This Editorial appears in the Oct. 15 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
Last week’s
Management Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas gave the nation’s trucking industry much food for thought — and action.
At American Trucking Associations’ annual meeting, the federal government’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program clearly popped to the top of the industry’s list of issues.
Chatter throughout the conference seconded the findings of the American Transportation Research Institute that CSA has become the top issue on truckers’ minds, displacing the economy, which has ruled the roost for several years.
The consensus view is clearly that CSA is a valuable tool in the drive to make the nation’s highways safer, but that it is in definite need of improvement by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Also high on the list of issues last week was infrastructure funding and the need to find ways to pump up the ailing Highway Trust Fund without resorting to more tolls on existing highways.
Congress and the White House continue to ignore ATA’s call for raising the federal tax on fuel, and are thus unable to find enough new money to support the growing list of infrastructure needs.
ATA created a new task force to make recommendations on proposals the industry can make to find a way to boost spending on highways and related projects.
Officials said they must also devise ways for politicians to support raising the tax on fuels, without suffering voter backlash.
Another major element of this year’s MCE was industry concern that too much federal emphasis is being placed on compliance with safety rules, and not enough on improving safety.
CSA, several speakers said, was designed to improve safety on the nation’s highways, and not as another federal program with which fleets have to comply.
The presidential election also looms large for trucking, with many fleet executives concerned that they will face years of new regulations if the Democrats retain control of the White House, and not just from FMCSA.
Concerns were raised that trucking might face more scrutiny from the Department of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board, for instance, if President Obama is re-elected to another four-year term.
This year’s MCE seemed to underline that the trucking industry has been re-energized, as the economy has slowly recovered. Attendance hit a new record, and the exhibit hall was crammed with products and potential customers.
Now, let’s see what we can accomplish before next year’s MCE in Orlando.
