A new Illinois law is designed to reduce fuel and equipment costs for Illinois businesses by allowing them to exceed size and weight restrictions for short trips.

Gov. Pat Quinn signed the bill into law Monday. It allows the Illinois Department of Transportation to issue permits for the larger loads for travel on state highways if the load is going less than 5 miles and won't harm pavement conditions.

Previously, such loads had to be broken into separate shipments to meet truck weight limits, increasing costs.

Quinn says the new law is common sense and will allow Illinois companies to put more people to work by cutting costs.