Transcripts For CSPAN3 Hearing On Federal Use Of Transportation Technology 20240622

And this month with congress on the summer recess, the cities tour is on cspan each day at 6 00 p. M. Today we tour the literary life of waco, texas, with the book about gospel music from the civil war to the civil rights movement. The story of the 1917 lynching of a black 17yearold and the history of the first africanamericans in the space program. Today at 6 00 p. M. Eastern time. A hearing now on new technologies to improper the safety and efficiency of the nations Transportation Systems. Officials from volvo group north america, zahn, bnsf railway and the port of long beach testify before the Senate Commerce committee. Good afternoon, everyone. I am pleased to convene the Senate Subcommittee on surface transportation and merchant marine infrastructure safety and security for the sixth hearing which is titled technologies, transforming transportation, is the government keeping up. Mr. Booker and i are excited to bring together a range of issues we have worked on together here in the senate. For example, we underscored the Important Role that technology plays in our daily lives by collaborating on the internet of things resolution at this the beginning of this congress. I was pleased to see our resolution passed the Senate Earlier this year. Weve also made progress on several transportation matters related to maritime labor and hearing infrastructure. Our hearing brings the work on various issues together. Today well explore the federal governments response to the Current Technology developments in our nations transportation industry. In order to maximize the efficiency and safety gains being made by the private sector, the federal government must ensure that it is keeping up with modern technology. Regulatory frameworks must facilitate rather than hinder Technology Advancements. In some ways the hearing is entering unchartered trt because government is generally reactive rather than proactive. Todays hearing is an opportunity to look into the future and to identify ways to make innovation easier so that we can grow quicker, safer and easier. Automated driving for instance has the potential to make trucks for efficient and could result in thousands of dollars in annual savings. Additionally, automation has the potential to make American Companies more competitive in the global market. As our stakeholders will testify, a patch work of state laws is holding back the Transportation Industries ability to take advantage of the benefits technology provides. Clearly more should be done to foster innovation and streamline obsolete regulations. Step one is educating policymakers and innovators on what exists an how we can facilitate more voluntary solutions to the transportation with cuttingedge technologies. Technology has the potential to automatically process, sync and coordinate complex Transportation Systems. Increased auto make and connectivity makes transportation more efficient. Most importantly innovations in transportation offer tremendous opportunities to improve safety. Autonomous trucking technologies for example will strengthen driver awareness and reduce accidents on our nations roads. Additionally well hear how the increase used of trackside monitoring devices and the development of robust data bases will provide the Railroad Industry with the ability to better repair and upgrade critical infrastructure. In other words, the Internet Things and big data are identifying the challenges of tomorrow with technologies that we have today. We must also appreciate the role our nations ports play as centers of intermodal connection in our Transportation Network. To compete globally, americas ports are modernizing to drive efficiency and keep goods moving throughout the country. The benefits of Technology Advancements are clear for our economy. For our safety and for the firsty of the Transportation Networks. I look forward to hearing from the witnesses about the kind of policies that will promote innovation. Our country is a leader in innovation, constantly creating the next big thing to drive the Global Economic engine. And i would now invite senator booker to offer his opening remarks. Thank you, sebt senator fisher. I want to recognize senator blunt who is here this afternoon. We have done extensive Work Together on technology and transportation and im excited to examine where government can help and stop hindering. And in meeting the infrastructure challenges especially this is important. Senator fisher and i have discussed the tremendous innovation happening in this country. Were both excited by it and how the Government Agencies may not be equipped to keep up with incredible innovation. This is a theme that im sure our panel of witnesses will update us on today. Technology is rapidly changing. Everything we do, including how we commute and maintain our critical Transportation Systems is changing. It is changing how we get to work and drive our cars and even how we hail a cab. We have an opportunity to harness new technologies to dramatically improve public safety, reduce costs, create jobs and address infrastructure problems in creative new ways. The federal government can be a key player in advancing and utilizing these develops technologies. Lets take a look at safety. While