International Truck Conference Wrap-Up

Posted 06/26/2009
UMTRI's recently completed International Conference on Efficient, Safe, and Sustainable Truck Transportation Systems for the Future: Building the Policy Options Roadmap is being hailed as a success. The gathering involved the Joint Transport Research Centre of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Transport Forum on aspects of international policy of freight vehicle transportation influencing safety, efficiency and sustainability. [Pictured: Terry Shelton, Chief Information Officer, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration]

The conference, held June 15-17 at the University of Michigan, brought together the experiences of the international community to discuss how the needs of society and industry for increased road transport productivity can be achieved under conditions that will provide for significantly better safety and productivity while meeting target reductions of emissions, and have manageable impacts and demands on the relevant road networks.

[Pictured above: Rose McMurray, acting deputy administrator, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration; Honorable James H. Burnley IV, Secretary of Transportation, 1987-1989]

The conference included:

• Opening plenary sessions on the extent and future direction of both domestic and international freight transportation in the U.S.; benchmarking U.S. international competitiveness relative to other regions around the world; challenges to using and expanding U.S. infrastructure assets to support freight movement; and the highway freight industry’s response to the imperatives of energy security, climate change, and safety.

• Executive sessions featuring speakers from around the world, who presented key findings of research completed over the past 25 years, including an update and comparison with the OECD/ITF international benchmarking of heavy truck productivity and safety.

• Technical sessions on advances in technologies and operational practices that reduce petroleum use and criteria pollutant emissions; advances in heavy truck safety technologies and safety-related operational practices; performance-based standards and innovations in operational compliance; and interaction of productive vehicles with the infrastructure and traffic.

• Closing sessions in which attendees synthesized conference discussions into options for consideration by policy makers as they seek to balance economic productivity, the environment, safety, and infrastructure preservation.

[Pictured above: John Woodrooffe, head of UMTRI's Transportation Safety Analysis Division; Peter Sweatman, UMTRI director]

There were more than 130 delegates present at the conference. Formal proceedings of the conference will be produced within the next two months. See the conference website for more details.