DOT INTRODUCES DATABASE OF FREIGHT ANALYSIS

DOT INTRODUCES DATABASE OF FREIGHT ANALYSIS    A study by the U.S. Department of Transportation showed that by 2020, the value of cargo moving through the nation’s transportation system will more than triple, to $30 trillion a year, from $9 trillion today.
   The DOT study also said tonnage volumes will increase nearly 70 percent from the current 15 billion tons per year.
   International freight volumes are likely to outpace the growth of domestic volumes, based on predictions that international trade is projected to increase by 2.8 percent annually through 2020, the DOT said.
   DOT officials attributed the larger increase in international movements due to the likelihood of several future trade agreements between the United States and other countries.
   The report, the Freight Analysis Framework, was released Thursday. DOT officials described FAF as a “policy analysis tool” compiled by officials from the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Federal Maritime Administration, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, and the DOT’s Office of Intermodalism.
   Gary Maring, director of DOT’s Office of Freight Management and Operations, said that increased passenger and freight traffic are driving up truck waiting times at terminals, consequently driving up costs for carriers’ operations. This congestion alone, he said, contributes to a larger scenario, where bottlenecks at major terminals of intermodal exchange are occurring.
   Maring said the FAF’s analysis offers options for alternative measures to deter congestion and subsequent shipping crises.
   Maring said that, while FAF is the effort of experts and solid research, future studies may provide more accuracy if the private sector could play a more active role in such studies, and he called on them to do so in the coming years. “That’s going to take some cooperation from the private sector, if we are really going to do that,” he said.