The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) conducted a study in May that showed the very clear benefits of upgrading trucks to have longer trailers to allow them to carry heavier loads. Currently, the regulation for loads being hauled is at 80,000 pounds. By increasing this limit to 97,000 pounds, the study showed that there are many benefits that will not only help companies out, but also the environment, and our roads. Obviously the benefit for the companies is that they get to use a smaller amount of trucks each year. The UMTRI discovered that increasing the weight limit will decrease the amount of trucks on the road by 750,000 trucks per year.
The benefits of fewer trucks on the road are pretty obvious. Fewer trucks means less traffic, less fuel consumed, fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and this will cost the taxpayers less in road repair. The estimated amount of fuel that will be saved comes close to 3 billion gallons per year. This will lead to a decrease of close to 32.6 million tons of greenhouse emissions. With these obvious benefits, you would think it is a no brainer. There are however a few problems with these plans.
With bigger and longer trailers, you have to take into account the safety issues that come along with these as well. With larger loads being hauled, there would be less traffic on the highways, but the heavier loads could wear out the roads just as quick. One way to avoid this would be to switch to tri-axle trailers to aid this problem.
http://www.umtri.umich.edu/news.php
http://fleetowner.com/trucking_regulations/bigger_better_0609/index.html
0 comments:
Post a Comment