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If the cost of Oil Goes up would not the cost of all basic Commodities go up as well?
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[quote]QUOTE: <i>Originally posted by IRONROOSTER</i> <br /><br />Unfortunately, raising the weight limits for trucks increases road maintenance exponentially. There are safety issues as well. <br />[/quote] <br /> <br />Actually, increasing the GVW would tend to <i>reduce</i> road maintenance costs, since you are allowing each cab unit to haul more cargo, e.g. increasing the load factor. Consider the following: You have 1,000 tons that need to be trucked. If the GVW limits the cargo lading to 40 tons per truck, it will take 25 truckloads. If the GVW limit is raised to allow 60 tons per truck, it will only take 17 truckloads. SInce you have to included the tare of the cab unit at roughly 19,000 lbs, the 8 extra trips for the 40 ton cargo max will result in an extra 76 tons plying the roads for the same amout of aggregate tonnage. There will be some adjustment for higher tare resulting from increased capacity trailers, but you still come out ahead on the total amount of tonnage over the roads. The key of course is to spread the extra weight over more axles to keep the damage exerted per wheel the same. That's why a single 160,000 lb GVW riding on 10 axles and 36 wheels doesn't cause any more road damage than two 80,000 lb trucks riding on 5 axles and 18 wheels, and in terms of road damage per ton of revenue cargo, the 160,000 lb truck has a greater load factor so road damage per revenue ton is less. <br /> <br />As for safety issues, having less trucks hauling more cargo each is safer than having more trucks hauling less cargo. If the equipment meets mechanical specs, the safety issue is then more correlated to the per capita of trucks on the highways.
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