Truck Safety Should Be Highest Priority For Congress

Unless Congress acts, and acts quickly, the United States will soon be running on empty when it comes to federal highway funds. And one issue simply can’t be allowed to hang in the balance - truck safety.

After weeks of pitched battle, House and Senate negotiators finally are hammering out an agreement for a short-term extension of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. This legislation authorizes funds to maintain the country’s most heavily traveled roads, bridges and highways.

The proposed extension would grant states $5.5 billion in new highway money until Congress can work out a long-term bill early next year. This compromise is an acceptable stopgap. But it will only work if the full Congress approves the extension later this week, before wrapping up the legislative session for the remainder of the year.

The highway bill has hung in the balance since Oct. 1, when Congress missed the deadline for passing the measure and allowed the federal motor carrier safety program to lapse. This program pays the salaries of truck safety inspectors - the specially trained individuals who ensure trucks and trucking companies are operating safely and legally. These comprehensive examinations scrutinize everything from tire pressure to drivers’ licenses and logbooks. The proposed ISTEA extension provides for $45 million for the safety program. That equals about six months’ worth of funding.

This program is critical to America. The country’s economic growth depends on its continued ability to meet the demand for raw materials and consumer products. Communities across the country rely overwhelmingly on safe truck transportation. The trucking industry serves every community in America, and 77 percent of all communities are served exclusively by trucking and no other freight mode.

Trucking is a major economic engine for the country. The trucking industry employs nearly nine million Americans. That’s about one in every 14 private sector jobs in our economy. More than three million Americans are truck drivers, many of whom have excellent income opportunities. Drivers earn an average of $33,500 per year; by comparison, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary for American workers is about $25,000.

Through all of this, the vast majority of America’s trucks operate safely. From 1986-1996, the trucking industry cut the rate of fatal accidents involving trucks by 35 percent while increasing the miles driven in those trucks by 40 percent. In fact, mile for mile, truck drivers have an accident rate less than half that of car drivers.

But this excellent safety record relies on a system of checks and balances, and increased truck safety inspections have helped to make highways safer. Nationally, truck safety inspections have increased by a multiple of 10 in recent years, while the number of trucks placed out of service by these inspections has dropped 34 percent in the past seven years. Yet without specific funding from Congress, truck inspections all around the country will stop.

It may surprise some to discover the trucking industry itself is pushing first and foremost for increased monitoring of truck safety. But our position is consistent with more than 10 years of safety initiatives that have made a serious difference on our nation’s highways.

Safety restrictions on trucks were far more lax until roughly a decade ago. In 1986, at the trucking industry’s urging, Congress established the single, national commercial drivers license that prevents truck drivers from camouflaging poor driving records behind multiple state-issued licenses. Most trucking companies are safety-conscious community citizens, and the overwhelming majority of drivers are skilled professionals. But to deal with the exceptions, uniform, sensible enforcement of federal truck regulations benefits motorists and trucking companies alike by making our highways safer.

Trucking is the transportation backbone for our country’s economy. And as our economy continues to grow, it will rely more and more on trucks to deliver the goods safely. The proposed six-month ISTEA extension will again fund the truck inspections that uncover bad actors and get them off the road, but only if Congress approves the measure. The trucking industry is pushing for regulations that will make highways safer. Congress should not let safety hang in the balance.

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