field study of pending changes to the restart provisions in the hours-of-service regulations. ATA has pressed DOT to follow through on the recommendations of their own researchers to confirm their finding in a ’real-world‘ field study before implementing the pending changes. Logically, DOT should confirm the efficacy of the planned changes in the real world, before making the new provisions effective.”

The bill also lays a foundation for much needed improvements in freight transportation, albeit without the increases in funding necessary to address our growing needs. “ATA has long supported increasing user fees, specifically the diesel tax, to fund overdue repair and expansion of our highway system,” says Dan England, ATA chairman and chairman of C R England Inc, Salt Lake City UT. “While this bill does not do that, it does make impressive reforms to the planning process which will reduce costs and speed construction projects, including making freight transportation a greater priority, along with providing certain enticements for states to fund freight projects. It is our sincere hope that as these reforms take effect, Congress quickly gets back to drafting legislation that provides the adequate funding we need to maintain and grow our infrastructure network and dedicates funds to the movement of freight.”

Despite all these advances, one area where the bill falls significantly short is in area of truck productivity. “While there is much to like about this bill, ATA is extremely disappointed that Congress has once again kicked the can down the road with respect to truck productivity,” Graves says. “By giving into fear-based misinformation, this bill delays the deployment of some of our industry’s safest, most fuel efficient trucks. We fully expect this latest study to confirm what numerous other studies have already told us: modest increases in truck size and weight limits have a net positive effect on highway safety and maintenance.”

Related