ATA expresses disappointment in new transportation plan

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ARLINGTON, Va. — The Obama administration put forward their transportation plans today, and American Trucking Associations (ATA) officials are not happy. 
 
“President Obama has talked more about the need to address our critical infrastructure deficit than any president in the past 20 years,” said ATA president and CEO Bill Graves. “While the President’s plan supports a growing program, we cannot help but be very disappointed in much of the plan his administration has put forward.
 
“Any proposal that moves away from a user fee funded transportation system is not going to be acceptable to the American trucking industry, period. Furthermore, we have real questions about the viability of the administration’s plan to use one-time proceeds from an unspecified and unlikely to pass corporate tax reform idea, along with inefficient highway tolling or private capital financing,” Graves added. “The focus must be on real, long-term funding answers rather than repeatedly looking for the proverbial ‘nickels in the couch cushions.”
 
ATA also voiced its frustration with the administration’s limited recognition of America’s leading freight transportation mode.
 
“While trucks move nearly 70% of all U.S. freight, this proposal uses the words ‘truck,’ ‘trailer’ or ‘motor carrier’ just 91 times, while referencing ‘train’ or ‘rail’ a remarkable 518 times,” said ATA executive vice-president Dave Osiecki. “And even more disheartening, the only reference to trucking in the administration’s announcement is a proposal by the Department of Transportation to impose a one-size-fits-all compensation model on an incredibly diverse industry – an extraordinarily misguided proposal for a Department that claims to be data-driven.”
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