Editorial: How to Move the Freight

Heavier trucks?

More trucks?

Dedicated truck lanes?

These are all solutions presented by some people to solve the puzzle of how to move all the goods this nation’s economy requires to be moved.

On the opposite page, two intelligent men of good will share their views on raising the weight limit on trucks that ply the nation’s highways. Earlier issues of this newspaper have focused on the many other proposals put forth to address the need to move more goods in a more timely and efficient manner.

While it appears we’re far from a consensus over how to resolve the growing strain on the freight transportation system, now is clearly the time for that discussion and planning that would lead to an action agenda that all segments in the equation could buy into.

A soon to be released study by American Trucking Associations shows that the nation’s freight volume will grow 28% between 1997 and 2007, and that trucking’s share of that growth will be 26%.

And those numbers are very conservative, because they only cover primary movements of goods. As the volume of air freight doubles in that period, as the study predicts, virtually every one of those shipments will generate at least two more truck trips, in addition to the primary movements.

Thus, unless the nation agrees that the economy must be restrained in order to cool demand for products — a highly unlikely event — we must find a way to increase the productivity of all freight transport modes, beginning with trucking, which carries the lion’s share of those goods.

One things is certain: If nothing is done, more and more trucks will be added to the traffic on our roads every year. Add to this mix the slowdown in highway construction and the continuing growth in the overall number of vehicles on the road, and the stew gets thicker and thicker.

More trucks carrying more freight on a static highway system that is crowded with more and more cars means more delays and more accidents. And that is in no one’s best interest.

Now is the time for all good men and women in the transportation industry to propose reasoned responses to the real challenges facing our nation.