Governor Greg Abbott is waiving some commercial trucking regulations regulations to expedite supply delivery as part of the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, his office announced Saturday.
Abbott waived oversize and overweight restrictions for commercial trucks. He also suspended the need to register under the International Registration Plan or to obtain 72-hour and 144-hour temporary registration permits, as long as long as the truck is registered in one of the states of the U.S.
The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles requested and will coordinate the waivers.
Abbott’s actions followed the state of disaster declaration he issued Friday to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus.
“Suspending these state trucking regulations will improve our ability to deliver the necessary supplies throughout the state so that grocers and retailers are able to continually stock their shelves,” Abbott said in a statement Saturday. “I want to remind Texans that stockpiling resources is neither necessary nor productive. The State of Texas is prepared and will continue to take action to support our communities.”
The waivers to accelerate supply delivery come after Texans began stockpiling non-perishable food and cleaning supplies out of COVID-19 fears of self-isolation. Texas grocery chain H-E-B announced Saturday it would shorten its hours to have more time to replenish its shelves at night after customers emptied stores across Texas of certain items.
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