I believe WalterBright meant that even at the legal weight limit, trucks cause 10,000x as much damage as cars. In 2005 this amounting to a $60b taxpayer subsidy.[1]
This isn't to criticize Starsky Robotics (this inefficiency predates it), which is just operating in the environment it finds itself. And in general, inefficiency begets opportunity.
[1] https://truecostblog.com/2009/06/02/the-hidden-trucking-indu...
That doesn't create a system where trucks pay taxes roughly proportional to the damage they do.
You could also say that the research is pretty incomplete. All the known studies have been performed at highway speeds...it's entirely plausible that speed exaggerates the damage disparity.
Right or wrong, I don't think you have to defend that point. The government sets these parameters under which you (or truckers) do business. It's not your responsibility to maintain the highway as long as each truck complies with regulations. And it's not your fault.
American taxpayers subsidise many other things that don't quite make sense (to me), like corn production. You don't see people blame farmers for doing what's best for their farm and family.
I hear this all the time, and honestly in many cases a truck is the transportation of last resort. If you need 5 shipping containers of goods going from A->B all arriving at Time X; it's probably going by train.
An issue with rail (as pointed out by others) is how to haul the freight from the rail head (rail yard) to the end warehouses, and the extra time it takes to have goods go on two trucks and one train instead of just one truck. The other issue is that in the US it's really hard to hire and retain long haul truck drivers (it turns out most people want to go home each night after a hard day’s work).
Competition to hire drivers is fierce, and driver turnover can be 100%/yr...which means sometimes your drivers don't show up to pull your freight. Rail is also generally cheaper so if you can put your goods on the train you do.
As far as wear and tear on the highway: that's what weigh stations are for. They not only assign usage taxes, they also make sure weight is evenly distributed across the axles to limit damage to the road.
/SSA