Time to Thaw Federal Freeze on State Truck Regulations

Diane Katz / June 03, 2011

It’s been two decades since Congress seized from states the authority to regulate the size of the biggest trucks traveling the highways. But what started as a temporary “freeze” on state rule-making predictably turned into a permanent federal usurpation of state regulation.

The now-petrified standards have been rendered largely obsolete by advances in engineering, thus inhibiting productivity improvements for hauling freight. It’s time, therefore, for Washington to get out of the way.

The freeze on truck “configurations” came with passage of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, which consolidated federal power over the nation’s highway network (read: micromanagement). Proponents argued for standardizing the differing state rules governing “longer combination vehicles” (LCVs), which consist of a truck tractor and two or more trailers or semitrailers with a gross weight over 80,000 pounds and an overall length of one or both cargo units exceeding 28.5 feet. Railroads, too, had an interest in limiting trucking volume. (more…)