Effectiveness of Violator Penalties in Compelling Compliance with State Truck Weight Limits

There is no available measurement of weight limit compliance sufficiently comprehensive to permit determination of actual penalty effectiveness within different States. The approach used for this study was to conduct discussions with enforcement officials in nine States - diversified by geography, fine severity, roadside enforcement practice and adjudication system - on whether their penalty imposition is considered to be effective. The basic question of whether State penalization is inducing satisfactory operator compliance behavior could not be answered definitively.