ORLANDO, Fla. — What the U.S. trucking business needs to thrive is longer, heavier trucks with fewer restrictive regulations.

In fact the more states that allow triple trailers the better. And, finally, the FMCSA should leave the hours of service regulations alone.

According to DV Velocity magazine, that’s a recap of some of the messages heavy hitters in the American LTL business took to the annual meeting of the National Shippers Strategic Transportation Council (NASSTRAC) earlier this week.

Specifically, David Congdon, the CEO of Old Dominion Freight Line, told an audience that lifting weight and length restrictions would greatly alleviate some of trucking’s biggest woes. The industry is tapped out in the cost-control, emission-reduction and productivity departments, he said.

"Increasing size and weight are the only meaningful levers we have left,” he said, urging people in the industry to support legislation that would raise GVWs to 97,000 from their current top of 80K lbs.

He’s also a big fan of longer wagons, especially triple, trailers.

He said Old Dominion’s studies show that triples can be safer than doubles and of course they remove trucks from the road and therefore cut emissions.

Congdon was speaking as a member of a panel consisting of himself, Judy McReynolds, head of Arkansas Best Corp; Bill Logue, president and CEO of FedEx Freight; and Derek Leathers, COO of truckload specialist Werner Enterprises.

The quartet also spoke in unison against proposed changes to hours of service regulations. "If the hours of service rule is adopted as planned, you will see an increase in expenses and congestion," Logue said.