Independent owner-operators and small freight trucking businesses who haul loads of freight in upstate New York are struggling with a proposed regulation to ban truck traffic on seven important routes near Finger Lakes. The new regulation was proposed by the New York Department of Transportation, was published on New York’s state register on August 26 and automatically began a 45-day comment period that will end on October 9, 2009. Businesses and trucker who would be affected by the ban were encouraged to leave comments regarding the proposed ban.
The 3,500 New York members of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association as well as the organization have been providing spirited comments opposing the proposed truck ban. They have contacted the NYSDOT and the Governor’s Office of Regulatory Reform by the hundreds telling officials how the ban would adversely affect their freight transportation companies.
The seven routes that could be affected by the proposed ban include:
- Route 41 in Cortland and Onondaga counties;
- Route 41A in Cortland, Cayuga and Onondaga counties;
- Route 90 in Cortland and Cayuga counties;
- Route 38 in Cayuga County;
- Route 79 in Broome, Tioga, and Tompkins counties;
- Route 89 in Tompkins and Seneca counties; and
- Route 96 in Tompkins and Seneca counties.
A coalition of the local freight trucking community as well as businesses that rely on freight trucking to transport their products has been organized to fight the proposed trucking ban. Truck drivers in particular have been encouraged to tell officials how the proposed truck ban would increase their costs of doing business through higher fuel consumption and tolls if they are forced to take a roundabout route on the New York State Thruway. While officials have said that the proposal to ban truck traffic was initially supposed to restrict the volume of garbage trucks through the region, if enacted, the ban would apply to any trucks that use these roads to haul freight and other cargo.
