House panel debates ELD certification, truck weight limits

WASHINGTON — Stakeholders in the trucking industry are jockeying for position on Capitol Hill as lawmakers begin prioritizing provisions to include in the next version of highway funding legislation.

A slate of issues were raised at a hearing Wednesday of a House Transportation subcommittee, including truck parking, freight fraud, driver pay and “fly-by-night” CDL schools, but increasing truck size and weights and evaluating the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s oversight of electronic logging devices for regulating driver hours of service stood out.

Truck size and weight battle lines

A proposal to raise gross vehicle weight (GVW) limits on federal highways and interstates was the most divisive for witnesses at the hearing. Ryan Lindsey, testifying on behalf of the Shippers Coalition, and Dan Glessing, a fifth-generation Minnesota dairy farmer, pushed hard for a pilot project that would raise the GVW limit on interstates from 80,000 to 91,000 pounds.

Testifying on behalf of the Truckload Carriers Association, John Elliott, executive chairman of truckload operator Load One, acknowledged that the industry was divided.

Cole Scandaglia, policy adviser for the Teamsters union, cited a federal study that found heavier trucks had higher crash rates, as well as higher HOS and brake violations.

Cards on the table

With the current $1.2 trillion infrastructure funding legislation due to expire in fiscal year 2026, each of the truck panel witnesses was asked to name the “one thing” needed in the new reauthorization bill.