The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) sent a letter Wednesday to Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb calling a 35 percent truck-only toll increase on the Indiana Toll Road ineffective, punitive and discriminatory.
“A truck-only toll increase smacks of a betrayal of reasonable public policy,” said Todd Spencer, president of OOIDA. “We are also appalled at the lack of transparency associated with a proposal that will no doubt fail to solve the state’s serious history of financial problems and bad decisions regarding infrastructure and transportation.”
OOIDA also said in the later that it objected to the governor’s comments that trucks cause “10,000 times” more damage to roads than cars and that truckers are “lucky they aren’t being charged 10,000 times more than cars.”
Spencer said, “Despite your absurd and unsubstantiated claims, truckers already pay more than their fair share in transportation-related taxes. As much as the government likes to treat them as such, truckers are not rolling piggy banks.”
OOIDA said it often points out that trucking is an industry primarily comprised of small businesses and that more than 96 percent of truck fleets have fewer than 20 trucks.
“They are the backbone of our economy and deliver billions of dollars of freight that supports every community in America. Tolls impose financial burdens on small-business truckers who are already operating on the smallest of margins,” Spencer said.
“A truck-only toll increase smacks of a betrayal of reasonable public policy,” said Todd Spencer, president of OOIDA. “We are also appalled at the lack of transparency associated with a proposal that will no doubt fail to solve the state’s serious history of financial problems and bad decisions regarding infrastructure and transportation.”
OOIDA also said in the later that it objected to the governor’s comments that trucks cause “10,000 times” more damage to roads than cars and that truckers are “lucky they aren’t being charged 10,000 times more than cars.”
Spencer said, “Despite your absurd and unsubstantiated claims, truckers already pay more than their fair share in transportation-related taxes. As much as the government likes to treat them as such, truckers are not rolling piggy banks.”
OOIDA said it often points out that trucking is an industry primarily comprised of small businesses and that more than 96 percent of truck fleets have fewer than 20 trucks.
“They are the backbone of our economy and deliver billions of dollars of freight that supports every community in America. Tolls impose financial burdens on small-business truckers who are already operating on the smallest of margins,” Spencer said.