Discussions to reauthorize the U.S. national transportation law can and should ensure the long-term health of our nation’s freight transportation system. Currently, the “Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: a Legacy for Users,” or SAFETEA-LU, is set to expire in September. Expectations are that the new law could authorize more than $500 billion in transportation infrastructure — roads, bridges and mass-transit systems. It will also establish future priorities and policy, effectively acting as the driving force behind our nation’s overall transportation strategy.
Logistics professionals see daily that the U.S. freight transportation system is a primary global competitive advantage for our country. Past infrastructure investments, combined with the freedom to innovate enabled by trucking deregulation in the early 1980s, have created tremendous efficiencies for business and, ultimately, the American consumer. An open and transparent marketplace has created opportunity for thousands of new providers to enter the marketplace, and allowed innovation to drive costs down while service quality and safety has risen.
Our infrastructure and freight transportation planning must recognize that we need all modes and services that supply chains are globalizing, and that innovation and technology are instrumental to the health of our future transportation system. Upgrading and expanding infrastructure will be vital to ensuring continued growth and relieving congestion and the resulting higher costs, fuel consumption, and carbon emissions it causes.
Equally important, we must ensure that transportation capacity can flex with fluctuating freight demand. Transport capacity needs to be able to enter and exit the marketplace as fluidly as possible. We must enable new providers and new drivers to more easily enter the industry while ensuring that all providers and drivers are safe and qualified.
Efforts to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions should also be a priority. Allowing the marketplace to efficiently reduce empty miles, and encouraging the retrofit and purchase of more fuel-efficient equipment, will significantly reduce our industry’s carbon impact.