A total eclipse of the freight?

Ahead of this year’s total solar eclipse, the Arkansas Department of Transportation is asking carriers to do something that local trucking groups are calling unrealistic.

On April 8, the eclipse’s path of totality will run diagonally across Arkansas, casting darkness across the state for over four minutes, nearly double the duration of totality of the Great American Eclipse of 2017.

According to data from the Arkansas DOT, roughly 1.5 million people are expected to make the trek from outside the state. Additionally, the department expects around 500,000 in-state residents to travel from their homes to the path of totality – adding an estimated 700,000 vehicles to Arkansas roadways.

To get ahead of the possible issues caused by travelers hoping for a glimpse of the solar eclipse, the DOT recently released its 2024 Solar Eclipse Traffic Management Plan.

The plan’s suggestions include closing schools – a preventative measure some districts already have agreed to – along with encouraging residents to work from home that day.

Another suggestion from the DOT is for carriers to take a voluntary “truck holiday” and park their vehicles for the day, as it claims that “severe congestion” along the state highway system could make traveling that day “mostly unproductive for freight vehicles.”

The department added that the one-day shutdown as well as the other traffic mitigation strategies it’s suggested are entirely voluntary, “with no penalty for those who decide to operate during the eclipse.”

Shannon Newton, president of the Arkansas Trucking Association, said the department is asking too much of truckers.

“I don’t think that it’s a realistic expectation that we’re going to stop interstate commerce for 24 hours,” Newton told KAIT News. “I think there is value in informing members of the industry just so that we can appropriately set expectations.”

On top of the voluntary “holiday,” the DOT is considering limiting “the issuance of oversized permits on the days leading up to and immediately after the eclipse.”

If that part of the plan comes to fruition, the department said it will alert local industry stakeholders “to give them ample time to adjust travel schedules.” LL