county seem like every year they buy more trucks. They hire more guys and that leaves less work for the gravel haulers. It seems like for the big companies, if we get to haul for any of them, they have some trucks of their own.

They do their own job of hauling which they get the best hauling off the top usually. They usually take about 4 percent off of what the county or the State pays them. In other words, they are acting as a middleman. Now, like for instance, if they get a State job or a county job and it pays 8 or 9 cents a ton per mile, well, we usually figure that we only get about 6 cents a ton per mile.

While this is happening, we a lot of the time have to buy our gas there because we can't run all day on what gas we have got. We try to. But then off of that on our gas we usually run, they're taking 3 percent off the top on gas and then 3 to 4 percent off the top on our ton per mile. And that's cutting it way down.

Every year for the last 2 or 3 years we have lost two or three guys because we just-they just can't make it anymore. The thing that we want to know, like for the State of Iowa, they hurt us quite a bit when they put the 55-mile-an-hour speed limit on because as you probably know, the gravel haulers have got to keep moving in order to make a fairly good day's wage or to come out at all.

Now, last year we had some guys that had his own gravel truck for 4 or 5 years. They came out in the red. They just didn't make anything. We lost some then again this year. As you all know, everything went up in tires and batteries and all this, and gas is what really bothers us because we do burn a lot of gas for no more money than we make.

And the gas companies, well, we kind of hoped that if the State or the Federal would go along with us to try to hold them down some, because as they go up every time, they went up 2 cents here not very long ago and I hear they are going to try to go up 2 cents again. But our wages have not increased since 1957. We have not got a raise in pay of any type. We would like to know that if somebody could help us in getting organized or to set rates or like Nebraska has got some type of rate form where they set the rates we will be hauling for so much.

Now, like if you get a county job, say, for instance, 7 cents, we'll know we'll get 7 cents, this way here we start out, we figure we are getting 7 cents. When you get your paycheck 2 or 3 months later, you got 5 cents for the haul. Then you're in the hole again.

So the thing is, that we'd like to figure out, is that if maybe for the tonnage on a truck, we'd like to see them go to 34,960 on the tandem. Right now it's 32,960. On a gravel truck we have all the weight up front. You have to put it clear up on the headboard which creates a real hazard because you only have two tires up front and you're trying to carry as much weight on your two tires up front as you are on the eight in the back.

If we go to the 34,960 on our tandems, it would take a good ton of weight off of our trucks and on the two front wheels. They keep talking safety to us. But we have people every once in a while that are blowing these tires. In fact, where I live, there has been one boy killed

and there have been two hospitalized within the last 3 weeks driving gravel trucks on account of blown out front tires.

So we feel if we could get somebody to help us and consider this 34,960, some States, I think, have already got it. I don't know. I can't prove it, but I have heard they are going to come up with it. So that was one of the things that we are kind of wondering about if we can get some help there.

Like another deal we were talking about, you come back to these permits. Now, in the State of Iowa just about anybody who has $5 in their pocket can go to the State and get a permit. Now, if we do happen to get a good haul in the State gravel hauling, and they have quite a little tonnage, usually you have guys from South Dakota, Missouri, Nebraska, and all they have to do is come in with $5 and they have a permit.

Now, if we go down to Missouri or Nebraska, we have got to get reciprocity tags. We have got to fight for it. If you go down in Missouri, you fight for a long time before you get the right to haul in that State or you have got to work for somebody else and then they take their cut off the top. So that's about all I have for this.

It's just that we thought that if some of these things could be helped, that we feel we could keep on going because in time, if it keeps up like it is right now, we are losing a few guys every year. It really isn't going to take long. They won't have any gravel haulers, and us guys really haul a lot of stuff in the time that we got.

Of course, you know, the winter time a lot of times you can't get the gravel or anything, but what I was going to say, for some of the things that I think we need, you could really help us out with. That's all.

[Mr. Blume submitted the following:]

Mr. HUNGATE. Thank you, Mr. Blume.

Mr. Bedell.

Mr. BEDELL. Mr. Blume, you own and operate your own truck?

Mr. BLUME. Yes, I do. I own one truck.

Mr. BEDELL. Is that the way most of these gravel haulers operate? Mr. BLUME. Most of them might have as many as four trucks. I know we have got some that do, not too many.

Mr. BEDELL. I didn't completely understand your talk about 34,960 on tandems. Will you explain to me in layman's terms.

Mr. BLUME. Your tandems is your duals on the back of your truck. On the gravel truck we have three sets of axles; the front, and then we have two in the back, of course. On the 34,960 it would be that we could take-right now the law says 32,960-we could take a ton off the two front tires and put it on the eight on the back which just makes good commonsense. There has to be more safety.

Mr. BEDELL. You're talking about your axle limitations? Is that what you're saying?

Mr. BLUME. Yes, right. We can go 18,000 pounds per axle. But on the backs, we can go 32,960. But up front we are carrying that 18,000 pounds. You see, we are carrying 18,000 pounds on those two tires and we are only carrying 32,960 on eight tires.

Mr. BEDELL. So you would like to have that increased?

Mr. BLUME. Right. Take a little off the front and put it on the back, in other words.

Mr. BEDELL. Actually, you would as soon see the law changed so that you could have even less on the front axles and more on the back?

Mr. BLUME. Right. For safety reasons.

Mr. BEDELL. You understand this is a State law?

Mr. BLUME. Yes, this is a State law.

Mr. BEDELL. You understand we are from the Federal Government.

Mr. BLUME. Right.

Mr. BEDELL. So you know we could write letters for you or something.

Mr. BLUME. Yes, right.

Mr. BEDELL. So you know, it's not possible for us to do much about changing State regulations.

