91��Ƶ

November 22, 2000 10:22 AM, EST

The federal government’s first study of truck sizes and weights in nearly 20 years examines ways of increasing productivity through wider use of heavier or longer vehicles as well as potentially adverse effects of allowing increases in dimensions but draws no conclusions and makes no recommendations.

	Related Stories
	Heavy Trailer Plan Splits Carriers, Customers (Nov. 22) Industry to Study Western Size, Weight Laws (Oct. 18) FHWA Pushes States on Truck Limits (Oct. 9) Size-Weight Study Goes to Congress (Sept. 1)
	Shop Online

Critics in the trucking industry said the study, sent to Congress in September, does little to advance the ball. They originally expected the report to be out in late 1997 or early 1998 to follow on the heels of the Federal Highway Administration’s 1997 Highway Cost Allocation Study. The first draft was circulated four years ago and drew a lot of comments, but the final version was delayed “for technical reasons,” FHWA said.

The study does not reflect the most recent data from trucking, according to the agency, because it was important to keep the original base year of 1994 despite the delays.

For these reasons — and because all of the issues in one form or another have been widely discussed over the years — the release of the final study has caused little stir.

For the full story, see the Nov. 20 print edition of Transport Topics. .