Gary F. Petty was named president and CEO of the National Private Truck Council in January. The council, an Alexandria, Va.-based trade association, represents companies ranging from the U.S. Postal Service and Wal-Mart to local businesses that use private truck fleets to meet their transportation needs. Private fleets are the largest segment of the trucking industry, accounting for about 82 percent of medium- and heavy-duty trucks registered in the United States, nearly two million vehicles. NPTC operates the Institute for Truck Training Management and offers the Certified Transportation Professional (CTP) program in private fleet and transportation management.

Petty has 15 years of association and transportation industry experience. He was president and CEO of the National Moving and Storage Association prior to its 1998 merger with the American Movers Conference (now the American Moving and Storage Association). He has also served as president of van line agencies Johnson/United International of Denver, Colo., and Victory/Allied International of Alexandria, Va., and as senior vice president of the Tire Association of North America.

While with the movers' association, Petty served as a board member and chairman of the Small Business Legislative Council (SBLC), a business lobbying coalition in Washington. He was also the founding chief administrative officer of a community college, executive director of a state association of community colleges, and a lawyer in private practice. He is co-author of a book on educational leadership and has published articles on transportation, education and training, and small-business issues. In March, he delivered a keynote address at the Transporte Internacional conference in Acapulco, Mexico.

Recently, Logistics Management & Distribution Report interviewed Petty on a range of issues affecting private fleets and the motor carrier industry in general.

Q: What do you see as the major challenge for the NPTC?

Our role of advocacy and training is paramount. Many of our members represent Fortune 500 companies, but there also are 25,000 private fleets in the United States in the 10- to 20-truck range. We want to reach those fleet managers, too. The growing sophistication of the supply chain, with all its components—service options, leasing, total outsourcing—makes more demands on managers. Our group is dedicated to bringing them together with other managers to share their best practices and contribute to increased safety and transportation efficiency.

Q: The Department of Transportation's proposed revision of the hours-of-service (HOS) rules for truck drivers generated a lot of industry criticism last year. Do you think the issue will be tabled by the Bush administration?

It may be dormant right now, but it will come back to life. What I hope is that the Bush administration will take a more realistic approach to the issue, striking a balance between safety concerns and the reality of the 24/7 global marketplace.

Q: What role would you like the National Private Truck Council to play in HOS reform?

Our hope is to help reshape the hours-of-service rules to conform to market realities and safety considerations.

From our perspective, the private fleet represents the best the trucking industry has to offer. These companies are very aware that their trucking operations reflect their corporate images. Major fleets—those with more than 200 trucks—are consistently raising the bar to additional margins of safety. We believe these best practices should be codified.

If these practices are cost-effective, won't they have implications for what the government wants everyone to adhere to in operating an over-the-road vehicle? We'd like to help the government devise a best-practices template to show the general public. The trucking industry has a very good safety record, but almost every media stereotype of the industry is negative. We'd like to change that.

Q: Do you think the Department of Transportation should try to rework its HOS proposals, or do you think the debate should start again from scratch?

The current hours-of-service reform proposal isn't well thought out; it's not based in reality. The DOT should start from the beginning with a blank sheet of paper. There are some great ideas out in the industry, particularly from private fleets, that are consistently producing happy drivers with consistently good safety records. We should start over again and do it right.

I'd like the government to reconsider where the reforms are aimed. Rather than have a broad-brush approach, I'd like to see reform be consistent with the work of the best practitioners in our industry. We know there are flagrant violators out there—but not in the private-fleet industry.

Q: What about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)? Does the NPTC support opening the borders to Mexican trucks?

Many of our members are multinational companies doing business in Mexico and Central America. Their main priority is to get products to market efficiently and safely. It's quite feasible that in five years, the value of goods traveling between the United States and Mexico will be greater than that of goods moving between the United States and Canada.

That said, our support [for opening U.S. borders to Mexican trucks] is qualified, to this extent. We've come a long way in the United States in terms of safety. The equipment we run is better every year. Our technology is more sophisticated. Our drivers are more sensitive to safety issues. We want to see these standards accepted and put into practice by our trading partners. We want a level playing field in terms of safety.

Some of the rules—the ban on the sale of used American trucking equipment to Mexico—are unrealistic. It's not fair to say the United States is dumping its used equipment on Mexico. The average age of a freight truck in Mexico is 15 to 20 years, as opposed to five years in the United States. By lifting the embargo on used U.S. equipment [instituted in 1990], the Mexican government would give that country's carriers access to safer and more efficient vehicles, with lower engine emissions. This would help ease fears about the safety of Mexican trucks operating in the United States.

Q: Is the NPTC opposed to letting Mexican truckers freely pass through U.S. border crossings?

The Mexican government is working very hard to come up to speed. I expect the safety and quality of [Mexican carriers'] equipment will ramp up faster than the infrastructure, which can be generously described as antiquated.

Certainly, there is a need for more inspectors at border crossings. You can't have 1,300 trucks backed up at a crossing that's staffed by only three inspectors.

I'd like us to work together to solve these problems. For instance, there's a manufacturing plant in Monterrey, Mexico, that does 10,000 border crossings a year into the United States. It takes four days for each crossing. The product has to be loaded and reloaded four times. It takes 11 separate steps to get the products to the distribution center. It should take two days at best. A public-private partnership could be the key to solving this.

The safety issue remains the key stumbling block. NAFTA called for the three countries to reach compatibility on all motor carrier safety standards in three years, including medical and licensing standards for drivers, truck equipment and accessory standards, inspection and maintenance requirements, and even vehicle emissions standards. There hasn't been enough progress on safety.

Q: Are infrastructure issues of concern to your members?

We have a huge problem with infrastructure that eclipses everything else. For example, Texas roads handle 80 percent of the Mexican-U.S. traffic, mainly through the Fort Worth area. In Texas alone, vehicle miles increase 4 percent a year, 16 times faster than the dollar amount spent on maintaining our infrastructure. Right now, Texas spends only 9 cents per mile for roads vs. 33 cents 40 years ago. There are 7,000 deficient highway bridges just in Texas.

I don't mean to single out Texas. It's a problem nationwide and there's no relief in sight. Major highway projects in the United States continue to be delayed by environmental concerns, by activist groups opposed to any highway projects.

So our infrastructure isn't growing as fast as we need it. We're facing, in the motor carrier industry, the kind of gridlock that's affecting the airline industry today.

We're also short 26,000 parking spaces in the United States—that's a shortage of 26,000 legal, safe spaces for drivers to use. That's a major concern.

Here we are in the year 2001. We have extremely fast communication systems, the Internet, drivers who are smarter and better trained than ever—and a 20-mule-team

infrastructure.