U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
U.S. Rep. Don Young, Chairman

Contact:  Steve Hansen (Communications Director)  (202) 225-7749
    Email: Steve.Hansen@mail.house.gov
       Justin Harclerode (Deputy Communications Director)  (202) 226-8767
        Email: Justin.Harclerode@mail.house.gov

May 8, 2006 

Highway Capacity & Freight Mobility To Be Focus Of Congressional Hearing

        Washington, D.C. – A Congressional hearing on Wednesday will examine the state of freight mobility on U.S. highways and the challenges posed by a potential freight capacity shortage in the near future.

        The hearing of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, chaired by U.S. Rep. Tom Petri (R-WI), is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, May 10th in room 2167 Rayburn House Office Building.  A live webcast of the hearing will be available at the Committee’s website:
www.house.gov/transportation

Wednesday’s Witness List
Panel 1
- Jeffrey Shane, Under Secretary for Transportation Policy, U.S. Department of Transportation
- Tim Martin, Secretary of Transportation, Illinois Department of Transportation
Panel 2
- Lance Grenzeback, Cambridge Systematic
- John Larkin, Managing Director, Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Inc.
- Dr. Michael Meyer, Professor, Georgia Technical University

Background Information
        The U.S. economy depends on its interconnected transportation network to move various goods around the country quickly and safely.  Americans expect their fruits and vegetables at their local grocery stores to be ripe and fresh, despite their physical distance from the growing fields.  Business operations rely on same-day or next-day delivery of goods and documents to serve their clients and customers.  These conveniences, which we take for granted, would not be possible without the U.S. freight transportation network and freight delivery services of trucks, railroads, airplanes, and boats.

        According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, over 19 billion tons of freight, valued at $13 trillion, was carried over 4.4 trillion ton-miles in the U.S. in 2002.  This translates to about 53 million tons of goods valued at about $36 billion moved nearly 12 billion ton-miles on a single day.  In less than 20 years, the nation’s freight tonnage is projected to increase by 70%, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.  Since 1980 the interstate highway lane miles have risen by 16%, while vehicle miles traveled on these roads increased 123%. 

In 2002, Trucking Industry Transported Over $9 Trillion Worth Of Shipments
        Among the modes responsible for freight transportation, trucks are the most frequently used to haul virtually all commodities in the U.S.  About 70% of the total value of freight shipments is hauled by trucks.  In 2002, the trucking industry, including for-hire and private use trucks, transported over $9 trillion worth of shipments.  America’s trucks travel on 46,769 miles of the U.S. Interstate System, 115,032 miles of the National Highway System roads, and 3,828,046 miles of other roads.  Since 1980, overall truck vehicle-miles have doubled from 108 billion to 216 billion in 2003.  Despite this massive growth in miles, trucks share of total highway vehicle-miles remains at about 7.1 to 7.5%.  This is due to the similar massive growth of vehicle-miles by all highway vehicles: passenger cars, buses, and light trucks.

        Transportation experts have expressed deep concern regarding an impending freight capacity shortage on America’s highways.  The last several decades have witnessed steady growth in the demand for freight transportation but freight capacity, especially highway capacity, is expanding too slowly to keep up with demand.  The specific cause of this shortage is a combination of four factors: (1) incremental freight generated by the economic rebound and the elongation of supply chains, (2) chronic truckload driver shortage which has limited carriers’ ability to grow, (3) carrier margins squeezed by rising insurance costs, increasing fuel costs, higher equipment life-cycle ownership costs, rising driver compensation levels, increasing healthcare costs, and increased service expectation, and most notably (4) increased amounts of highway, railroad, and port congestion leading the industries to approach a “sold-out” status.

        Freight congestion problems are most apparent at bottlenecks on highways.  A bottleneck is a specific physical location on a highway that routinely experiences recurring congestion and traffic backups because traffic volumes exceed highway capacity.  Bottlenecks are estimated to account for about 40% of vehicle hours of delay.  Most bottlenecks are found on highways serving major international freight gateways like the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, at major domestic freight hubs like Chicago, and in major urban areas where transcontinental freight lanes intersect congested urban freight routes.  These bottlenecks accrue significant truck hours of delay, totaling upwards of 243 million hours annually.  At a delay cost of $31.25 per hour, the conservative value used by Federal Highway Administration’s Highway Economic Requirements System model for estimating national highway costs and benefits, the direct user cost of these bottlenecks is about $7.8 billion per year.

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