ATA says Obama’s proposed budget doesn’t help trucking

Avatar photo

ARLINGTON, Virginia – American truckers are unhappy with a budget that seems to favour rail over trucking.

The American Trucking Associations (ATA) say that the US$4 budget proposed by US president Obama, “not only fails to recognize the realities of freight and passenger transportation, but offers nothing in the way of long-term stability for transportation funding.”

According to the ATA, freight railroads moved 14.7% of all US domestic freight according to the latest statistics while the trucking industry handled 68.5%.

“While freight railroads and intermodal rail play small, but important roles in goods movement, the lifeblood of our economy is and will continue to be the U.S. trucking industry,” said ATA president Bill Graves said.

“By mid-January, this industry moved as much freight as the railroads will move all year, and this budget proposes to re-direct funds from road and bridge projects that would improve capacity and ease bottlenecks to underwrite projects for an industry that continually crows about how self-sufficient it is.

“It is also difficult to understand this administration’s insistence on continuing to pour billions of dollars into an intercity passenger rail system that carries just one-tenth of one percent of passenger miles, while failing to provide the necessary resources to improve the safety and efficiency of the highway system, which handles 87% of passenger travel,” Graves added.

ATA Chairman Phil Byrd also expressed his thoughts on the budget proposal.

“Finding a long term, sustainable way to improve our nation’s roads and bridges is one of ATA’s top priorities,” he said.

“Using the proceeds from corporate tax reform, while creative, does little to address the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund or to uphold the principle of users paying for the services they get, in this case, the federal fuel tax, which has not been adjusted in more than two decades to account for inflation and improvements in vehicle fuel efficiency.

“The fuel tax is, and will continue to be the most efficient and fair way of collecting revenue for highways and bridges and should be adjusted to reflect current economic conditions and needs.”

 

Avatar photo

Truck News is Canada's leading trucking newspaper - news and information for trucking companies, owner/operators, truck drivers and logistics professionals working in the Canadian trucking industry.


Have your say


This is a moderated forum. Comments will no longer be published unless they are accompanied by a first and last name and a verifiable email address. (Today's Trucking will not publish or share the email address.) Profane language and content deemed to be libelous, racist, or threatening in nature will not be published under any circumstances.

*

  • Who was it that passed the 2004 pollution laws that came into effect in 2007 and 2010?
    Who is it that has blocked every stimulus package that contains all the highway and bridge improvements?
    When you talk about not funding something or the EPA keep it truthful, and complete. I could never understand why the Republicans are so deceitful of their record.

  • Obama doesn’t support the trucking industry…say it isn’t so. Is anyone really surprised at this.

    The ATA lines up & bends over to these politicians year after year after year like a bunch of lap dogs, … more rules, more regulations, on & on & on…and then they’re surprised and whine like babies that the ever increasing gov’t they cozy up to doesn’t return the favor once in a while.

    Obama & his anti everything socialists are so beholden to the environmental green whacko & tax it if it breathes crowd who endlessly chant “rails are green, roads are not”, there is no possible hope that the trucking industry will ever receive reasonable treatment from any form of gov’t. As far as these koombaya nuts are concerned the only things that belong on roads are gov’t run transit buses (90% of the time running empty) or bicycles. Besides the railroads continue to pour all of their gov’t subsidies back into the political parties coffers at such a rate that trucking could never possibly match that kind of spending. The political crowd in North America doesn’t give a rip about the trucking industry or any industry if it isn’t run by big gov’t or big labour.

    And its not only this out of control group of political tyrants and incompetents, the bunch in there before them wasn’t any better, nor the thugs before them, they just managed to screw up the country more slowly than this current batch, that’s all.

    The trucking industry lost its political significance over 25 years ago with deregulation in North America, and public and political opinion is never going to return in its favor. Hell even the teamsters have given up on us and went in search of teachers, police, secretaries, etc. The balance of power can never again lean in favor of trucking as long as the ATA and its crew are at odds with others in the industry that share a different view (ie OOIDA) and instead continue along the “tramp on your workforce and bend over & take it from gov’t no matter what” road its been on for over 25 years.