Texas Log­ging Coun­cil appre­ci­ates Gov. Greg Abbott’s action address­ing the impact of high diesel prices and trans­porta­tion costs on Texas indus­tries. The Governor’s Sep­tem­ber 28 Dis­as­ter Procla­ma­tion tem­porar­i­ly sus­pends cer­tain over­size and over­weight per­mit­ting require­ments for qual­i­fy­ing fuel, agri­cul­tur­al, and tim­ber loads, allow­ing those loads to oper­ate at a gross weight of up to 95,000 pounds, sub­ject to the require­ments and restric­tions out­lined by the Texas Depart­ment of Motor Vehicles.

Impor­tant: Please review the com­plete TxD­MV Sus­pen­sion Notice before oper­at­ing under the suspension.

Required Doc­u­men­ta­tion

Under the TxD­MV guid­ance, the oper­a­tor of the com­mer­cial vehi­cle must keep the fol­low­ing doc­u­men­ta­tion in the cab of the vehi­cle and pro­vide it to any Texas peace offi­cer upon request:

1. A copy of the TxD­MV Sus­pen­sion Notice
2. A copy of the Governor’s dis­as­ter dec­la­ra­tion, includ­ing any applic­a­ble amend­ments and exten­sions

The sus­pen­sion does not elim­i­nate all require­ments. The TxD­MV notice specif­i­cal­ly states that safe­ty and insur­ance require­ments remain in effect, and oper­a­tors remain respon­si­ble for safe­ly rout­ing their vehi­cles and obtain­ing cur­rent infor­ma­tion about applic­a­ble road restric­tions and haz­ardous con­di­tions. Addi­tion­al con­di­tions apply to over­weight and over­size move­ments, includ­ing restric­tions involv­ing load-post­ed bridges, escorts, and night­time travel. 

What Hap­pens Next

The cur­rent dis­as­ter dec­la­ra­tion pro­vides tem­po­rary relief, and Texas Log­ging Coun­cil will con­tin­ue work­ing with state lead­ers to pur­sue an exten­sion of these pro­vi­sions and, ulti­mate­ly, per­ma­nent changes to Texas truck weight laws.

We need your help. Please con­tact your Texas House and Sen­ate rep­re­sen­ta­tives and let them know how much this tem­po­rary relief helps your oper­a­tion, your employ­ees, and the Texas for­est-prod­ucts indus­try. Ask them to sup­port con­tin­ued relief and efforts to per­ma­nent­ly increase allow­able truck weights.

Texas Log­ging Coun­cil will con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing leg­is­la­tors with infor­ma­tion about the impact of truck-weight lim­i­ta­tions on the log­ging industry.

We also appre­ci­ate the advo­ca­cy efforts of Texas Log­ging Coun­cil lead­er­ship, Bill Ward, Jason Wal­lace, and oth­ers who helped bring atten­tion to this issue. We are grate­ful to Rep. Trent Ashby’s office for its assis­tance in con­nect­ing the indus­try with the Governor’s office.

Oper­ate Responsibly

This tem­po­rary sus­pen­sion is an impor­tant tool for Texas log­ging oper­a­tions, but oper­a­tors should under­stand and con­sid­er any applic­a­ble war­ran­ty, insur­ance, equip­ment, safe­ty, and oth­er require­ments or restric­tions before oper­at­ing at increased weights.

Please be safe, know the require­ments, and use this tool responsibly.

View the Texas DMV guid­ance at txforestry​.org/​t​x​d​m​v​-​g​u​i​dance.