Logistics Management

Michael Regan

Up The Proverbial Creek Without a Visible Means Of Locomotion
September 5, 2008

A month ago, I joined with 30 other business leaders to attend a meeting with the Democratic Senate Leadership. The purpose of the meeting was to solicit the attendees’ input about the Nation’s transportation infrastructure. With 18 Democratic Senators and a couple of Democratic Governors in attendance, you can guess who did most of the “inputting.”

For the benefit of those who could not attend, I can summarize the contents of the meeting with a couple of sentences. The next Highway funding bill will be due in 2009 and the Nation’s transportation infrastructure is really important. No one wants to pay to maintain the infrastructure which, according to the Democrats, will cost a fortune (in excess of $1.4 TRILLION) to maintain - we’re not talking improvements here. We need to get all the trucks off the road and move all the freight via rail. And for good measure, (since this was the Democratic meeting) this infrastructure crisis is all George Bush’s fault. 

Having witnessed this spectacle of democracy, I recalled a quote from one of my college accounting professors as we were studying for the CPA exam: “If the numbers don’t add up, you’re up the proverbial creek without a visible means of locomotion.” He would then tell us to start over, and “be quick, because time is of the essence.”

Folks, our country has an exam to pass and time is of the essence. But sitting in the classroom with these students (a.k.a. Senators) makes me a bit nervous about how the class will do. Our nation has a fundamental problem. We all want to have a modern, reliable transportation infrastructure. We want safe, free roads with no congestion; we want safe airports with reliable times for our flights; railroads are great as long as their tracks aren’t anywhere near where we live; and when it comes to ports…who cares about ports (just kidding). Got the picture? As a nation, we want all these things; we just don’t want to pay for them.

It’s obvious that there is no easy fix to this problem. Our politicians know that things like an increase in the gas tax are dead on arrival. Many believe that one of the reasons the Democrats lost the Congress in 1994 was Bill Clinton’s proposed increase of five cents per gallon. When the current Highway Bill was being drafted and the States were pressing to be able to charge tolls on existing (and free) interstate highways, they heard from some powerful associations. And after the Dubai Ports deal, the public isn’t too excited about selling our infrastructure to Sovereign Wealth Funds. So the options are rather limited.

Here are some things that need to happen if we want to address this issue. First, our Congressional Representatives and Senators need to exercise effective leadership and demonstrate that they understand the importance of a good transportation infrastructure. Unfortunately, that is not happening. For example, according to a National Report on the Infrastructure, three of the ten most congested highway spots in this country are located in Illinois. Our representatives should be shouting about this; however, with few exceptions, this is not happening.

Second, the pork barrel spending and earmarks that have infected the legislative process need to end. The current Highway Bill contains an estimated $26 Billion in earmarks that have nothing to do with improving the nation’s infrastructure.

Third, business executives can no longer afford to ignore the importance of this issue. Historically, politicians can ignore the infrastructure crisis because of their belief that “freight doesn’t vote.” The only way freight will ever vote is if executives from the companies in their voting areas link jobs to the condition of our infrastructure.

There are many other ideas that we could explore, but for now, let’s get educated about the importance of our infrastructure and what needs to be done. Then take a moment to share what you’ve learned with the executives in your company and how it will impact the company in the future. Let’s help rescue the politicians from the “proverbial tributary.”

TranzAct Technologies, Inc.

Posted by Michael Regan on September 5, 2008 | Comments (2)