Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission ups tolls

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- For whom does the road toll? That's the question on the minds of truckers and other motorists traveling the Pennsylvania Turnpike these days.

The most immediate answer is, for everyone. Jim Runk, president of the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association, is spearheading an effort to lessen the impact of a newly adopted 42-percent average increase in rates for those using the turnpike.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission voted 5-0 Jan. 20 to approve jumps of 5.3 cents a mile for eight classes of commercial vehicles, including 18-wheelers, plus 1.8 cents per mile for private vehicles.

The new increases are the first for the turnpike in 13 years, and are to take effect Aug. 1. The additional revenue, estimated at more than $100 million a year, is earmarked for a total reconstruction of the 470-mile corridor over the next 30 years.

Runk cautioned, however, that the anticipated extra income from increased tolls might not be there after all, if truckers opt for alternative routes. He and others in the trucking industry believe the new fees will be difficult, if not impossible, for some trucking companies, especially the smaller ones, to absorb.

Runk said e-mail and other communications to the PMTA by "truckers who are heavy users of the turnpike tell us that, since they are just now starting to emerge from the effects of a tight economy while continuing to pay increasingly higher diesel prices, [they] are planning to divert to other roads."

It would be out of the question, he said, to ask trucking companies to pass the increases on to their customers, "especially now that the 2004 contracts between those companies and their clients have already been signed, sealed and delivered."

^^ taken from "The Trucker" news letter..

This may not seam like a big deal to most, infact, it probably won't impact you on the surface (so you think).

When will we (consumers) wake up and realize, almost everything you see in your homes,work,ect., has been on a truck? If we continue to screw the trucker, the won't be any.

Then what? how will you get your goods?

Rising fuel costs.. H.O.S. (hours of service) restrictions, Rising insurance costs for big trucks.

Am I wrong in thinking truckers are the BACKBONE of this country? I think its time to take these mental midgets whom have never been in a big truck and send them out on the road for a few days to make them realize what a trucker has to go threw every friggen day to deal with the BS with the D.O.T. and the brain dead 4 wheelers who have no clue...



** RANT OFF**

 

That means for the next 30 years you will have to put up with construction,thus slowing down your deliveries.And you have to deal with more traffic conjestion.Plus,if if i read it correctly,you have to pay a 42% rate hike for the use of turnpike.Don't you just love the system.

 

Has there ever been a year where there hasn't been construction on that road? As far back as I can remember (35+ years) every time we'd get on the PA Turnpike there was always some form of construction going on. It's a perpetual "building" project where they build NOTHING!!

I think they've "tolled" that road all the way to the bank long enough.

 

I don't know how you guys keep going.My brother has 2 over the road trucks.He's having a hard time with insurance,high fuel cost,registration fees.He has a hard time to get backloads up here to the county.A few bucks to the average person doesn't sound like much,but those small increaces are coming from all sorts of things.All totaled,they amount to quite a bit.I know what you are going through.It's getting hard to make a living,over the road.

 

There was a trucker that won $1 million in a lottery and when asked what he was gonna do with the money, he responded.."keep trucking until that runs out"

 

A lot of the independants are going under up this way.The small guy just can't afford it any longer.Some of them drive for bigger outfits or just give up altogether.Same with farmers .A lot of them can't take rising cost either.Things seem to be getting worse all around.Nobody seems to want to correct the problem in government,so here we are.

 

Around here alot of guys are "busy" this time of year haulin grain,corn,ect but during the summer months it get hard to makie a buck, and only to get worse

 

>If we continue to screw the trucker, the won't be any.

Sure there will be, except they will be from Mexico driving Mexican trucks with Mexican insurance with Mexican licenses sucking more American money out of the country.

 

When the turnpike was originally built the plan was that it was going to be a toll road until the cost of building it was recovered then it was to be a freeway. Yeah right.... They have a lot of maintenance and have made a lot of improvements over the years but I think there's way too many millions falling through the cracks. I delivered the "bananas", the curved steel beams, for the roof of the second tunnel through the Tuscarora Mtn. That was a much needed improvement. One lane each way in one tunnel was a bit crowded.