Who/what is impacted?

• The Envrionment
• Consumer Prices
• Contractors Time
• Traffic

What is at stake?

Every day, thousands of service and delivery vehicles travel to the areas surrounding the Garden State Parkway.  Many of these vehicles are forbidden from using the GSP even though it is the shortest, fastest, and most fuel efficient means of getting them to their destination.  Currently, any truck with a weight rating over 10,000 lbs is not allowed on the GSP between exits 105 and the NYS thruway. This means Monmouth, Middlesex, Union, Essex, Pasaaic, and Bergen counties are all effected and must add mileage and time to their travel. 

In turn, this:

• Costs consumers more money for goods and services
• Is bad for the environment (wasted fuel, increased emissions)
• Costs service and delivery people valuable time, which means contractors are not as willing to travel to the area (or again charge a higher price)
• Increases local traffic and forces large trucks into smaller neighborhoods

Why should you act now and sign this petition? 

Vehicles are getting heavier as a result of electrification and safety standards increasing standard equipment.  The weight limit on the GSP was raised from 7,000 lbs to 10,000 lbs (a 42.8% change) at some point in the early 2000s.  In the time since, service vehicles have gained weight as well for the same reason. At the time of writing, the auto manufacturers have pushed many of their "light" duty work vehicles to 11,000-12,000 lb range, making it nearly impossible to replace the aging, inefficient vehicles in our fleets.  A small bump to 14,000 lbs (a 40% change) would cover anything that reasonably "should" need to travel this section of the GSP with some future proofing built in to faciliate complete electrification of fleet vehicles in the next 10 years.

Thank you for your consideration in signing this petition. 

My letter to our 22nd District Representatives:

A brief backstory: we are a small business based out of Clark, NJ and are trying to buy new service vehicles. We regularly travel the Garden State Parkway (GSP) as most of our customers are within 5 minutes of the thoroughfare. Our current service vehicles are rated for 9500lbs and thus are unaffected by the GSP weight limits. The problem we are running into, is that the exact replacements for our service vehicles carry a weight rating of 11,000lbs, which is in violation of the GSP rules North of exit 105 (our entire service area). We have noticed targeted enforcement of vehicles for being overweight and are nervous to place orders for new vehicles that would put us in danger of being ticketed and barred from GSP travel after spending large sums of capital on new trucks. If memory serves, at one time, the weight limit on the GSP was 7,000lbs. As time has marched on, road construction has improved, cars and trucks have gotten safer (and heavier!) and contractors have moved to purpose built vehicles to better allow them to do our jobs. At some time in the not-too-distant past, the weight limit on the GSP was raised to 10,000lbs. In a time where CO2 emissions are of such concern, I think it would be beneficial to expand use of the GSP to a slightly larger class of vehicles (14,000lbs would cover most industries) to reduce travel distances and increase fuel mileage for those vehicles, while putting contractors like myself in a better position to be able to serve my customer base. As I have been approaching this from a contractor's perspective, I will now take a step back to being a consumer: When you call a contractor to your home, you are generally paying a service visit charge. This charge generally covers labor for the travel time to your home as well as the fuel cost and mileage associated on the truck. Thousands of households across the state pay these charges every day, but the customers between Exits 105 and the NYS Thruway along the GSP pay more because their contractors have to detour around the GSP to get there. This is an inequality many of us in the northern part of the state endure as there is no such restriction south of Exit 105. In conclusion, I implore you to bring forth a common sense bill to amend the Garden State Parkway Gross Vehicle Weight limitation to 14,000 lbs to the benefit of contractors, consumers, and the environment.

Thank you,

Ryan Secor