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About $85K collected this year from Overweight Trucks

Newark has twice the law enforcement patrolling for overweight commercial vehicles than it did during this time in 2006, and the fines collected are offsetting some of the damage to the roads, city and county officials said.

In January, Newark police dedicated a full-time officer, Patrolman Troy Cochran, to weighing and inspecting trucks that drive on city streets, joining Licking County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Gus Moore, who covers the city and the rest of the county.

Since then, the two have combined to ticket commercial drivers to the tune of about $85,000, according to documents provided by the county engineer’s office and the municipal clerk of courts.
The funds, depending on who collects them, either go to the county or the city.

Craig Smith, staff assistant at the Licking County Engineer’s Office, said the total revenue brought in by Moore’s efforts and permits sold to truckers totals about $80,000 annually. That money goes to the road and bridge fund, he said.

That figure represents “a drop in the bucket” of their overall costs to maintain and repair the hundreds of miles of county roads, he said.

Commercial vehicles are licensed for different sizes of loads depending on the dimensions of the vehicle, but Newark City Engineer Brian Morehead said some studies claim the wear and tear on the roadway caused by a single heavy-duty truck is equal to about 30 passenger cars.

Quantifying that damage would be difficult, he said.

Trying to cancel out the damage through fines might run these businesses out of Licking County, Smith said.

“The permit cost would be astronomical, or they’d have to raise fines,” he said.

A more serious danger exists than that to the roadways, Moore said.

Vehicles that are in violation often are unsteady or undermaintained. Some vehicles come in 70,000 pounds or more overweight, according to ticket information.

“I don’t think a lot of people know what’s sitting next to them at the traffic light,” he said.

Cochran said every stop is educational, although sometimes he has to make drivers “painfully aware” of their misstep with a ticket, which when issued by him average about $500

Moore said he has been on commercial vehicle duty for about five years. He said the number of stops he makes have remained fairly consistent.

However, he thinks plenty of room exists for more enforcement.

“The big question was when Newark decided to make the position Troy got whether the truck industry would be big enough to support two agencies. … That’s pretty much proven (true),” he said.

Newark Safety Director Kathy Barch said the funds appropriated from the enforcement program to the police department — one-third of what is collected by Cochran — will go back into the program.

The Truck Cochran uses to haul his equipment was taken from the city impound lot, and Barch said she hopes to replace it with the ticket money.

The other two-thirds of the fine dollars collected by Newark police goes to the engineer’s office. Although the money has not been appropriated yet, Moorehead said he intends to use it for roads and bridges.