Trucking operators urge Congress to increase infrastructure investment

FedEx Freight President and CEO Mike Ducker and Werner Enterprises President and CEO Derek Leathers told a Senate subcommittee the U.S. must invest more in its roads and bridges for the trucking industry to continue to operate safely and efficiently.    Two prominent members of the trucking industry are urging Congress to increase investment in the nation’s ailing transportation infrastructure.
   Mike Ducker, president and chief executive officer of FedEx Freight, and Derek Leathers, president and CEO of Werner Enterprises, told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee’s Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security the U.S. must invest more in its roads and bridges for the trucking industry to continue to operate safely and efficiently.
   Prior to his election, President Donald Trump touted a $1 trillion infrastructure investment plan that would be funded primarily through private investment. The proposal was hailed by transportation and logistics providers and shipper groups alike, but the continued lack of clarity surrounding the actual details of the plan has caused some discomfort among those same groups, which have seen infrastructure investment neglected time and time again by lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
   Adding to fuel to the fire, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao last week said Trump’s 10-year $1 trillion plan would cover far more than just transportation infrastructure.
   The planned infrastructure initiative will “include energy, water and potentially broadband and veterans hospitals as well,” Chao said at an event at the USDOT headquarters in Washington, D.C.
   Those are all valid needs for the U.S. going forward, but the news clearly came as a surprise to shipping and logistics industry analysts, most of whom had assumed that the entirety of the president’s $1 trillion infrastructure investment plan would go towards rebuilding ailing U.S. roads and bridges, and improving port and inland infrastructure for cargo movement.
   The U.S. freight transportation industry was already less than enthusiastic about the president’s preliminary budget proposal for 2018, which would cut funding for USDOT by 13 percent from 2016 levels to $16.2 billion and eliminate the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program, launched in 2009 by President Obama in an effort to help revitalize ailing transportation infrastructure across the country.
   “Without improved surface infrastructure and wise policy decisions from Washington, FedEx and other companies cannot continue to help grow the U.S. economy and increase jobs,” Ducker said in his testimony before the Senate subcommittee. “The need for significant investment in our infrastructure has never been more critical.”
   “Congress should concentrate investment in major freight bottlenecks and congestion that hamper the efficient movement of both freight and passenger travel,” added Leathers. “The additional mileage and congestion combined with high freight demands and insufficient truck parking continues to cause needless added stress and frustration to our driver workforce, and can take away from their focus on safely and efficiently delivering our nation’s goods.”
   The executives also touched on other pressing issues in the trucking industry, such as a looming driver shortage, the development of automated truck technology and the need for “smarter” regulations.
   “The additional freight demand combined with increased congestion, insufficient parking and a patchwork of state regulations only add needless stress to our driver workforce,” said Leathers. “CDL skills test delays also contribute to the driver shortage by keeping applicants from wheel ready jobs for several weeks.”
   Chris Spear, the president and CEO of industry trade group American Trucking Associations, of which both FedEx Freight and Werner are members, lauded Ducker and Leathers for their testimony, noting the trucking industry loses nearly $50 billion each year from congestion issues alone.
   “ATA and its members are continuing to tell our story on Capitol Hill and at the White House about need to improve our nation’s roads and bridges,” ATA President and CEO Chris Spear said in a statement. “We must unclog our arteries and highways and make our infrastructure safer and more efficient by investing in our roads and bridges as Derek and Mike so eloquently told the Committee today.”