91��Ƶ

July 30, 2008 10:00 AM, EDT

By Eric Miller, Staff Reporter

This story appears in the July 28 print edition of Transport Topics.

Sharply higher rail rates for carrying hazardous materials known as toxic inhalants have led some shippers to shift to trucks, said John Conley, president of the National Tank Truck Carriers.

Conley said that rail price increases for hauling “toxic inhalation hazard” materials already has increased business for some tank truck carriers, especially those who haul anhydrous ammonia, a substance used mostly as an agricultural fertilizer.

In addition, TIH truck carriers have had numerous “what-if” inquiries about the possibility of the railroads’ going out of the TIH hauling business, Conley said.

However, Kendell Keith, president of the National Grain and Feed Association, told the Surface Transportation Board, “It would be impossible to transport all the anhydrous ammonia in trucks.” It takes four tank trucks to haul the contents of one rail car.

Conley said truckers transport TIH materials as safely as the railroads, but truckers generally don’t want to see the current intermodal system changed.

“At first blush, you would think, for the trucking industry this is going to be great, we’re going to get all this traffic,” Conley said. “I don’t think that really is the feeling.

“The feeling is, I believe, that with certain materials, the combination of rail for the long haul and trucks for the ultimate delivery is a system that has worked and will continue to work.”

Conley said he believes that the STB commissioners understand that allowing the railroads to exit the TIH business should be a decision made by Congress.

“I think a lot of people are saying that’s not a decision that should be made by a three-person board,” Conley said.

Charles “Shorty” Whittington, first vice chairman of American Trucking Associations and owner of TIH carrier Grammer Industries Inc., said his only concern is that truckers are treated equally in any STB decisions.

“If we’re talking about limiting liability, we want to make sure that trucking gets the same opportunity,” Whittington said.