Mr. BLUME. Yes, right. But some of that you could help us with even if you would write a letter for somebody to help.

Mr. BEDELL. All you have to do is write to our office. The best way would be to write to the Sioux City office here and furnish us the information and we will get back to you after we get information on it. Mr. BLUME. OK.

Mr. HUNGATE. Mr. Strope?

Mr. STROPE. Yes. There was a Federal law. Thev postponed it a year, from what I gather in the latest publication. They put a restricted amount of weight on the front end to 12,000 pounds. And yet they go ahead and put the computer brakes in which have proved to be quite unsafe. Yet, they go and won't restrict the weight on the front end and raise the weight on the back.

Mr. BEDELL. We didn't understand. They went ahead and did what? Mr. STROPE. They implemented a computer brake setup which has been nothing but a headache and quite unsafe in the long run.

Mr. BEDELL. Well, my understanding was that that was supposed to improve the safety.

Mr. STROPE. And it has worked just the opposite.

Mr. BEDELL. Is that right? Is that documented?

Mr. STROPE. I have talked to others who are operating it.

Mr. JENSEN. We have had other testimony on that.

Mr. STROPE. But they postponed the limitation on the front axle and 9,000 pounds per tire is not a safe situation.

Mr. LYNCH. Mr. Haves?

Mr. HAYES. I would just like to make one comment. Are you referring to FVS-121 computer brake system?

Mr. BEDELL. I don't know what I am referring to.

Mr. HAYES. I will tell you how well it works. Every time a bridge across the Chicago River on Michigan Avenue goes up, the marine signal that makes that bridge go up deactivates the brakes on the city buses of that new brake system. That's how good it works. And they want to put it on trucks.

Mr. BEDELL. That would be good if you're headed toward the bridge. Mr. HAYES. It deactivates the brakes.

Mr. BEDELL. That's what I say. Yes, we understood well enough. Mr. HUNGATE. Yes, sir.

TESTIMONY OF DON HALVERSON, TRENT, S. DAK.

Mr. HALVERSON. I am Don Halverson from Trent, S. Dak. I have a comment on this 121 brake system. I just purchased a new tractor, $50.500. The 121 brake system malfunction light came on. I flew to California and picked the truck up.

On the way home it came on and 50 percent of the time it's on now. To date I have been able to find no one to tell me if the brake is malfunctioning or if the brake is functioning. I think if I am correct, California statistics have shown that 1 out of 10 times the brakes malfunctioned, the 121 system malfunctioned.

Now, that doesn't mean that your brakes malfunction necessarily. It means that the 121 system, the antiskid malfunctions. This has raised the weight of my tractor approximately 700 pounds and cost me $1.300. I don't know if it's working or not. Nobody can tell me. Mr. LYNCH. Mr. Schafer?

Mr. SCHAFER. Franklin Schafer, Hector, Minn. The State of California has very good records on the 121 brake system. In fact, a court in California outlawed it for something like 13 days until the U.S. Supreme Court reactivated it again.

Kenworth and Peterbilt Co. is fighting it. Autocar is fighting it. International Harvester has a good study on it that shows the terrible things. White Freightliner has studied it. They have come up with a lot of statistics of how bad it is.

General Motors came up with a lot of them especially on the buses. Some of the buses now have taken them off again because they are kind of like suicide. Someone first at International Harvester had the first

ones out. You go out on the CB radio or it might make the lights come on, so they had to call theirs in and put little attachment in it so the

CB's wouldn't kill it.

They don't know what the story is. California tried to outlaw it, and they didn't get the job done. It's still pending and there is some more action on it.

Mr. LYNCH. Thank you.

Mr. JENSEN. I have no questions.

Mr. HUNGATE. Well, we will hope to have some people before us that have brought you the benefit of those computer brakes and see what their comments and what answers, if any, they can give to the issues. Before calling the next witness, I believe that's all. Thank you very much.

But I want to say this, in Mr. Simon's testimony these things don't happen as quick as they should or as quick as you would have them happen or as quick as we would have them happen. I think one cause of a lot of loss of confidence in our government today is that we see the problem and nothing seems to happen.

These hearings are an effort to make something happen. As I have said earlier, some of these situations may be so ridiculous that simply publicizing them and putting them forth, you get some of these agencies to change. We have done that in the past in some areas. Some of these won't be changed without legislation. Some of them won't be changed except through pressure causing the agencies to change the regulations.

What I am trying to tell you, we are a pretty deeply concerned group on this committee, I think. Mrs. Fenwick, who is not here, we are going to Trenton, N.J., in her district on July 24, I believe it is, to hear some of the problems in that area. And we appreciate these suggestions. Some of them are down-to-earth things about these produce markets. It probably wouldn't hurt people to know just how exactly they work and what they do in San Francisco compared to what they do in Chicago.

But it takes time, and it takes patience as well as persistence. I just don't want anybody going home on Monday thinking we would have this all straightened out. This has to go through subcommittees. We have to have reports on this. It goes through the full committee. We normally have no trouble in small business with that, but then it goes through the House and then the procedures have to go through in the Senate. That's the way it is.

I am just telling you how it is and not what you want to hear but how I think it really is. That doesn't mean that it can't be done. You have got to be patient and you have to be persistent. You have to be insistent without getting obnoxious. That's for the best results in my view. I think hearings like this are very helpful to the Congress and the reports that will be issued will be what I would hope and I feel sure lead to some correction of some of these problems.

But as I say, I don't want to hold out undue expectations. I would like to hold out reasonable expectations and urge you to continue in your support and to continue to put the pressure on, continue to highlight these unjust situations. On our part we will continue to try to