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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by HighIron2003ar I have seen toll rates climb over the years Mr. Hemphill. I will say that I dont buy the Illinois Govenor's explaination that "trucks cause more damage than cars" I also base my position on the weight of a tractor trailer on 18 wheels. A fully loaded and properly scaled truck works out to about 12,000 pounds on the steer, 34,000 on the tandems and 34,000 on the trailer. I think that works out to about 4,500 pounds per tire on the road. Of that tire there is approx a square foot of material that is on contact with the road. I think the ground pressure is not much more than what is exerted by a Human foot. Hence the old saying "If you can walk on that you can drive on it" I am editing this post to include something he said in the linked article: "One semi truck does more damage than 10,000 cars," said Gov. Blagojevich. Funny. 10,000 cars adds up to 375 big trucks. Take a car at 3000 pounds, multiply it by 10,000 then divide the result by 80,000 pounds per truck. Now, I like to figure out how much toll revenue he would have taken in with them 10,000 cars and one truck. I figure it will be a nice sum of money to fix the road. [/quote] I think the one salient point made here by HighIron is the relative weight per tire on a typical 80,000 lb truck/trailer. If we take 4,500 lbs per tire or 17,000 lbs per axle as normal max averages, why do we even focus on GVW when it is the weight per tire/axle that determines relative road damage? Which of the following would exert more weight on the road per tire: HighIron's 80,000 lb GVW rig running a steer axle and two sets of tandems, or a 160,000 lb "b-train" rig running on a steer axle, helper axle, a set of drive tandems, and two sets of quad axles? The latter is averaging about 3,700 lbs per tire, or about 800 lbs per tire less than HighIron's "legal" 18 wheeler, and with air adustable shocks on all axles that 160,000 lbs can be fairly spread over the entire axle consist to prevent too much weight being borne by one axle set. What has this got to do with railroads? As we've all pointed out on this forum, the Class I's are more and more dependent on the truckers getting the cargo from the point of origin to the railhead, and instead of the Class I's lobbying to get the truckers GVW max's lowered (in weight), they shouuld instead support an elimination of GVW and replace that standard with a max weight per tire standard, which would allow more gross weight to be spread on more axles. Isn't is possible that if a trucker could carry tow fully loaded containers instead of just one to the intermodal railhead, there would be some savings that would accrue, and the railroads could actually raise the rates per container and still allow the truckers to get their increased share as well as resulting in lower overall costs to the shipper? As BNSF is starting to realize ("We Love Truckers"), the truckers are not the enemy, and anything the Class I's can do to help the truckers become more efficient can only have a positive effect on the RR's bottom line.
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