Eye on Trucking: If you think you’ve seen fewer trucks on the road, lately, you’re right

By LYNDON FINNEY
The Trucker Staff

10/7/2009

There are all sorts of indicators that show how much freight traffic has gone down since the economic downturn began, but we’ve yet to see anyone report on truck traffic at weigh stations, and while what we’re about to report is certainly not scientific, it gives a pretty clear picture of the state of the industry.

Arkansas, which is our home, is also home to two of the busiest interstate highway systems in this part of the country.

Interstate 40 traverses the state connecting the nation’s East and West coasts.

Interstate 30, which carries traffic from Mexico and Texas, connects with I-40 at Little Rock, with goods being transported all over the east and Midwest.

So how’s traffic been at weigh stations along these two routes?

We asked David Nilles in the public affairs office of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department for some help.

He came up with some interesting figures.

By far, the busiest location in Arkansas is the westbound weigh station in West Memphis, which picks up not only traffic on I-40, but Interstate 55 as well.

In 2007, the station checked 1,062,096 trucks.

The figure dropped 26.6 percent in 2008 to 781,741 trucks and through August of this year it was 333,943 trucks, which annualized would come out to about 500,000 trucks.

The eastbound station on I-40 between Van Buren and Alma near the state’s western border, handled 622,844 trucks in 2007, 496,662 in 2008 and 171,056 through August in 2009, which annualized would be about 256,000 trucks.

The eastbound station on I-30 near Hope (about 30 miles from the Texas border) counted 988,742 trucks in 2007, 808,318 in 2008 and 259,726 through August this year (annualized that would equal about 260,000 trucks.

The only station to see an increase between 2007 and 2008, the westbound station at Hope (556,307 versus 618,570) has seen only 200,000 trucks thus far in 2009.

Arkansas officials tell us that they have seen a noticeable reduction of truck traffic on the state’s highways the past couple of years.

The numbers David reported do not count trucks which legally bypass the weigh stations through the use of PrePass, which according to the PrePass Web site, had 85,817 carrier accounts and 407,030 enrolled trucks as of mid-September.

The PrePass service allows participating transponder-equipped commercial vehicles to bypass designated weigh stations, port-of-entry facilities and agricultural interdiction facilities.

Cleared vehicles may proceed at highway speed, eliminating the need to stop. That means greater efficiency for shippers and improved safety for all highway users.

The PrePass site says bypassing weigh stations has saved almost 60 million driving hours.

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OK, OK, we were wrong.

A few issues back, we carried a story about the truckers who carry weapons in their cab as a means of protection.

Well, we didn’t exactly hit the right keys on the PC, and many of you were quick to point it out via telephone calls and e-mails (it’s OK, we welcome any contact with truckers) that we’d made an error.

The percentage of truckers who said they carried weapons (36.73) was correct, but the number who responded to the poll was not.

We printed that 124 of you had responded, but actually it was 196.

Actually, I meant to say a couple of paragraphs ago we got mail from truckers and others.

The most unique correspondence came from a scoutmaster in Arizona.

He wrote that on a recent trip with Boy Scouts, they’d dropped by a truck stop and picked up a copy of The Trucker.

He said he found the article on our paper interesting, then here it came:

“I got to your article on fire arms and was interested.  I wanted to read this but found myself unable to get past the second paragraph.  My scouts, who range between the ages of 11 and 17, picked up the math error you had placed in these first two paragraphs when they read over this and questioned the percentage.  72 of 124 = 0.5806 = 58 percent — you stated this was only 36.73 percent.”

We apologize for the error, and take note of the fact that you never know who’s reading or watching you.

The Trucker staff can be reached for comment at editor@thetrucker.com.

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