Idling is Exhausting

Each year the trucking industry uses millions of gallons of diesel fuel hauling vital goods to stores across the country. The U.S. economy depends on it. But there are consequences to burning all that fuel. The carbon dioxide emissions lead to problems like global warming and increases in asthma and lung disease.

Burning fuel doesn’t happen only when truckers are transporting goods. Truck engines are left running when truckers are sleeping, loading and unloading freight, and stuck in traffic. Idling trucks burn a gallon of fuel each hour.

A lot of this idling happens after long stretches on the road. Federal law requires truck drivers to take a break after driving a certain number of hours. When they take breaks, most truckers idle their engine—sometimes for more than six hours—to use the heat, television and microwave in the truck’s cab, their “home away from home.”

Long engine idling costs the trucking industry more than $2.5 billion a year in fuel and engine repair, while releasing 11 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air. And it’s not that truckers get a good night’s sleep in their idling trucks. The National Transportation Safety Board estimates that 30 percent of truck accidents are caused by lack of sleep, which is hard to come by with the vibration, noise and fumes that come from an idling engine.

The trucking industry, states and the EPA agree that cutting back on unnecessary truck idling should be a priority. But it can be a hard balance to strike—making sure truckers are safe and rested while keeping a close eye on air quality. State lawmakers recognize the importance of this balance and have worked with state environmental agencies and the trucking industry to address the situation.

But trucking companies complain that interstate truckers have difficulty following the patchwork of state laws. Ten states, the District of Columbia and dozens of counties have anti-idling laws (30 states in total have some form of idling law at the state, county or local level).

Industry representatives say compliance with state anti-idling laws might increase with fewer variations. Driver DuWayne Marshall, from Watertown, Wis., says this is starting to happen. He finds state laws fairly easy to handle, as many of them are increasingly aligning.

In 2006, the EPA worked with states and industry to create a model idling law that addresses state and environmental concerns for reduced emissions and driver comfort and safety. The model is based on state and local laws and offers exemptions for circumstances out of the driver’s control, like traffic jams.

While the trucking industry views the EPA model law as a good step, others say a national law is the best way to solve the patchwork of state laws. Glen Kedzie with the American Trucking Association, however, worries that passage of a national idling law could potentially eliminate the grants for truckers to buy emission reduction technologies.

Read the full article. (Registered subscribers and NCSL members only.)

Register now! (Subscribers only.)

Subscribe now to get the rest of this article and more news from the national magazine of policy and politics, State Legislatures!