ATA chair calls for more road spending, truck-only highways

ATA chair calls for more road spending, truck-only highways The U.S. government needs to be spending more on highway infrastructure and should consider building a truck-only highway system, said Patrick E. Quinn, chairman of the American Trucking Associations.
   In a wide-ranging presentation to the New York chapter of the Transportation Research Forum on Friday, Quinn noted an ATA forecast that found the trucking industry provides transportation for 69 percent of all cargo tonnage and will grow sharply, 31 percent over the next 12 years, to 14 billion tons.
   While rail intermodal traffic is projected to grow faster — 79 percent — it will still only account for 2 percent of total tonnage.
   While the amount of freight truckers haul is increasing, he said, “unlike most of the economy, productivity for the trucking industry, as measured by average miles per truck per month, has been slipping over the last few years.”
   ATA figures show productivity slipping since 2002 and today is below where it was in 2000. Quinn blamed it on congestion, revised hours of service regulations, and more frequent and shorter hauls.
   Hours of service regulations and the adjustment in length of haul are “part of the evolution of the industry,” said Quinn, who is president and co-chairman of U.S. Xpress Enterprises of Chattanooga, Tenn., the nation's fifth-largest publicly owned truckload carrier.
   Citing a Texas Transportation Institute study that found congestion wastes $168.3 billion, annually, he predicted it “will become more burdensome and more costly unless we address the issues.
   “We have not added highway miles to any extent,” Quinn said, saying roadway lane miles have grown less than 5 percent since 1980.
   Nor are things expected to get much better in the next decade. He cited figures that freight tonnage is expected to grow 32 percent by 2016, while highway infrastructure is only expected to grow 3 percent.
   “These numbers don’t add up,” he complained.
   Growing international trade is one reason the country needs more highways, Quinn explained. Trade accounts for 24 percent of GDP, up from 19 percent in 1990, and is expected to reach 20 percent by 2020.
   Quinn is one of 12 members of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, a group headed by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, that is expected to make recommendations by the end of the year on future infrastructure needs and funding alternatives.
   Those recommendations are expected to play a role in shaping the 2009 highway bill.
   Among the ideas the group is considering, said Quinn, is a recommendation to build a network of roadways that could be used exclusively by trucks to haul freight.
   A conceptual map of that system exhibited by Quinn included highways up and down the East and West coasts, two transcontinental highways — one in the South and one in the country’s mid-latitudes, as well as several north-south highways, including one from the Mexican border.
   Higher speeds is not the prime objective of the truck highway system, he said, but it would add capacity, make hauling multi-trailer rigs easier, improve safety, and reduce congestion.
   The highways might also be built to accommodate heavier trucks, though he pointed out only 6 percent of trucks reach their weight limit before reaching their cubic capacity.
   Quinn was critical of the growing interest in privatizing highways, which he said was strongly rejected at the ATA's annual convention.
   Roads in Indiana and Illinois have been privatized; Pennsylvania and New Jersey are considering plans to lease turnpikes.
   “Added capacity is a primary tool for addressing the nation’s congestion and mobility problems. Privatization agreements — with their non-compete clauses — carry the very real risk of restraining, if not prohibiting, improvements to the highway network,” he explained.
   Private owners of highway have the ability to increase tolls sharply, and traffic may be diverted onto secondary roads.
   In response to questions from the audience, he allowed some concerns might be addressed through the contracts that set up highway leases to private companies. He said he was pleased that the issue of highway privatization is in the spotlight and that a more vigorous debate about the issue is developing.
   Quinn suggested that a fuel tax to fund highway expansion — or even high tech devices that would measure how far vehicles actually travel — could be good ways to raise money for new and expanded highways.
   Quinn said there is a need to attract more young people to the trucking industry, noting that turnover at some companies is more than 100 percent a year. Some 54,000 people are leaving the industry, many to retire.
   ATA has created an advertising campaign to attract drivers to the industry, but he said if salaries were in the $55,000-$60,000 range instead of $45,000, there wouldn’t be a driver shortage.