TDM: The Logistics of Moving People

Guest post by Rico Fleshman

Often overlooked or altogether omitted from discussions of transportation logistics is the field of transportation demand management (TDM). Whereas traditional transportation logistics is concerned with the streamlined movement of freight and goods through existing infrastructure, TDM deals with the efficacy in the movement of people and sustainable transportation options, challenging the notions of single-occupant vehicle use.

TDM programs are developed by local public agencies, some with the support of public-private partnerships, and are generally geared towards congestion mitigation and reduction of the corresponding emissions. These programs define and refine strategies to create transportation options such as telecommuting, biking, walking, ridesharing, and using transit and to establish more effective land use policies to lessen the negative impact of population growth on transportation.

With the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency ACT (ISTEA) of 1991, lawmakers established a federal focus on the improvement of environmental programs and authorized the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) program. CMAQ has been re-authorized in legislation to-date and continues to support surface transportation programs in areas of poor air quality (nonattainment) by providing grant funds for development and support of TDM programs at the state and local levels.

Federal formula programs also provide support to the development and sustainment of TDM programs. Some authorized programs target specific segments of the population, such as low-income, elderly, or disabled persons, while other forms of formula funding provide operating and capital assistance to transit agencies in both rural and urbanized areas. Most recently, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) has sought to streamline formula program administration by consolidating some programs and doing away with others.

Both CMAQ and formula program (capital assistance) grants have commonly been used in support of TDM programs and are administered by both the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration.

In recent years, TDM advocates--state and local agencies, private companies and transportation associations--have been able to expand the reach and scope of programs to impact congestion and emissions relief. But, there are limitations. Whereas issues with transportation logistics can be rectified by the building out of infrastructure or optimization in vehicle design, TDM is focused on the individual and therefore tied to personal behavior change. Funding for the industry is still nominal, compared to its road-based counterpart and that is due in part to TDM programmer’s ability to effectively demonstrate that behavior change to lawmakers.

TDM advocates continue to lobby for funding tied to performance measures, as they purport their programs to be vastly more effective than engineering infrastructure. The problem here is that there are few, if any, systems that comprehensively demonstrate throughput and effectively captures and consolidates system usage with quantifiable data.

Advances in technology and continued investments in outreach have allowed TDM programs to leverage greater public/private partnerships and garner more private sector employer support to bolster the programs. In effect, they continue to grow. Vanpooling and carpooling programs have exploded throughout the country, biking and walking programs receive greater visibility and participation, and transit usage continues to increase as communities are built around public transportation options.

Once a burgeoning movement, TDM has quickly become a way of life. It has well established its usefulness and purpose and continues to be an invaluable part of the transportation field.

About the Author

Rico Fleshman is the Corporate and Strategic Manager: Transportation, Logistics and Supply Chain for American Public University. He has worked with numerous transportation associations and has extensive knowledge of federal and state transportation policy, funding, metropolitan planning processes and regulatory compliance of transportation programs. For information on the online Transportation, Logistics and Supply Chain programs at APU, visit StudyatAPU.com.

Will Robots Take Over Roles in Logistics?

Guest Post by Dr. Robert Gordon, faculty member at American Public University

Last month, Starwood began pilot testing the ‘Botler’ at the Aloft Hotel in Silicon Valley. The test is showing that people are willing to have a robotic butler deliver items to their guest room. Although the Botler appears to be more like R2D2 than a human, it appears that this handy, three- foot-tall robot can assist guests with a more pleasant stay. 

This means that the days of the helpful bell person or housekeeper coming to the door with the needed item in hand could be gone. While this would reduce the workload for certain hotel staff, I am not certain that this will ultimately lead to massive personnel cuts.

This example demonstrates that technology is changing and some jobs might not be as safe as once thought. There was a time when all elevators required an elevator operator; now, elevators are automated and few people remember operators. I tried to explain the concept to my teenaged daughter who did not understand why one would need an extra person to ride in the elevator all day just to push the button. 

