With a major rebuild of Interstate 35 underway in the Twin Cities metro area, it’s not hard to find frustrated truck drivers in Minneapolis, MN, these days. While traffic is sure to flow much better one-to-two years from now, the additional congestion comes with a cost.
According to a study by the American Transportation Research Institute, traffic troubles on U.S. highways keep enough truck drivers idling to equal more than 425-thousand of them parked for a year.
Bay & Bay Transportation isn’t surprised to learn that more than 90-precent of the total congestion costs and what economists like to call a loss productivity happens around busy metro areas like Minneapolis.
Billions of dollars in added costs do add up and they are almost a pay me now or pay me later sort of scenario. Either navigate around delays and tie-up precious truck drivers and allow consumers to pay higher prices; or a decision could be made to pay for additional improvements to America’s crumbling infrastructure.
The American Trucking Association is lobbying for a 20-cent increase in the federal fuel tax over four years. It’s estimated the extra taxes would raise about $340 billion for highway infrastructure improvements.
Bay & Bay knows that sitting in traffic isn’t the drivers’ fault, but it is affecting their ability to deliver, and electronically logging hours isn’t helping matters.
It is also unclear if there will be any relief coming from the nation’s capital. President Trump came to office promising to rebuild American and invest in infrastructure. As his third year in office begins, it’s still unclear how close any legislation is to being introduced in Congress.
Bay & Bay will do it’s best to deliver, no matter what sort of road congestion headaches are created by extra traffic or construction. It starts with rewarding experienced truck drivers with late model equipment and competitive compensation for local and over the road routes nationwide.
More and more operators are finding out why Bay & Bay is known as a quality driven tradition. If you’ve got the right stuff, call (888) 801-3026, or visit us here for more details and information about how you can join our growing team of truck drivers in the Minneapolis area, and other parts of country.