Wasted time is wasted money. The longer America’s infrastructure remains in poor condition, the more carriers, shippers, and consumers are paying the price.
That price is exacted in the form of more traffic congestion and road disrepair amplified by our nation's increasingly crumbling highways and bridges.
As Congress continues to debate how to fund the President’s $1.5 Trillion Infrastructure Plan, the American Trucking Associations (ATA) has launched an initiative, “Road to a Better Future.”
What is the Road to a Better Future?
The goal of Road to a Better Future is to educate legislators and the public, that much needed repairs to the national network of roads and bridges can no longer be ignored.
As part of their initiative, the ATA is promoting their Build America Fund. This proposed plan would produce $340 billion in new revenue over the next decade without adding to the national deficit according to the ATA.
The ATA proposes the use of a fuel user fee to fund fixing roads and bridges. The current federal user fee, which hasn’t been raised since 1993, supports the National Highway System. This fee is applied on a per-gallon basis to transportation fuel that is sold wholesale. Currently, United States’ truckers pay for almost half of this country’s highway trust funds.
Meanwhile, opposition to this type of fee is what most of the debate is over as a comprehensive infrastructure bill faces gridlock in Washington.
According to the ATA, people against the fuel user fee tend to forget to bring up that doing nothing about the deterioration is causing economic hardship to many, specifically lower- and middle-income drivers.
In reality, the cost of not doing anything is higher than what it would actually cost to fix our deteriorating roads and bridges.
Trucking Industry Suffers Because of Poor Infrastructure
It’s not just drivers going about their daily commutes who are feeling the pinch from the large number of roads and bridges in disrepair.
Carrier, shipper, and consumer costs are rising too. Here’s why: The United States is becoming a nation of bottlenecks because of poor road and bridge conditions.
The average driver spends 42 hours stuck in traffic each year. Now that’s just the average driver. Carriers who spend their entire workday on the road are losing greater amounts of time being stuck in traffic.
Time spent in traffic means delayed shipments, which can be costly to both the shipper and the carrier. Fuel is wasted while carriers sit in traffic, increasing costs throughout our economy.
Poor road conditions cause additional wear and tear to vehicles. Costs borne by everyday drivers for pothole damage alone cost billions of dollars every year in the United States.
All these added costs to carriers and shippers are passed down to the consumer, who ends up paying more for final goods.
