Fuel Tax

The ambitious goal to end the imposition of container shipping surcharges within five years has been adopted by the GSF at its Annual Meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

When it comes to addressing the yawning infrastructure needs of this country, many state legislatures and governors are basically saying, “Who needs Washington? Let’s do it ourselves.”

There is a short window for Congress to sufficiently increase investment in U.S. infrastructure investment before early 2016 presidential campaigns squash any hope of raising taxes to pay for the estimated additional $100 billion needed over the next five years. That’s the word from Bill Graves, president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations. He spoke at the 28th annual meeting of the North American Transportation Employee Relations Association (NATERA).

Earlier this week, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) introduced legislation that would gradually increase the existing federal fuel tax levels by 15 cents over the next three years.

On the eve of President Barack Obama’s FY 2014 budget release, freight interests in the Nation’s Capital on Tuesday were telling policy leaders that it’s never too early to be thinking about the next multi-year highway bill—and, more importantly, how to pay for it.

In an unusual move that likely is dead on arrival in an election year, the trucking industry is asking Congress to raise the federal fuel tax on diesel in exchange for dropping a 12 percent federal excise tax on large trucks.