Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

But they will never fly.

I’m talking about  one of Dan Goodwill’s recent posts  “  It’s Time for a New North American Transportation Strategy.

In this post he makes several good points regarding things that need to be done in the face of the now and future anticipated increase in transportation costs.

1. Standardize regulations regarding truck dimension and weights.

2. Put more freight on trains.

3. Allow larger and heavier trucks.

Good ideas, all of them.  Dan is addressing North America as a whole (Canada, US and Mexico) but even were he ONLY talking about the US it would still be a good idea.

Let me discuss each point in order.

Standardization of the rules.

It is to laugh.  I haul oversize.  EVERY STATE has different rules.  The different states can not even agree on what time of day I can haul. Disparities even exists regarding legal freight.  In the northwest weights and sizes are different than, say, Mississippi.  Standardizing them all would be a GOOD idea.

It has to do with turf.  Each and every little petty bureaucrat desperately wants to protect his turf.  I suppose they’re afraid that if everyone had the same rules then his job would disappear.  If so this would be a GOOD thing since if there’s one thing we have an overabundance of it’s paper pushers.  But no, much as I’d like to see it happen I’m afraid it’s a pipe dream.  NOT gonna happen.  If anything it’ll get worse.  If there’s one thing sure as death or taxes it’s more rules.

Put more freight on trains.

Trains.  The coefficient of rolling resistance of steel on steel is much less than that of rubber on cement or asphalt.  Additionally trains are MUCH bigger.  All in all rail freight is much, much cheaper to transport than anything other than maybe by water, if that.

Then why not go to trains?  We are.  But trains will never displace trucks.  The reason is two fold.  Mainly it’s due to turf battles again.  Paperpushers.  Trains have such a MASSIVE legacy of rules and regulations that it’s amazing that they get ANYTHING done.  Not only do the railroads operate under oppressive laws they also have union problems.  Getting anything changed is horribly time consuming and expensive. The way they are now trains are best for transporting bulk, like grain or coal.  Trains are less good for transporting, say, Maytag Washing Machines  or Mabelline mascara.

Secondly is efficiency, oddly enough.  A rail spur is single use,  only trains can use it. A road is multi-use.  It can be used by anything, cars, trucks, bicycles or skateboards.  In addition rail spurs interfere with roads.  How many times have you had to wait, FOREVER, while a mile long coal train rolled past at ten or twenty miles per hour?  Trains are both more efficient AND less efficient depending on perspective.  The coal isn’t costing the shipper as much per mile on the train as it would be on a truck, BUT, Sally MiniVan Mom is being inconvenienced a lot more by the train than by the truck, as are all those other cars sitting there idling, burning gasoline, while the train creeps by.

Allow larger and heavier trucks

This is the easiest and perhaps the most sensible idea yet.

Why?  The answer is simple. It’s actually the same as Rail.  Cost Per Ton/Mile.

Consider this.  Two trucks each grossing the legal max rolling down the highway at the legal max. (ha!..knowing “cowboys” like I do I’d say “legal max PLUS four or five…sometimes ten).

Now consider ONE truck pulling two trailers.  Gross weight maybe One Forty.  That would just about be the same as two maxxed out trucks grossing eighty. (subtract the weight of one tractor).  The “heavy” is going to get less fuel economy…right.  But not THAT much less.  It’ll maybe get four or five mpg vs six or seven for the others.  Better than half as much.  Then consider that there’s one less tractor to maintain, and one less driver to pay.

We won’t talk about safety.  Safety is a Relegious Subject.  When people can’t counter the argument with facts they say SAFETY.

Bogus.  The history of LCV’s (Long Combination Vehcles ) shows a better safety record than standard combinations.  Not just in Canad but in the US also.

Nonetheless.

It. Will. Never. Happen.

Remember. “the people at the top are just as dumb as you are, just meaner and greedier.”

(I just love that quote.  It explains SO MUCH about reality)