Letters to the Editor: Rail Surcharges, Tailgating, Infrastructure

b>Rail Fuel Surcharges

The following quotation was taken from a recent online article concerning rail fuel surcharges: “The surcharges accounted for 8% of 2005 revenue, compared with 2.9% a year earlier, while fuel expenses at the two rail lines rose 44%, to $4.35 billion, the paper said.” (Click here for previous article.)

Most self-respecting shippers realize that fuel surcharges are necessary at this time to keep carriers solvent. But let’s not lose sight of the fact that a cost for fuel already is included in the carriers’ base rate and surcharges are intended to cover only the increased cost of fuel over that included in the base rate.

i>Traffic Manager

n-Cor Frozen Foods

hicago

Tailgating

I am writing in response to a letter from a linehaul recruiter desiring a more aggressive law-enforcement stance on statutes dealing with following too closely. (Click here for previous coverage.)

As a 25-year retiree of the Pennsylvania State Police, I can tell you many states’ statutes are so badly worded that there is little to no support for such statutes within the judiciary.

If judges would start convicting drivers for following too closely, officers would write more citations.

Believe me, the citation is simpler to complete than the crash report.

Ron Baade

i>Senior Analyst

ommonwealth Transportation Consultants

ifflin, Pa.

Infrastructure

American Trucking Associations Senior Vice President Tim Lynch’s exhortation for more infrastructure spending certainly toes the trucking industry party line, but perhaps some wider-ranging thinking is in order. (Click here for previous coverage.)

The rise and dominance of just-in-time inventory management philosophy is what got us here. It has wrought fine savings for shippers and manufacturers, to be sure, but the consequences for highway infrastructure and transportation companies have been highly questionable.

JIT has yielded overdependence on motor carriers for long hauls, with their attendant pollution, wear and tear on the interstate system and unacceptable empty mileage.

Logical long-distance alternatives such as rail intermodal and (gasp!) the inland waterway system have failed to reach their full potential as we collectively grovel before the JIT goddess.

And make no mistake, my bully pulpit here is in fact a truck-

ng company and the CEO who signs my paycheck shares these views.

It’s easy for Mr. Lynch to wish for a bottomless pit of federal funding for renewed roadway capacity. But wishing won’t make it so. More to the point, neither will misrepresentation.

Steve Jaeger

i>Director, Marketing

arlepied Transfer Inc.

etairie, La.

These letters appear in the May 22 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.