ARA Forming Transportation Working Group
August 3, 2009 The number policy priority of the Agricultural Retailers Association’s (ARA) is transportation. Why? Simply put, it’s the amount of activity on the topic in the U.S. Congress, leading to a new transportation working group that ag retailers can get in on.
Congress is currently working on reauthorization of the highway bill, railroad reform, Hazardous Materials Transportation Authorization (HMTA), and other legislation such as the Safe Truckers Act. Due to the swift movement in transportation related issues and their importance to the industry, ARA has decided to form a “transportation working group” compiled of industry experts from its membership.
ARA expects transportation legislation to be on the front burner for at least the next six months. The organization also believes its membership would benefit from having expert input from industry officials handling transportation issues on a daily basis.
The transportation working group is strictly a volunteer group of dedicated members that will provide valuable insight into topics such as hours of service, railroad’s common carrier obligation, transportation of hazardous materials, commercial drivers license and background checks, and other issues that are incorporated into the highway bill or rail reform. This group will be co-facilitated by Jon Samson, ARA director of public policy and Carmen Haworth, ARA public policy counsel.
ARA plans to launch this transportation working group in early August with a conference call to update everyone on the current status of legislation and then have a brief discussion on pressing issues. The working group will provide updates and recommendations to ARA’s policy committee on any decisions to be made outside the scope of ARA’s current policy positions.
Retailers that would like to participate in this working group or would like to nominate someone in their company that deals with transportation issues, contact ARA at 202-457-0825 or e-mail [email protected].
(Source: Agricultural Retailers Association)
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