Editorial: Raising Trucking’s Banner Higher

Symbolism is a major element of life in Washington, which is one of the many reasons why the recent passage of the House bill to create the National Motor Carrier Administration was so important to the trucking industry.

The House of Representatives — which we hope will soon be joined by the Senate and the White House — acknowledged the importance of trucking by agreeing it is time to give the industry that moves more than 80% of the country’s freight its own modal administration, on a par with the Federal Railroad Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Maritime Administration.

Further symbolic messages that resulted from the bill, which the Senate is expected to take up in future weeks, included the unmistakable word that the trucking industry is serious about improving highway safety.

It’s important that Congress and the American public believe that trucking is a willing participant in highway safety efforts, if the industry is to play an important role in the movement to make our workplace safer and to avoid draconian measures that some industry critics would like to impose upon us.

The clear-cut support the industry gave to the creation of the new modal administration sends the right kind of messages to Congress and the public.

In that vein, John Wren’s drive to get the U.S. Postal Service to issue a stamp in honor of trucking’s 100th anniversary in 2003 is another effort worthy of the industry’s wholehearted support.

Wren, whose term as chairman of American Trucking Associations will end at the organization’s annual meeting next week, is urging the USPS to honor the industry’s “integral role in our nation’s economic vitality and quality of life” with a special postage stamp.

The postal service issued a stamp in 1953 to mark trucking’s 50th anniversary.

The Citizens Advisory Committee, which recommends stamp topics to the USPS, will be meeting in Washington this week to review a number of requests, including Wren’s.

“We’re working awfully hard to improve our image and remind the American public what a driving force we are to the nation’s economy,” he said. “What better way to reinforce that message than by a commemorative stamp?”

And we agree.