Anyone affected by the transportation industry has been following with interest the current moves that the United States Congress has been making. It is no secret that important funding is on the line and that lack of funding generally has impacted the transportation and trucking industry, in particular. The effects of current events, if they don’t play out in transportation’s favor, could seriously alter the transportation and shipping choices many business owners make.
Recently, Congress was warned
before the House Ways and Means Committee that if a sustainable funding source
for the Highway Trust Fund was not secured soon, there would be serious long
term effects that stretched far beyond temporary insolvency. It is no stretch to say that transportation
issues could be affected for even decades to come. Of note from this recent testimony was the
astounding figure that Interstate congestion alone costs the trucking industry
a whopping $9.2 billion in a year. Put
another way, in an industry that is already 200,000 drivers short, it is the
equivalent of idling 51,000 drivers for an entire working year.
Many solutions have been proposed,
such as royalties from oil and gas leases, a barrel tax on imported petroleum
and domestic crude oil production, or even a new highway access fee, and, of
course, accessing the fuel taxes in a different way. Whatever Congress decides to do, they need to
decide soon. The results of insolvency
will have an immediate impact on one’s everyday life when it comes to
shipping. How?
