A proposed regulation by the New York Department of Transportation to force truckers off state roads and onto the New York Thruway could be the nail in the coffin for some truckers already struggling to pay high taxes and fuel costs in the state.

In May, Gov. David Paterson issued a directive to the state’s DOT to come up with a plan to keep large trucks – 45 feet or longer – off state highways and onto the Thruway.

Although the proposed plan is aimed primarily at trash trucks who haul waste to the Seneca Meadows Landfill, owner-operators such as OOIDA Life Member Lou Esposito also use the state routes to avoid paying costly Thruway tolls as well.

Esposito said the DOT’s proposed plan would prove costly for all truckers. On top of paying toll costs, they would also have to pay more in fuel costs to stick to the Thruway and run extra miles to bypass state roads.

“This plan just doesn’t make sense to me, it really doesn’t,” Esposito told Land Line in late September. “The economy in upstate New York is already dying, and they are going to force more businesses out of the state if they go forward with this. It’s ridiculous. In New York, we already pay the highest taxes in the country.”

However, truckers have until Oct. 10 to comment on the state’s DOT plan. Comments can be e-mailed to TruckRegComment@dot.state.ny.us or mailed to DOT Commissioner Astrid C. Glynn at the New York State Department of Transportation, 50 Wolf Road, Albany, NY, 12232. Click here to read the draft of the DOT’s proposed regulation.

– By Clarissa Kell-Holland, staff writer
clarissa_kell-holland@landlinemag.com