The nation’s largest group of shippers has its eye on terra firma.
Between 1994 and 1998, the National Industrial Transportation League focused almost single-mindedly on deregulating ocean carriage. Under legislation enacted last year, oceans carriers are free to enter into confidential contracts with their shipper customers, so that issue is resolved.
Now, the organization is shifting its focus to other problems areas, which happen to be on the ground. NITL is paying greater attention to surface transportation issues, especially trucking, President Edward M. Emmett said at a June 25 National Press Club transportation forum.
The shift in focus was signaled at NITL’s annual meeting in San Diego in November when Emmett said the league needed to consider “partnering” with trucking. At the same meeting, he and league members also called for raising the level of competition among railroads as a means of improving their service.
Emmett elaborated on both of these themes in his Press Club speech, saying the growing volume of freight shipped by truck requires NITL to pay more attention to motor carrier issues than it has since intrastate trucking was deregulated in 1994.
His group intends to weigh in on freight classification and cargo liability, and to help trucking address driver recruitment and retention.
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