Safer Highways and Increased Performance for Interstate Trucking Act or the SHIP IT Act

This bill expands programs and special permits for trucks and truck drivers.

Specifically, a state may issue a special permit for certain overweight vehicles based on a Presidential major disaster declaration or a Department of Transportation (DOT) declaration (1) of an emergency (including non-natural or financial), or (2) that the United States supply chain is having issues. Currently, a state may issue a special permit only based on a Presidential major disaster declaration.

DOT must also, subject to the availability of funds, award competitive grants to construct or improve commercial vehicle parking facilities.

Under the bill, the Department of Labor must provide Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act grants for entry level commercial motor vehicle driver training. The bill also establishes a limited tax credit, adjusted annually based on inflation, for eligible commercial driver's license holders.

Further, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration must revise certain regulations related to commercial driver's license testing and permits, including to allow a third-party examiner to administer commercial driver's license tests.

DOT must also establish a pilot program allowing states to issue permits for qualifying vehicles with six axles or more operating at greater than 80,000 pounds gross vehicle weight on a state's Interstate System. (Generally, the federal commercial vehicle weight limit is 80,000 pounds, with some exceptions.)

The bill also exempts the battery weight from the gross vehicle weight for certain commercial motor vehicles powered primarily by electric battery power.

Finally, existing driving time exemptions are expanded for truck drivers transporting agricultural commodities and farm supplies within a 150-mile radius.