3 Trucking Execs to Serve on National Freight Panel

This story appears in the June 10 print edition of Transport Topics.

Trucking executives are among the dozens of transportation experts who have been selected to help shape a national vision for freight movement.

Forty-seven people, representing a range of transportation modes, geographic regions, ports and policy areas, were named inaugural National Freight Advisory Committee members. They will advise the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The three trucking industry executives on the committee are: Randy Mullett, vice president of government relations and public affairs for Con-way Inc.; Jack Holmes, president of UPS Freight; and Paul Kelly, vice president of the intermodal division of A&S Services Group in Baltimore.

MAP-21, the transportation reauthorization bill signed into law by President Obama last summer, contained a mandate to develop a freight policy and called for the creation of a National Freight Strategic Plan.

DOT Secretary Ray LaHood created the National Freight Advisory Committee and named its members May 30 for advice on how DOT can improve its freight transportation policies and programs.

The committee will meet at least three times per year. The first meeting is June 25 in Washington.

“It’s to get all the modes of transportation together around the table,” LaHood told Transport Topics after a speech last week to a gathering of road-building contractors in the nation’s capitol.

LaHood said he created the advisory group after Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) failed to persuade her colleagues to include such a committee in MAP-21. The committee is to work for two years advising on freight issues.

Mullett said he is not bothered that there are so few carriers represented or that the committee is so large.

“When you put these kinds of groups together, it really is about how do you build coalitions and how do you explore different solution sets through a wide variety of lenses,” he said. “If we had one group overrepresented versus another, we probably won’t come up with a good solution.”

Holmes of UPS said he applauded the administration for seeking input from a diverse group.

“Economic factors, demographic changes and the proliferation of international trade dictate that a broader freight transportation vision, one that includes connecting all modes of transportation and an investment in technology, as well as a shared responsibility for funding, is now needed,” Holmes said.

Other members of the committee include Terry Button of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association; John Gray, who heads the Policy and Economics Department of the Association of American Railroads; Brad Hildebrand, global rail and barge lead at Cargill Inc.; and Stephen Alterman, president of the Cargo Airline Association.

Mort Downey of the Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors said: “We will be asked to advise on the new National Freight Strategic Plan and National Freight Network called for by MAP-21, as well as on the strategies to help states establish their advisory committees and freight plans.”

The committee also is supposed to look at “measures for condition, safety and performance of the freight system and at the tools and data for freight planning,” as well as at possible legislative recommendations on freight movement, Downey said.

In creating the committee, the DOT said it had to have at least 25 members and that up to 15 had to represent specific constituencies such as labor, environment, freight and government.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter is on the committee, as is Joan Claybrook of Public Citizen; James Hoffa, president of the Teamsters union; and Kevin Brubaker, deputy director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center.

Mullet and other members said the extensive committee matches its scope and its task. “Freight is in many instances the underpinning of the economy,” he said.

Said Jose Holguin-Veras of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who helped New York City launch its off-hours freight delivery program: “It is a complex subject; I am not surprised by the size of the committee.

“The reality is, for a very long time freight has been overlooked, and I think, basically, there are great opportunities for both the public sector and the private sector to work together towards developing a more competitive, more sustainable freight system.”