Bad for small trucking companies

Doubles- multiple trailers, connections, new equipment (doubles and weight)- capital investment

Cost of wear and tear, rates don’t fully compensate additional costs

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Safety

More difficult to drive

Bigger trucks don’t benefit truck drivers

In the case of firms that operate their own truck fleets, the benefits of cost reductions would be purely internal. In the case of common carriage, benefits would likely be divided between shippers and carriers. In either case, however, it is unlikely that labor would see significant gains even though drivers would be faced with significantly increased responsibility.

Heavier or more complexly configured tractor-trailer combinations will subject drivers to increased responsibility and more difficult tasks, but the evidence suggests they will reap few of the rewards.

Labor markets in motor carriage provide notoriously “sticky” wages. Fleet managers are extremely hesitant to increase wages in markets where the demand for trucking services is highly cyclical. Once increased, wages cannot be easily reduced even when demand softens. Therefore, managers resist wage increases in favor of other labor strategies.

Heavier trucks mean fewer jobs for truck operators and drivers. For every four trucks operating at 90,000 pounds, which is 10,000 pounds above current limits, one truck operating job is lost.