TruckIT Blog

The next federal highway bill could shape heavy civil construction for years.

Current federal surface transportation programs are scheduled to expire on September 30, 2026. Congress is now working on a new long-term authorization covering highways, bridges, transit, rail, transportation safety, and related programs.

For contractors, aggregate producers, asphalt companies, truck brokers, and haulers, this is not just a policy debate in Washington. It could affect project backlogs, material demand, trucking capacity, hiring, equipment purchases, and daily operations.

But more available work does not always mean more profitable work.

Companies must be ready to move more material, coordinate more trucks, verify completed loads, and turn field activity into accurate billing records. Otherwise, growth can bury dispatchers, drivers, project teams, and office staff under more calls, tickets, spreadsheets, and cleanup work.

What Is the BUILD America 250 Act?

The BUILD America 250 Act is a proposed five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved H.R. 8870 on May 22, 2026, by a bipartisan vote of 62-2.

The proposal covers roads, bridges, transit, rail transportation, highway safety, and motor carrier safety. It also includes changes intended to speed up project delivery, support transportation technology, and strengthen the Highway Trust Fund.

The bill would authorize about $580 billion over five years. That includes approximately $293.9 billion for federal-aid highway programs from fiscal years 2027 through 2031.

The proposal is not yet law. It must still move through the full legislative process, and its funding levels or policy details may change.

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*The National Asphalt Pavement Association’s Highway Bill Tracker provides updates as the legislation moves forward.

Why the Highway Bill Matters to Material Operations

Road and bridge projects depend on a steady flow of bulk materials.

Stone, sand, gravel, asphalt, base material, dirt, millings, and concrete all have to move from plants and pits to jobsites at the right time. These materials form the foundation of nearly every highway, bridge, and transit project.

A long-term highway bill could bring more projects into the bidding pipeline and increase demand for aggregates, asphalt, trucking capacity, and delivery documentation.

That may create more opportunity for contractors, producers, brokers, and haulers. It may also put more pressure on dispatchers, drivers, and office teams that are already stretched thin.

Highway and street construction has remained one of the stronger parts of the public construction market. Spending increased 0.6% from April to May 2026 and 2.9% compared with May 2025.

At the same time, qualified workers remain difficult to find. In an AGC survey, 92% of highway and transportation contractors reported trouble filling open positions.

That creates a practical challenge: How do you take on more work when trucks, drivers, dispatchers, and office staff are already hard to find?

More Work Does Not Automatically Mean More Profit

A larger backlog looks good on paper. It does not guarantee healthy margins.

A contractor can win a road project and still lose money because the trucking plan was based on a perfect day instead of actual cycle times.

A producer can sell more material but create long plant queues because trucks arrive faster than they can be loaded.

A broker can find enough trucks but struggle to verify completed loads and collect the records needed for billing.

The problems are usually familiar: too few trucks, too many trucks, long wait times, last-minute schedule changes, missing tickets, delayed reconciliation, and cost problems discovered after the job has already fallen behind.

Adding more work to a manual process does not fix the process. It creates more paperwork, more phone calls, and more chances for something to fall through the cracks.

Five Ways to Prepare for Increased Infrastructure Work

A new highway bill may bring more projects into the market. The companies that benefit most will be the ones that can take on that work without losing control of trucking costs, delivery records, or billing.

Here are five areas to tighten up before project volume increases.

1. Know What Your Fleet Can Actually Move

Having 25 trucks available does not tell you how much material those trucks can deliver in a shift.

Real hauling capacity depends on the full cycle. How long does loading take? How far is the haul? Can trucks enter and exit the site without backing up? How quickly can the crew unload them? What happens when traffic picks up or the plant falls behind?

Look at similar completed jobs before building the next trucking plan. Compare the number of trucks assigned with the number of loads completed. Review average cycle times and note when adding more trucks stopped improving production.

This helps estimators avoid planning around a perfect day that rarely happens in the field. It also makes it easier to price the job around realistic production instead of guesswork.

2. Find the Minutes That Are Eating Your Margin

A truck sitting in line may still be on the clock, but it is not moving material.

A 10-minute delay may not seem like much. Spread it across 30 trucks making several rounds a day, and those lost minutes can turn into hours of unproductive time.

Look closely at where the hauling cycle slows down. Trucks may be waiting at the scalehouse, lining up at the dump area, searching for the correct entrance, or calling dispatch because instructions changed. Poorly staggered start times can also send too many trucks to the same location at once.

Tracking pickup times, drop-off times, ETAs, routes, idle time, and completed loads gives teams a clearer picture of what is happening. Instead of blaming the driver, plant, or crew, managers can find the actual bottleneck and fix it.

TruckIT’s dispatch optimization software helps teams monitor truck status, locations, production, ETAs, and fleet activity from one place.

Related reading: The Hidden Cost of Truck Wait Times in Heavy Civil Construction

3. Build a Hauler Network You Can Depend On

Large infrastructure projects often require more trucks than a contractor, producer, or broker owns.

Subcontracted haulers can provide the extra capacity needed to keep a job moving. But each outside truck also adds another driver, company, rate, insurance record, ticket trail, and payment relationship to manage.

