Several Midwest states agree on truck weight limits
Delivering loads for natural disaster relief efforts can be tricky with a patchwork of state regulations. States in the Mid America Association of State Transportation Officials organization are working together to establish more uniform weight limits.
Recently, member states of the association have identified acceptable “emergency divisible load” truck weights for disasters in the region.
The policy expands emergency interstate truck weights from 80,000 pounds to a permitted weight of 88,000 pounds, with no more than a 10% increase per axle. These weights are only minimums. Individual states may allow heavier permitted weights.
Consistent truck weight limits across state lines may expedite movement of emergency supplies during extreme flooding, tornadoes, pandemics and other disasters.
The new weight limit policy applies to presidentially declared major disasters.
States in the Mid America Association of State Transportation Officials are Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin. Nine of the 10 states will implement the new truck weight strategy. Kentucky is the one holdout.
According to officials, this first-in-the-nation unified permitting approach enables better coordination of multistate transportation of critical loads.
“We learned the importance of working regionally during the pandemic and are using those lessons to be better prepared for the next disaster,” Julie Lorenz, president of the association and Kansas secretary of transportation, said in a statement. “We need to help truckers speed delivery to communities by setting the same emergency weight limits and cutting red tape before the disaster hits.”
Lorenz also said she hopes this truck weight unification will spark similar harmonization of state regulations through the nation.
According to a news release, more than $6 billion worth of goods move across the 10-state region’s freight corridors each year. More than 70% of the total freight value of all modes moves by trucks. By weight, trucks move 66% of all tonnage across the 10 states. LL