Shippers say they’ll pay their share for infrastructure upgrades

Shippers say they’ll pay their share for infrastructure upgrades    Shipper panelists at a press conference at the National Industrial Transportation League/Intermodal Association of North America intermodal conference in Anaheim this week said they recognize that infrastructure upgrades will come at a cost to the private sector, but that all parties should equitably share the burden.
   'This is obviously not something we want to say, that we want our costs to rise. But it's something we have to consider,' said Mick Barr, associate director of global physical distribution for Proctor & Gamble. 'We have to be able to deliver our product in order to sell it.'
   Curt Warfel, manager of logistics and distribution for EKA Chemicals, suggested that the benefits of not helping fund infrastructure upgrades might eventually be more costly.
   'There's a cost to congestion, so you have to do a cost analysis (to see how much this is hurting you),' he said.
   But Mark Maleski, domestic carrier relations manager for retailer JC Penney, said it will only work if leaders 'make sure all beneficiaries pay their share.'
   In a panel later in the day, Mark Pisano, president of the Southern California Association of Governments, said a public-private partnership to upgrade freight movement corridors in the Los Angeles region is critical, and that the private sector should expect to contribute in order to thrive in the coming decades.
   '(The industry) needs to learn to cooperate in order to compete,' he said.