That is why hauler coordination needs a standard process before the job starts.

Dispatch should know which trucks are approved, what work they can handle, and how drivers will receive instructions. The office should know which rates apply, how completed loads will be verified, and what documentation is required before payment.

The goal is not to collect the longest possible list of available trucks. It is to build a dependable network that can be assigned, tracked, verified, and paid without forcing the office to rebuild the records after every shift.

Related reading: Dump Truck Digital Marketplaces: Good or Bad for the Industry?

4. Treat Every Load Like a Business Record

A delivery may be complete when the truck leaves the site, but the business process is not.

That load still needs to support project reporting, customer billing, hauler payments, material reconciliation, and sometimes public-project documentation.

Paper tickets make that harder than it needs to be. A ticket may be left in a cab, damaged by weather, turned in late, or matched to the wrong project. When the office cannot verify a load, billing slows down even when the work was completed correctly.

A reliable delivery record should connect the ticket number, material, quantity, pickup location, delivery site, project, driver, truck, hauling company, date, time, and proof of delivery.

The important part is not simply making the ticket digital. The record must be complete, easy to find, and tied to the correct job.

TruckIT’s e-ticketing platform supports digital ticket capture, bulk reconciliation, delivery timestamps, geofenced records, electronic signatures, and ticket reporting.

Related reading: The Faster You Can Verify the Work, the Faster You Can Bill It

5. Stop Rebuilding the Same Information

The hauling process does not end at the jobsite.

Dispatch needs to know what was delivered. Project managers need updated production totals. Accounting needs verified records for billing and payment. Customers may need delivery documentation.

In many operations, each group enters the same information into a different system. A driver records the load. A dispatcher updates a spreadsheet. An office employee enters the ticket. Accounting types the information again.

Every handoff adds time and creates another chance for error.

Connected workflows allow the original dispatch, delivery, and ticket information to move through reconciliation, reporting, payment, and billing.

TruckIT’s open API can connect with accounting platforms, ERPs, scalehouse software, telematics systems, IoT devices, and other business tools.

Related reading: Why Connected Systems Matter: How Siloed Data Slows Down Operations

Is Your Operation Ready for More Work?

Here is a simple test.

Could your team quickly tell you how many trucks are available tomorrow—and how many are company-owned versus subcontracted?

Could you estimate how many loads those trucks can realistically complete?

Could you identify which jobs are behind, where trucks are waiting, and how much material has already been delivered?

Could the office see which tickets are missing, which loads are ready to bill, and what is owed to each hauling partner?

When answering those questions requires phone calls, text messages, paper tickets, and several spreadsheets, adding more work usually adds more confusion.

When the answers come from current operational data, teams can react sooner. Dispatch can adjust truck assignments. Project managers can address delays. Accounting can begin billing without waiting for paperwork to arrive days later.

That is what operational readiness looks like: not more reports, but faster answers.

How TruckIT Helps Companies Prepare

TruckIT helps heavy civil contractors, material producers, truck brokers, and haulers manage the work between the order and the invoice.

The platform helps dispatchers coordinate owned and subcontracted trucks, monitor job activity, and respond to schedule changes.

Drivers and field teams can capture delivery information and proof of delivery without relying on paper records.

Office teams can review tickets, reconcile completed work, prepare hauler documentation, and move accurate information toward billing.

TruckIT’s construction dispatch and e-ticketing platform also connects with accounting systems and other business tools, reducing the need to enter the same information several times.

The point is not to add technology for technology’s sake. It is to help the same team manage more work with fewer manual steps and a clearer view of what is happening in the field.

The Bottom Line

The 2026 highway bill could bring major opportunities for contractors, producers, brokers, and haulers.

But the companies that benefit will not simply be the ones with the most trucks. They will be the ones that know what their fleets can produce, catch delays early, coordinate outside haulers, document every delivery, and turn completed work into accurate billing.

The next round of infrastructure funding may be decided in Washington.

Whether that work produces a healthy margin will be decided one load at a time.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the 2026 highway bill?

The term refers to legislation intended to reauthorize federal surface transportation programs before the current authorization expires on September 30, 2026.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has approved a five-year proposal called the BUILD America 250 Act.

How much funding does the proposal include?

The proposal would authorize about $580 billion over five years. Approximately $293.9 billion would support federal-aid highway programs from fiscal years 2027 through 2031.

How could the highway bill affect contractors and haulers?

A long-term bill could give states and local agencies more certainty when planning road, bridge, transit, and related projects.

That may lead to more bidding opportunities and greater demand for labor, equipment, aggregates, asphalt, trucks, delivery records, and project reporting.

How can construction companies prepare now?

Companies can review historical hauling performance, confirm realistic capacity, improve subcontracted-hauler coordination, monitor truck cycle times, standardize digital ticket workflows, and connect field records with accounting and reporting systems.

Prepare Your Operation for What Comes Next

More infrastructure work can create more opportunity, but only when the operation behind it is ready.

TruckIT helps contractors, producers, brokers, and haulers coordinate trucks, monitor material movement, digitize tickets, reconcile completed work, and connect field activity to the back office.

Request a TruckIT demo.

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