Rockville, MD – On October 28, the California League of Food Processors, representing approximately 30% of U.S. production of processed fruits and vegetables, joined the Agricultural Transportation Efficiency Coalition (AgTEC), to advocate Gross Vehicle Weight limit reform on federal highways in the 2009 Highway Bill. The League’s President and CEO, Ed Yates, has joined AgTEC’s Steering Committee.

The Agricultural Transportation Efficiency Coalition (AgTEC) supports increasing the overall gross vehicle weight limits to enable transporters of raw agricultural products, forest products, and animal feed to move these essential commodities from point-of-origin to processing facilities in a fuel-efficient manner.

Mike Branch of Smurfit-Stone Container, chairs AgTEC’s Steering Committee, and former Deputy Secretary of Agriculture James Moseley serves as Honorary Chair. Other members, in addition to Yates, include Vice Chair Bud Wallace of Wallace Transport; Dennis Berryhill of Fleetwood Transport Service; Jeff Doran of the Florida Forestry Association; Doug Duncan, Executive Director of the North Carolina Association of Professional Loggers and representing the American Loggers Council; Al Eiden of CHS, Inc.; Suzanne Madden of the American Forest & Paper Association; and William Patterson of ADM Trucking.

"The California League of Food Processors shares AgTEC’s objectives of reforming truck weight limits toward the goals of significantly improving efficiencies and productivity,” commented Yates. “By reducing the amount of fuel required to deliver perishable food for preservation, an equivalent amount of improvement to air quality will be made. This is very important, given California’s air quality achievement challenges, especially in the San Joaquin Valley, where the majority of the crops are grown and transported."

Yates estimated that increasing Gross Vehicle Weights to 97,000 pounds could reduce the California fruit and vegetable industry’s total annual miles traveled by 48 million, with 160,000 fewer truck trips.

For more information, visit www.ag-haul.org.

The Mission of the Agricultural Transportation Efficiency Coalition is to improve the efficiency of transporting raw, unprocessed agricultural and forest products from farms and forests to processing facilities.

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