As technology moves forward, what other skills are future-proof? Driverless cars are currently being tested and the technology appears promising. Recently, a driverless car was tested on the difficult streets of the US Capitol. If a driverless car can manage driving in DC (something I always avoid myself), when will that move on to driverless trucks? If elevator operators are so easily erased from public memory, could the same not happen to other jobs? 

The bad news is that, in the near future, some logistics jobs will be lost to robots. However, these will be the relatively low- skill jobs that could be easily automated. The good news is that other jobs that require more creative intelligence, critical thinking, and management skills will increase. After all, someone will have to be the person building, repairing, training, and managing the Botler or the self-driving car. 

Robots might be great to have at a party, but they can’t do sales, marketing, finance, customer contact, or management. These higher-order thinking tasks will become the exclusive domain of skilled and educated personnel with an understanding of how to run an organization. 

Logistics professionals with critical thinking skills and both education and experience will be less vulnerable to automation or “outomation,” as I like to call it. Successful logistics leaders will also need to hone their social skills because working with people will be even more important.  

The future of logistics will have more to do with management skills and less to do with routine tasks.  Long- term career success will require a balance of education, job skills, and social skills. 

About the Author

Dr. Robert Lee Gordon is an associate professor with American Public University in the Reverse Logistics Management program. He has four published books, three regarding project management and one regarding reverse logistics in addition to dozens of articles. Dr. Gordon curates a Reverse Logistics topic at http://www.scoop.it/t/reverse-logistics-by-robert-gordon2.

The Highway Trust Fund: New Bill Fails to Address Systemic Problems

Guest Post by Rico Fleshman

After nearly a year of warning and pleadings by some lawmakers, state and local agencies, and the Federal Department of Transportation (DOT), Congress finally came together with a $10.8 billion Highway Trust Fund (HTF) Bill that President Obama signed on Friday Aug. 8. Done. Sort of.

This bill is another short-term fix. It is a stopgap measure only intended to fund existing programs through 2015. It may not be sufficient to avert predicted shortfalls and infrastructure issues.

In 1956, the Federal-Aid Highway Act and the Highway Revenue Act authorized funding for the nation’s growing interstate highway system and the HTF financed it. The HTF was funded by taxing all highway users and financed infrastructure growth and maintenance. In 1982, the Surface Transportation Assistance Act added mass transit to the fund.

As higher funding levels were needed for road and transit expansion and maintenance, the corresponding fuel tax was increased to keep pace. It was set to 18.4 cents per gallon by 1993 with no expiration date.

Currently, the HTF is funded through a gasoline tax (including diesel, ethanol and special fuels), large vehicle tire sales, truck and trailer sales and a tax based on heavy vehicle use. Fines and penalties levied by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration are also added to the fund. Those funds are then used to finance highway projects including infrastructure construction, road and bridge repair, and transit projects.

So what is the problem? When the gas tax was set in 1993, it was not indexed for inflation. Currently, cars are more fuel efficient and ridesharing and transit programs keep more people off the road. However, the cost of transit programs and the need for infrastructure-related construction has increased. Essentially, the trust fund does not collect the revenue needed to meet expenditures.

Shortfalls stifle state-sponsored highway and road construction, leading construction companies to lay off employees who have no work. That is just one example of the impact. Programs stop without the necessary funding, infrastructure construction halts and transit costs rise. The economy suffers.

The current HTF bill does not solve the problems with the trust fund. Supplementing funding with money from the general fund over the last three years has not worked either. Lawmakers must take a serious look at how the HTF operates and, unfortunately, it is unlikely they’ll do so until the situation is dire again in 2015.   

About the Author

Rico Fleshman is the Corporate and Strategic Manager: Transportation, Logistics and Supply Chain for American Public University. He has worked with numerous transportation associations and has extensive knowledge of federal and state transportation policy, funding, metropolitan planning processes and regulatory compliance of transportation programs. For information on the online Transportation, Logistics and Supply Chain programs at APU, visit StudyatAPU.com.