Ohio - Turnpike and Trucking Officials Need To Compromise On Tolls

Mike

Well-Known Member
Well, according to this article anyway..........

Trucking officials correctly warn that detouring rigs onto secondary roads "will have unintended negative consequences, such as increased congestion, wear and tear on highways and accidents."

Add to that a further decrease in toll revenue that the turnpike can ill afford. Trucks provide 55 percent of toll revenues and make up 20 percent of all turnpike traffic. It was a reduction in passenger and truck traffic that prompted the move to hike tolls on the 241-mile roadway. Truckers need to consider too that riding secondary roads will slow them up somewhat, and truckers are always pressed for time in traveling their routes. The turnpike is the best, and fastest, path across Ohio for the big rigs.

Turnpike commissioners plan to vote on toll increases in March and put them in place by the end of the year.

Truckers now receive a 15 percent monthly discount once they spend $1,000 on tolls. The program, offered since 1997, would be eliminated under E-ZPass, truckers complain. Drivers of passenger vehicles and motorcycles who use E-ZPass will not pay more until 2012, as an incentive to use the system. Truckers of big rigs will also receive E-ZPass incentives, but operators say they will still lose money.

Given the pinched economy, it's understandable that truckers are reluctant to pay higher tolls. But Ohio taxpayers, especially in our area, are equally reluctant to see a flood of transport trucks chewing up local secondary roads and breathing down motorists' bumpers.
Full Story
 
This has been a hot topic debate in Ohio for a few days now, with many threats to simply quit using the toll road, resulting in big concerns from the public in those towns who want those icky trucks to stay on the toll roads and out of their towns.

Would have posted news on this a few days ago, but wanted to give our Ohio members an opportunity to pass on the information ;)
 
well i dont run the turn pike i run the back roads. i cant afford to run the toll road.


and i left a message on the news paper page too .
 
Discounts for some, toll increases for others in Ohio

Discounts for some, toll increases for others in Ohio

http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2009/Jan09/011209/011609-04.htm
OOIDA and trucking industry stakeholders warn that heavy trucks will divert to secondary roads in Ohio once a volume discount is eliminated and the way tolls are calculated changes.
The Ohio Turnpike Commission is set to increase tolls once in late 2009 and again in 2012. Part of the proposal is to implement E-ZPass on the turnpike and knock $2.50 from the $33.50 toll for a fully loaded truck making the full 241-mile trip.
Truckers with full loads who have E-ZPass will see their tolls decrease later this year, but underlying parts of the toll proposal aren’t sitting well with some groups.
Built into the proposal, for example, is a shift in the way tolls are calculated from vehicle weight to the number of axles.
Those truckers who find themselves deadheading between loads or who run light will see their tolls increase from about $24 to $33.50 – or $32 if they have E-ZPass.
Joe Rajkovacz, regulatory affairs specialist for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association – himself a former over-the-road trucker – said history shows what happens to truck traffic when tolls increase on a major route.
A 2007 study presented to the Transportation Research Board by authors Michael Belzer and Peter Swan showed that trucks diverted from the Ohio Turnpike when tolls were increased in the 1990s.
“As noted in the Belzer study, and more specifically as a practical matter from someone who did divert to other secondary, parallel highways in Ohio, the Commission is about to embark on a policy shift that will divert truck traffic off the toll road and onto less safe secondary roads,” Rajkovacz told Land Line.
“By making their decision solely on economic factors and not considering the safety implications and those associated costs to society, the Commission is doing a grave disservice to the citizens of Ohio and the motoring public. Essentially, they will be complicit in increasing Ohio’s highway death toll.”
The Belzer and Swan study further showed that truck traffic returned to the turnpike when the Ohio Turnpike Commission scaled back tolls in 2004 and the state reinstated uniform speed limits as an incentive to keep them there.
Ohio Turnpike Executive Director George Distel said he sees little incentive for fully loaded trucks to divert, particularly with the incentive to use E-ZPass.
“For a five-axle truck fully loaded at 80,000 pounds, take the rate they’re paying today and compare that to the E-ZPass rate being offered. That truck is going to stay on the turnpike,” Distel told Land Line.
Distel said the heaviest trucks cause the most damage to secondary, parallel highways, and that is good reason to keep the fully loaded trailers on the turnpike.
“It has never been the turnpike’s intent to hurt any of our vehicle classes,” he said. “What we’re doing is incentivizing the use of E-ZPass.”
Distel said once the new tolling schedule is approved, toll gantries and E-ZPass will be equipped at the turnpike’s 31 interchanges.
Another part of the Ohio plan involves the elimination of a 15 percent volume discount for trucking companies that currently spend more than $1,000 per month on the turnpike.
Larry Davis, president of the Ohio Trucking Association, said the elimination of the volume program and the proposed shift in toll calculation from weight to the number of axles could be a double whammy for some users.
“Today, it’s $33.50 for the full length for an 80,000-pound truck,” Davis told Land Line Now on XM Satellite Radio. “If you’re in the program, it’s a 15 percent reduction, which is down to $28.50. So, going up to $32, it’s going to be a $3.50 increase.
“On the other hand, if you run in the category of 40,000 pounds – empty – today it costs $24, and under our discount program that’s $20.40. Under this (proposal), it goes to $32, so that’s a 57 percent increase because they’re switching from weight to axle.”
Distel said the volume discount program is being eliminated because it will be a “nightmare to track” once E-ZPass is implemented.
Distel said turnpike officials took the soon-to-be-former volume discount into account when determining the toll increases. He said the increases could have been greater than being proposed without rolling previous discounts into the new rates.
Commercial trucks compose 20 percent of Ohio Turnpike traffic, but account for 55 percent of the revenue.
Ohio Turnpike commissioners have had three public hearings on the proposal and have concluded the comment period. However, a spokeswoman said the director welcomes comments at any time for consideration.
E-mail comments to [email protected] or send mail or a fax to the following address:
Ohio Turnpike Commission
Attn: Public Affairs Department
682 Prospect St.
Berea, OH 44017
Fax: 440-234-3881
– By David Tanner, staff writer
[email protected]
 
TOTAL BS, on increasing our TOLLS!
First off, we get is ramed in our @sses with OW/OD freight permit's which increaced not only by a per load basis, but a 50% increase? NOW THIS.....

I think our government is tring to KILL the Industry.... I really do....

The B.S we are ALL going through, both BIG and small companies... LIMIT our own growth... With this PRES's TAX plan do you really think im going to invest in 3 more trucks? NO... WHY? I'll be TAXED to DEATH........
now, TOLL's and the permit's I pay just to make a living...

Bring it on... you Pencil puching Pricks on Capital HILL... Im ready to work for $8.00 an HOUR just so I dont have to pay more in TAXS...

ASSHOLES!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Matt
 
I think everyone's is going up a long with the increased ticketing in every state. CDL holders are a very good income target for the States.
 
Mrs. D?
Im GLAD.... They see REVENUE in Big Trucks...

So, did I at one point in my lifetime.,.. and now?
LMAO... I wont even say the words Im thinking.. I swear to GOD... Mike/Bullwinkle would be PMing me.. about my COLORFUL words...

I'll Drop this... by saying,
OHIO - I PAY good hard earned moneys to BLOW - BLACK- Smokes in your AIR....
LIKE IT, Because I'll only be doing it for a little while LONGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

F*@^~^TARDS!!!!!!!!!!
They are Snuffing out Business's DAILY....... Then they wonder WHY people are leaving ohio... It's CAUSE we *SUCK*.. Thats why....
OHIO, SUCKS!
 

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