Trucking Official Asks Congress for Help on Freight Mobility

Congress should focus on better freight mobility as a national goal, a trucking official told a congressional hearing held in Los Angeles Friday.

Speaking on behalf of American Trucking Associations, Randall Clifford, chairman of Ventura Transfer Co., Long Beach, Calif., asked the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to back a new Freight Corridors Initiative to focus on congestion-reduction projects.

Seven of the country’s worst 35 highway bottlenecks are in southern California, Clifford said in his testimony.

A recent Federal Highway Administration study estimated that the worst 326 bottlenecks caused the trucking industry 226 million hours of delay in 2006, and that the direct financial cost to the trucking industry and its customers from these delays is about $19 billion per year, Clifford said.