CEO DATELINE - Businesses groups want feds to rethink port congestion measurements
CEO DATELINE - Businesses groups want feds to rethink port congestion measurements
- January 15, 2016 |
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Walt Williams
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A coalition for 100 business groups led by the National Retail Federation wants the U.S. Department of Transportation to update its method for calculating the efficiency of U.S. ports.
In a letter to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, the groups said their interest in updated performance measures was spurred by significant congestion and cargo delivery delays at the nation's largest ports. Those delays have a ripple effect that harms the U.S. economy, they said.
"Having efficient, modern ports is important for the free flow of international trade, both imports and exports, and critical for our respective industries," the coalition said.
The coalition is specifically asking DOT to tweak the port performance statistics program created by Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, which was passed by Congress last year. Among the proposed changes, the coalition wants the agency to track the number of days a vessel sits at dock and also record how long containers sit in yards before being moved to rail, picked up by a truck or loaded onto a ship.
The coalition also wants DOT to include cargo owners or shippers among the participants in the working group developing the port performance statistics program.
"We have been the drivers of discussions about port key performance measures for many years," the letter said. "We believe it is imperative for (the Bureau of Transportation Statistics) to take shipper interests into account in developing the port statistics program."
Other than NRF, the letter's signatories include the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, American Chemistry Council, Corn Refiners Association, Grocery Manufacturers Association and many other state and national associations. http://bit.ly/1SRQHhz
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