NATIONAL CALL-TO-ACTION:  Highway Bill
June 20, 2005

More than 50 members of the U.S. House and Senate are on a Conference Committee that is working to develop a final version of the Highway Bill by the end of this month.

Even though they may not be from your home state, the legislators represent all Americans while they are on the Conference Committee and truckers should therefore call them to encourage them to support mandatory fuel surcharge legislation.

With the current extension of highway funding scheduled to expire at the end of this month, the Conference Committee is under a tight deadline to develop a compromise between the House and Senate versions of the new Highway Bill. Once the committee signs off on it, the bill will go to President Bush for final approval.

It is important for truckers to contact Conference Committee members, either by phone, fax, or if at all possible, in person to encourage them to include a mandatory fuel surcharge, which was included in the House version of the bill, HR3.

The surcharge language - Section 4139 of HR3 - says all motor carriers, brokers and freight forwarders running truckload freight MUST implement fuel surcharges and they MUST pass 100 percent of those surcharges through to the person who actually pays for the fuel.

The surcharge was included in the House's version of the bill, but not in the Senate's version.

It is important for truckers to take advantage of this extra time and contact members of the conference committee, even if they are not from their home states.

To view the list of committee conferees, click here.

The following documents are available in Adobe PDF format:

Fuel Surcharge FAQ
Fuel Surcharge Overview
Letter from the House Small Business Chairman
Fuel Surcharge Info Flyer
Legislative language of Section 4139