Incoming ATA Chairman Touts Need for Highway Investment

Kevin Burch, president of Jet Express Inc., Dayton, Ohio, and the incoming chairman of the American Trucking Associations, emphasized the important role of well-maintained infrastructure in a roundtable discussion hosted by U.S. Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Highways and Transit.

“Having good, uncongested highways is important to my company and to trucking companies across the country,” Burch said, according to a statement issued by ATA. Burch pointed out that dedicated funding for freight projects in last year’s FAST Act was an important win for trucking.

Specifically, he cited the early completion of a five-mile section of Interstate 75 in Dayton that has already improved safety for trucks and other motorists in the area.

“A third of all crashes,” Burch said, “are due to poor or outdated road design. These types of projects don’t just improve efficiency and reduce congestion, they improve safety.”

Burch also used the discussion to address other important issues to the trucking industry including truck parking, electronic logging devices and the need to retain access to the current hours-of-service restart, which allows use of the extended break without restriction.

“It is good for ATA to be at the table for these important discussions,” Burch said after the roundtable. “I want to thank Chairman Graves and the rest of the committee – not only for their bipartisan effort to pass the FAST Act – but for inviting ATA to this roundtable about the law’s implementation and for the opportunity to keep the dialogue about these important issues moving forward.”

American Trucking Associations, a federation of 50 affiliated state trucking associations, represents the U.S. trucking industry.