RSI: Urge senators to oppose increase in truck size and weight

The Railway Supply Institute, Inc. (RSI) has issued an urgent Legislative Action Alert requesting that action be taken to oppose any legislation that allows for an increase in truck size and weight regulations.

The Senate Full Committee on Appropriations is set to vote on the Fiscal Year 2016 Department of Transportation Appropriations bill on Thursday, June 25, 2015.

“We understand that there will be amendments to the bill that would allow longer and heavier trucks,” RSI said. “Of particular concern is an amendment to the bill that would mandate every state in the country to allow double 33-foot tractor-trailer trucks, commonly known as Twin 33s. This configuration is 10 feet longer than the current Twin 28s. More troubling, many in the trucking industry who oppose this configuration believe this will replace the most common truck on the road today, 53-foot single-trailer trucks. These Twin 33s are 17 feet longer than 53-foot singles, and this extra length will create greater safety issues, such as longer stopping distance, higher risk of rollover and increased blind spots,” RSI added.

You can help by calling your U.S. Senators and following the below instructions:

1) Call the number the U.S. Capitol switchboard at, 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Senator(s).

2) Inform the staff that you are a constituent and work for (name of your company). They will likely ask for your address to confirm you are a constituent.

4) Inform the staff that you are calling to express your opposition to any legislation, which increases truck size and weight.

5) Inform the staff that you are opposed to these increases for any of the following reasons:

•Bigger trucks would harm the rail industry and threaten my job security. The company I work for is a vendor to the railroads.

•Bigger trucks are more prone to accidents and much more dangerous and I do not want my family sharing the road with these more hazardous vehicles.

•We have potholes in our roads and over 4,000 of our bridges are rated as deficient. Adding weight and length to trucks makes our infrastructure problems worse and where is the money going to come from to fix these problems?

•Big rigs are already subsidized by all of us as taxpayers. Making them even bigger means that all of us, the taxpayers, will have to pay even more dollars of subsidy for the trucking industry. I don’t think that is a good use of my taxes.

6) Thank the staff for their time. Remind them that you want the Senator to VOTE NO on any legislation that increases truck weight and length.