Freight transportation needs increased efficiencies

Sen. Diane Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) recent opinion on twin 33s (“Safety first, not bigger trucks,” 7/14) raises an important question for public policy makers: how can we make freight transportation more efficient in a way that safely meets growing demand?

It’s an important question, because over the next decade, consumer reliance on internet shopping and efficient package delivery services will lead to a 40 percent increase in 28-foot double trailers traveling on federal highways. Without new efficiencies, highways will see more congestion, more accidents, more wear and tear, and more impact on the environment.

{mosads}More than a decade ago, a congressionally commissioned report produced by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies recommended modestly extending the length of twin 28-foot trailers by five feet. The recommendation addressed a persistent inefficiency in freight transportation: too many twin-trailer trucks cube out before they gross out. In other words, freight transportation can be made more productive if a single truck can haul more cargo.

Congress today is on the verge of green-lighting twin 33s and for good reason. The proposal would result in 912 fewer highway accidents according to formulas used by the Department of Transportation and reduce annual carbon emissions by 4.4 billion pounds based on the Environmental Protection Agency’s standard conversion rates for diesel fuels. In addition, industry estimates the proposal would eliminate an estimated 6.6 million truck trips per year, economizing 204 million gallons of fuel each year, respectively.

Importantly, the proposal would leave the federal 80,000-lb. weight cap unchanged, which means stopping distances will be unaffected by the change, and there will be no additional wear-and-tear on infrastructure.

In states that currently allow twin 33s to operate, the track record has been remarkable. FedEx, for example, has been operating twin 33s on the Florida Turnpike  – the nation’s 3^rd busiest toll road – for the past five years. With well over a million miles driven,  not a single accident has occurred.

John Woodrooffe, a renowned commercial transportation expert at the University of Michigan who has conducted extensive research on double trailers, asserts that twin 33s are “inherently more stable” and subsequently safer than twin 28-foot trailers. He attributes this increase to the longer wheelbase.

The adoption of twin 33s will not solve every infrastructure related problem facing the country, but without question, it will bring badly needed efficiencies to freight transportation while making highway travel safer for motorists and truckers.

Rosenker is the former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and current senior adviser to the Coalition for Efficient and Responsible Trucking.