MC&E: U.S. May Trade Speed for Security, Mineta Says

(Department of Transportation) Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -– Short-term sacrifices in mobility may be a necessary price to pay in order to increase security after Sept. 11, according to the secretary of transportation.

Speaking for five minutes from Washington by live satellite hook-up, Secretary Norman Y. Mineta told trucking executives at the American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference & Exhibition that the Transportation Department is preparing for high alert after the Monday warning from Attorney General John Ashcroft that another terrorist event might be upon the nation.

Monday night, Mineta said he met with the chiefs of the various modal administrations – including Joseph Clapp of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration – to ask them to prepare transportation companies for a possible threat. Mineta asked all carriers, shippers and truck drivers to be especially alert.

Mineta called trucks “the engines of the economy,” and said increased security is necessary to keep them from becoming “engines of destruction.” If implementing those procedures should cause slowness in the transportation system, Mineta asked people to consider that, “Patience is a new form of patriotism.”

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The secretary described his relationship with ATA as “a long and productive history.” Prior to joining the cabinets of Presidents Clinton and Bush, Mineta served in the House of Representatives for 20 years.

After Mineta’s electronic presentation, Clapp took to the dais of the MC&E, and asked carrier executives to “secure their equipment both at home and en route.”