The truckers' trade group claims that NJ rules banning some trucks from certain routes is discriminatory because they treat truck trips starting and ending outside of New Jersey differently than trips that originate or have a destination in-state. After little movement in the case for months, state troopers began enforcing the ban this summer, recently stopping more than 2,000 trucks and issuing summonses to hundreds.

Now, the ATA has moved for partial judgment; briefs will be filed in August and the case probably decided, at least in part, in September. The N.J. Motor Truck Association refused to join its national counterpart in suing the state, since truckers having either an origin or destination in New Jersey are provided more routes to choose from.

Under NJ's current route plan, interstate truck trips must stay on the "national network" of routes, which includes all of the interstate highways, the Turnpike, the Atlantic City Expressway, and several other connecting routes.

While New Jersey clearly has authority to keep trucks off local roads, the ATA claims it does so in a discriminatory fashion. The League of Municipalities has already intervened in the case urging the court to uphold the ban, pointing to the many fatalities, accidents, other safety problems, noise, pollution and quality of life impacts these interstate trucks have had on communities, especially along Routes, 29, 31, 518, 206 and similar narrow or two-lane roads. Recently, a woman was killed in her Hopewell Valley video store by a trash truck from Massachusetts. The truck careened through a red light and lost control while trying to keep up with the garbage convoy it belonged to.

While local truck drivers are much more likely to know the territory, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign urged a broader truck route plan that would have regulated trucks up to 96-inches wide, and kept many New Jersey trucks on wider, higher-speed more appropriate routes, as well. The Campaign expects to join the case soon, and will argue that the ban is lawful as written, and that a broader ban would be even wiser.

NJ DOT had been planning to re-adopt the status quo truck routes, but outraged towns, counties and others impacted by the dangerous rigs joined cause with the Campaign to urge a re-examination of the route rules. The Campaign and some truck coalition members tried unsuccessfully to get the Legislature to regulate 96-inch wide trucks as part of the route plan in the Transportation Trust Fund renewal legislation. Instead, the Legislature required a "report."