News From ASET - June 1, 2008

ASET FLY-IN EVENT A GOOD BEGINNING

ASET hosted a fly-in meeting in Washington, DC on May 13-14 to urge Congress to adopt a hanful of demonstration pilot projects in the upcoming congressional highway reauthorization bill. The current highway bill is scheduled to expire in September of 2009.

The coalition met with nearly every congressional office - both in the House and Senate - in the following five states: Maine, Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Carolina and Georgia. These states were chosen in part because of their economic base for ASET's membership but also because of their distinction of having a port or border issue. Because Canada, Mexico and most of Europe operate heavier trucks on six axles, the U.S. is at a competitive disadvantage and thus, when a container reaches a U.S. port or a truck arrives at the U.S./ Canadian border, either permits or the break-up of freight often must occur. Giving cross-border help to those moving between Minnesota, Wisconsin and Maine and the Canadian border will address this issue on a small scale - as will giving the ports in South Carolina and Georgia access to heavier containers coming into their ports.

There were approximately 25 companies represented at the fly-in meeting and in all, ASET met with 42 offices in the two days of visits. The vast majority of the meetings went well according to the participants and the coalition received very positive feedback. One of the challenges is to make sure Congress truly understands the issues facing those that move freight in this country and the help that more productive trucks could lend to the situation. Because much of the initial conversations will be educating Members of Congress and staff, attendees of this event left feeling that they had accomplished their goal and had taken the first step in a process that will eventually lead to language being included in the highway bill next year.

Follow-up with the offices ASET members met with will continue as will our efforts to reach out to state Department of Transportation officials to help craft the exact routes and/or corridors we would like to see put into any state pilot project. It will be crucial to garner as much state support as possible if we are to finally see some efficiency gains in the trucking industry. ASET will then plan to revisit Congress with a more detailed plan for the hanful of pilots in 2009 as the reauthorization bill debate heats up.

If you would like to participate in future meetings or in conference calls, please contact Jake Jacoby at (703) 549-9467 or at jjacoby@aset-safety.org

ASET FLY-IN EVENT ATTRACTS MEDIA ATTENTION

The recent fly-in event held by ASET has attracted a tremendous amount of media attention. Jake Jacoby, Executive Director of ASET, was the guest for a radio call-in show on Sirius Satellite called the "Road Dog" on May 23. In addtion, articles have been written on our efforts in Traffic World as well as newspapers in several states from Arkansas to Maine.

To view a copy of the Traffic World article describing our fly-in event, please click here or for all the latest news, visit the "Media Coverage" section of this web site.