Letters to the Editor

I applaud Bill Graves, president of American Trucking Associations, for trying to get the Obama administration to make highway infrastructure rebuilding the No. 1 priority.

Cell-phone use, particularly texting while driving any vehicle, is as dangerous an act as is driving while impaired and makes no sense at all — especially while driving a commercial motor vehicle.

Just say “no” to the T. Boone Pickens plan and to H.R. 1835, the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions Act — the NAT GAS Act of 2009 — a bipartisan bill recently introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.).

Over the past 25 years of running a freight brokerage operation, I have seen numerous commentaries in Transport Topics written by disappointed and disgruntled carriers putting down the brokerage industry.

I believe there are a lot of carriers engaged in “sport trucking” as described in the story “Pace of Fleet Failures Slows as Banks Delay Foreclosures.” Trucking companies that “aren’t doing it for a profit” will hurt only themselves in the end and make it bad for the rest of the industry — both shippers and carriers.

Are third-party logistics providers a necessary division in the trucking industry? My opinion is “yes.” We are a group of people who work hard to keep customers and drivers happy, at an agreeable rate.

While the highly popular Cash for Clunkers program boosted the sales of new autos, both foreign and domestic, it is unknown if it will have any noticeable effect on the economy, jobs, energy or the environment.

This is in response to the letter in the July 27 issue with the headline “Brokers Revisited”: Your complaint is not justified with me.

This is just a comment on the letter headlined “Safety, Reregulation” that ran in the July 20 issue.

Three different articles in your July 20 publication underline the huge disconnect between current policymakers’ perception and the realities of our industry.