i n d u s t r y

Truckers Lobby To Eliminate Ohio Turnpike Tolls

Several Ohio trucking companies, led by a past American Trucking Assns. chairman, have kicked off a campaign to get Ohio Turnpike tolls rolled back, if not eliminated.
Dale Craig, owner of Perrysburg-based Craig Transportation Co., said about 70 trucking companies are participating in Stop Tolls on Pike (STOP), which will conduct an anti-toll publicity and lobbying campaign that first will target a toll increase scheduled for Jan. 1.
“We will be working hard in the months ahead to move the trucks off the two-lane highways, back onto the turnpike, and help restore a safe, noncongested traffic pattern in Northern Ohio communities,” Craig said.
The STOP campaign will use billboard advertising, town meetings, a toll-free telephone number and media contacts to publicize its belief that boosts in turnpike tolls are forcing truckers to use secondary roads like U.S. 24, U.S. 20, U.S. 20A and State Route 2. All three routes have suffered a rash of fatal truck/auto accidents in recent months. One claimed the lives of nine young people en route to an amusement park.
Craig is supported by state Rep. Lynn Wachtmann, R-Napoleon, and Jamie Black, co-chairman of the Fort to Port Improvement Organization.
“Safety is the No. 1 issue we’re talking about here,” said Wachtmann, who has introduced legislation to suspend toll collections for heavy trucks west of 1-75 and then study the effect on secondary road traffic.
He and Craig said the highly competitive trucking industry can’t afford the turnpike’s recent toll increases, which have boosted tolls ahead of fuel as an operating expense for truckers who use the turnpike. The Ohio Turnpike Commission in 1995 approved a series of toll increases that have hiked fees along the 241-mile tollway by about 60% so far. Two more increases, scheduled for Jan. 1 and July 1, will take the overall increase to 82%.
Turnpike officials have maintained that the additional revenue is needed to pay for a billion-dollar modernization program.