02-04-2025
Alabama Senate passes bill to ease log truck weighing delays
Sen. Jack Williams, R-Wilmer, speaks to colleagues on the floor of the Alabama Senate on March 4, 2025 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
The Alabama State Senate passed a bill Tuesday aimed at improving efficiency in weighing log trucks.
SB 110, sponsored by Sen. Jack Williams, R-Wilmer, would limit the number of trucks that can be pulled over to five at roadside weigh stations. Previously, there was no limit, which caused long lines of trucks on the sides of highways and caused truckers to lose work hours.
'If you're taking a day off being in court, and then they may put it off then when it gets there. So we've got a win-win. We just didn't get the axle weight,' Williams said after the bill's passage.
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The bill passed 32-0 after senators removed a provision that would have increased weight limits for log truck drivers for each axle over concerns about damage to road infrastructure. Williams said that was a deal he accepted as early as Tuesday morning but that he'd try to address weight limits in the future.
The amendment, proposed by Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, would try to ease delays experienced by truck drivers, particularly those hauling logs, pointing to the possible economic impact of these delays.
'If you're hung up on the side of the road for an hour, two hours, three hours, depending on how many trucks are backed up, well, you've lost money that day,' Chambliss said.
The bill also provides an appeals process for truck drivers who receive overweight citations based on portable scale measurements, aimed at addressing the potential of inaccurate portable scale readings.
While the bill aims to address efficiency and economic concerns, Williams said that weight limit issues, particularly concerning the hauling of 40-foot logs, require further attention. He said that logs cause more weights to be distributed unevenly between axles, causing drivers to haul fewer logs to comply with Alabama law.
'40-foot logs – that rear axle is going to get overloaded when you've got logs sticking all the way out there … if you're hauling them legally, you're hauling half a load of logs,' Williams said.
He said that weight limits were relaxed during the COVID pandemic, and he was not aware of any data that indicated roads were damaged during that time.
'That's what I'd like to have back,' he said.
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