USDOT announced strategic plan for America’s freight system

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U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao announced Thursday her U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) would release the first-ever National Freight Strategic Plan.

The plan lays out a vision for long-term investments in infrastructure, the workforce, and other parts of the freight system, designed to strengthen the country’s economic competitiveness.

“The Department is unveiling the first-ever National Freight Strategic Plan so that the U.S. can maintain our competitive edge across major industries like agriculture, manufacturing, energy production, and E-commerce,” said Chao.

According to the USDOT, the U.S. transportation network moves nearly $52 billion worth of freight and energy products, roughly more than 51 million tons, via the country’s highways, railways, ports and inland waterways, pipelines, and airports. Recently, the increasing use of e-commerce and global supply chains has strained the freight system, the department said. Failure to incorporate innovative technologies and maintain infrastructure could threaten America’s competitiveness, the department said.

The USDOT said the plan provides a clear path to improved safety, security, and resilience for the freight system.

One of the critical safety issues, the plan said, was safety – specifically truck safety, truck parking, grade crossing safety, and hazardous materials.

“As freight transportation activity has increased, the number of freight transportation-related fatalities has risen. Across all modes, 5,340 people died in freight transportation-related crashes and accidents in 2017—a nearly 24 percent increase over the 2010 total,” the plan said. “Fatalities resulting from truck-involved crashes made up 89.2 percent of all freight transportation fatalities and 12.8 percent of all highway fatalities in 2017. Key factors that may affect truck safety include increased traffic volume on the Nation’s highway networks, driver performance and behavior, and insufficient truck parking in rest zones.”

To address those challenges, the plan recommended supporting the development and adoption of automation, connectivity, and other freight safety technologies; modernizing safety oversight and security procedures, minimizing the effects of fatigue and human error on freight safety; reducing conflicts between passenger and freight traffic, and protecting the freight system from natural and human-caused disasters and improving the system’s resilience and recovery speed.

Additionally, the plan provides details on how to modernize the freight infrastructure and operations to positively impact the national economy. Lastly, the department said, the plan illustrates a road map for the future that supports the development of data, technologies, and workforce capabilities to improve freight system performance.