A $55 billion transportation and housing spending bill, approved by the House Appropriations Committee, includes a provision to allow 33-foot double trailers on Interstate and other highways, regardless of state laws.
Twenty-eight-foot doubles are currently allowed on Interstates.
The bill, which must be approved by the full House and Senate before becoming law, says: “Section 31111(b)(1)(A) of title 49, United States Code is amended by striking ‘or of less than 28 feet on a semitrailer or trailer operating in a truck tractor- semitrailer-trailer combination,’ and inserting ‘or, not- withstanding section 31112, of less than 33 feet on a semitrailer or trailer operating in a truck tractor- 19 semitrailer-trailer combination.”
The bill also includes provisions to: keep the 34-hour restart rule suspended until a Federal study is completed, revoking it only if the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) impact report shows that “drivers who operated under the restart provisions… demonstrated statistically significant improvement in all outcomes related to safety, operator fatigue, driver health and longevity and work schedules” vs. drivers who had run under the rules in place before the 2013 change; remove funding to implement wireless roadside highway inspections; and prevent the government from increasing the $750,000 minimum liability insurance coverage required for truckers.