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Truck drivers oppose ban
April 5, 2004
Jill Nawrocki , Staff Writer
Daily Local News

Citizens and supervisors have joined together in support of a proposed truck ban that commercial drivers say could drastically change the nature of the job and quality of their work.

Residents in New Garden and a citizens' task force have said outside truck traffic poses a major safety issue along the Route 41 corridor and cite areas of New Jersey and Virginia where bans similar to the proposal have already taken place.

According to Morgan Miller, who lives near the state-owned road, 118 stretches of highway fall under the restrictions, 13 of which are located in Chester County. Before implementing the ban, townships would need to gain approval from the state.

John Jackson, a truck driver from Delaware, has been driving big rigs for nearly 15 years. He said Route 41 proves a vital artery to the truck-driving industry because of its direct route to stops in Lancaster County.

"I've been driving this road for lots of years. Route 202 is already so congested — 476 too," he said. "Anything over there is so messed up and it takes you way out of your way. If we had to do that, we'd never get anywhere."

Drivers said because of new regulations that dictate the number of hours any one trucker can spend on the road, restrictions on the Route 41 corridor could equate to fewer trips, less pay and higher prices on store shelves.

Jackson said that just 10 percent of materials are brought in on railways, a figure he thinks residents would be shocked to learn. Because the success of so many industries is dependent on truck traffic, restrictions on roads would affect everyone, he said.

"If we could get every truck to shut down for a week, people would really be able to see just what we do for them," he said. If a through-truck traffic ban was passed on Route 41, commercial traffic originating outside the county and traveling beyond the county line would be forced onto larger state roads like routes 1 and 202.

Residents, like SAVE Director Dee Durham, have said truckers are against the ban proposal because changes have the potential to increase operating costs. But drivers say those repercussions will reach the general public as well.

"You figure that if you're coming from Lancaster, you'd just take Route 41, but changing that means you have to add more time, and time is money," Sarann White, the wife of a Chester County truck driver, said. "And that lost time is reflected in the price of products."

Because drivers could potentially be asked to travel longer routes on heavy-traffic roads, the time dedicated to a single trip could greatly increase, particularly around Exton and southern portions of Route 202, White said.

Wyman Wilson has been traveling along Route 41 for more than 20 years and said trucking is in his blood. If Chester County was to go the direction of states like New Jersey or Virginia and ban commercial rigs from sections of highway, he said drivers would ultimately be the ones to pay.

Although atlases outline regulations and restrictions for each state, Wilson said keeping track can be difficult, particularly when changes are being made constantly.

"I've been traveling this road for something like 20 years, delivering sod locally. A change like this could really kill the economy," Wilson said. "If they do like they've done in New Jersey, the ones who pay are the ones from outside the state and outside the country who don't know rules about the road."

Although Wilson, a trucker from Canada, said he could understand how residents might think outsiders paying a price could help the local economy grow, forcing rigs to stay on high-traffic main roads would increase travel time by hours and reduce the accuracy of arrival time.

Wilson said he was willing to work with people, but was not sure what exactly could be done. He said that states could compromise by permitting through-truck traffic on roads during specific hours or restricting access late at night.

"I know what the people here are going through," he said. "I live in a small town in Canada and they don't like trucks going through their place either."

©Daily Local News 2004