Trucks Move America

As you’ve heard it said many times, “Without Trucks, America Stops.” And it’s still true. Unfortunately, the trucking industry’s primary advocate has had to formally remind the Department of Transportation of this salient fact.

Bill Graves, president of American Trucking Associations, has sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood pointing out that administration officials have made “factually incorrect” statements that could “breed irresponsible policy” involving freight movement in the United States.

In his letter, and a subsequent interview with Transport Topics, Graves took direct aim at a torrent of comments attributed to LaHood and others who have stated that the administration aims to move freight off the nation’s trucking system and onto railroads to reduce highway congestion and clean up the air.

Actually, as Graves told LaHood, railroads carry very little of the nation’s total freight and don’t even serve 80% of the country’s total communities.

Yet, LaHood has made several statements saying that DOT was moving to divert freight from trucks to trains.

“It is the culmination of a number of things,” including comments by LaHood, “that appear to disparage the efficacy of our industry of moving freight by truck . . . suggesting that DOT has positioned itself to favor one mode over another,” Graves told TT.

Graves said ATA expects “DOT to be an advocate for transportation, for all modes. What is surprising here is how the rhetoric seems to suggest there are favorites at a time when I believe we don’t have room for favorites.”

It is disheartening, to say the least, to see DOT putting more money and emphasis into railroads, bicycles and mass transit at the same time that it is resisting efforts to increase highway, bridge and related infrastructure improvements that actually could speed the movement of freight and relieve road congestion.

As Graves told our reporter, “At a moment when we are being told to be more fuel-efficient, our government won’t make the investment in our infrastructure to unclog our roads. At a time when we need to create jobs in this country, our government won’t invest in one of the most guaranteed job producers that we know of: the construction of roads and bridges.”

So, as Graves said to LaHood, “Taking ‘trucks off the road,’ as you suggest, would bring our nation’s supply chain to a screeching halt.”

Let’s hope Secretary LaHood has some second thoughts after reading this letter.