Opinion: Administration Must See Trucking’s Importance

By Howard S. Abramson

Editorial Director

Transport Topics

This Opinion piece appears in the Nov. 10 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

So now we know who the next president will be. Thus, we can all go back to work, doing our part to help the industry deliver America’s economy, for good or for bad.

No doubt some of us are happy with the election results and many of us aren’t, but the results aren’t going to change.

What’s most important now, I submit, is making sure the new team at the White House, on Capitol Hill and by extension, in the federal regulatory bureaucracy, understands the importance of trucking in making the nation’s economy run smoothly and efficiently, whether it’s in a blue state or a red one, or a red congressional district or a blue one.

We, as an industry, need to make a compelling case that repairing the nation’s infrastructure needs to be a top priority, not because we don’t want our lattes to spill when our cars hit a pothole but because our economy depends upon it.

We need to sell a rebuilding program that would maximize economic efficiency and reduce waste. We need to show that it’s important to everyone to relieve the congestion and slowdowns that sap dollars from the economy.

One of the few competitive advantages American manufacturers have had in recent years has been the U.S. transportation system. No nation moves freight better, or more cheaply and efficiently, than we do. Our transportation system has allowed some manufacturers to remain globally competitive, and we need to keep that edge.

This new Congress will create the next version of the multiyear federal-aid highway program; the current highway funding system expires in 2009. The legislation will be the appropriate vehicle for launching massive infrastructure improvement.

Rather than repeating the intense haggling that has gone on between the White House and Congress in recent years, the lawmakers who come to office in January should embrace this program as a way to improve the flow of goods on the roads and as a way to stimulate the economy by providing jobs in all corners of the country. Political battling last time stalled passage of the highway bill for two years. We cannot afford any delay this time around.

It’s important that the highway-spending reauthorization bill not become a victim of partisan bickering. The benefits of investing, or reinvesting, in our unparalleled infrastructure network flow to us all, and we need to make sure that all of Washington understands that.

We need to make the case with our lawmakers and the new administration that investing in infrastructure is at least as important as bailing out a failing bank or insurance company.

And we need to show them that we’re prepared to fully participate in the rebuilding effort. Trucking’s offer — through American Trucking Associations’ recent proposal to support an increase in the federal fuel tax to help fund freight-related projects — is just the kind of idea that should help Congress and the White House understand the industry’s commitment to making this rebuilding effort happen.

ATA has decided not to place specific numbers in its proposal, wanting to wait until deliberations on the legislation begin in earnest.

It’s also important that Congress and the White House agree that Highway Trust Fund monies be spent only on appropriate highway-related projects.

Support for a major increase in infrastructure is widespread, although the unanimity breaks down in the details. But good governing is the art of compromise, after all.

The industry group that represents state transportation department executives recently urged Congress to provide $545 billion for surface transport in the new highway bill, which would almost double current funding levels.

That proposal, presented in late October by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, would allocate $42 billion for freight projects.

At this point, the specific numbers are less important than the drive for a truly bipartisan coalition of support for a historic highway reauthorization bill that tackles our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, provides sufficient funding to make sure that transportation network keeps pace with our evolving economy and, at the same time, helps spur jobs and economic development.

Transport Topics, the weekly newspaper for the trucking industry, is a publication of Transport Topics Publishing Group, Arlington, Va. TTPG is owned by American Trucking Associations.