GOVERNMENT: Green Light for Truckers

To curb overloaded interstate trucks on its highways the state of Illinois decided on drastic measures: habitual offenders would be barred from the state for one year. But when Hayes Freight Lines of Mattoon, Ill. was barred after 157 overweight violations, Hayes fought the suspension, carried the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Last week the court cleared Hayes, thereby delivered a crippling blow to the authority of states to police their highways.

Said the court: “No [interstate carrier’s] certificate is to be revoked, suspended or changed until after a hearing and a finding [by the Interstate Commerce Commission]. Such a state suspension of interstate transportation . . . would conflict with the Federal Motor Carrier Act which is the supreme law of the land …” The only thing a state may do, said the court, is appeal to ICC.

But many a state highway official knows that ponderous old ICC often takes years to act on anything. About all the states can do is slap on more fines, even though the truckers pay little attention to them. Most of them count fines as simply another routine cost of doing business.