U.S. Freight Transportation : Elements, Role & Recommendations for Improvement

Transportation is important. It is about people and how they live their lives, how they get to work, how they get their children to school, how they buy food, clothes, and other necessities, and how families visit one another around the country. It is also about business. Transportation is critical to how the supply chain functions, how raw materials get to factories, how goods get to market, how food gets from farmers to kitchen tables, and how energy products move from areas of production to areas of consumption. An efficient national transportation network allows business to lower transportation costs, which lowers production costs and enhances productivity and profits. It allows American business to be competitive in the global marketplace and for the Nation''s economy to prosper and grow. One need only look at the Interstate Highway System to see how that investment in the transportation network has benefited the nation and encouraged tremendous economic growth over the past two generations. This book discusses findings and recommendations made by the Special Panel on 21st century freight transportation, as well as federal freight policies.