Traffic Related Fatalities continue to decline, over 30,000 people each year still die on our highways. We continue to see trains that derail too frequently, putting enormous burdens on our first responders. In the face of these challenges, we have got to understand the opportunity that comes with technology and improving our Transportation Systems. Our country has already invested billions in interstate highways, bridges and rails and ports. Technology could help us to get more out of what weve already built. Today are exciting marketready, Proven Solutions to make our roads safer. From automatic braking to hightech cameras to sensors and radar and Autonomous Cars ab drones. Advanced technology can alert a truck driver and even take control of a vehicle if they begin to drift out of their lane or fail to brake with stopped traffic ahead. Technology can enable a smartphone using realtime information to suggest to a driver the best time to hit the road for their commute for family trip or direct a driver to the nearest available onstreet parking place, something we need in washington. Harnessing technology will not only save time and fuel use, it will reduce Traffic Congestion for everyone else on the road. Something drivers in my state and throughout the investigate know all too well. New technologies can improve the safety and efficiency of our rail and port facilities. It is critical on how we plan for the future and make the best use of these technologies. I look forward to hearing from the Witnesses Today about how the federal government can help existing businesses thrive and how the federal government can be a worldwide leader and help us to be a worldwide leader in innovation and advance, not stall,inno advance formative innovations. Thank you. Thank you senator booker. Would you like to welcome our first panel of Witnesses Today. We have miss susan alt, the Senior Vice President Public Affairs volvo group, north america. Paul micener, amazon, mr. Gregory fox, executive Vice President , operations, bnsf rainfallway. And mr. Michael christensen, Senior Executive lead supply chain optimization port of long beach. And with that, i will begin with miss alt, if you would like to give us your testimony, please. Thank you. Chairman fisher, Ranking Member booker and distinguish members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to be here today to talk about new Transportation Technologies and how they improve both safety and efficiency in our Transportation Network and the role that the federal government plays in either facilitating or hindering that development. The volvo group is a world leader in Sustainable Transportation solutions. We build stuff that make the roads and we build stuff that uses the roads. In the u. S. We produce heavy duty trucks under the name of mack and valvo. Construction equipment and marine engines and coaches and nova transit buses. We subscribe to a build where you sell philosophy and more than 12,000 u. S. Employees with nine manufacturing facilities in six states an our goal is zero accidents. Im going to comment from a heavy duty truck perspective because trucking delivering 80 of the value of the freight shifted in the United States. The Technology Today can keep the driver and other vehicles on the road safer. Things like lane Departure Warning systems or active braki braking. But on the horizon we see potential vehicle to vehicle, v to v and vehicle to infrastructure, v to i. And messages from v to v and f to i are sent on the 5. 9 giga hurst on the bandwidth. Sent using Short Range Communications or dsrc. In 1999 the government got it right when it set aside and protected this frequency for only safety related communication but in 2013 the fcc began exploring using the 5. 9 giga hurst spectrum to support unlicensed wifi users. Proposals have been provided but no consensus yet reached. The concern is allowing other technologies shared on the same spectrum could create a lag or latency in sending life saving communication signals. So let me clarify. Say vehicle number one is approaching an intersection with a green lot but the view is blocked by a building. Use a dsrv, v to v can see someone not slowing down for the red light and at letter will allow the commission to be avoided f. There is latency in the signal because of interference, for example a wifi user watching a video, the accident likely would not be avoided. So until a solution is found for spectrum sharing, the 5. 9 gigahertz frequenty we want it dedicated to that only. Where v to i can increase is road site weight and inspection stations where trucks stop along the interstate to wait in long lines that can create potential hazards. The volvo group has demonstrated Technology Using v to i communication protocols from the truck to the weigh station that allows moving trucks to wirelessly move the credentials to the inspection stations such as if the weight is below the limit or if the driver is wearing the seat belt. It keeps the trucks moving and allowing authorities to focus on the condition of other trucks that havent been validated in a program we call trusted truck. Let me end with the talk of the town and that is automaticed technology or autonomous vehicles. That is using connected Vehicle Technology with avoidance technology. We think the area is very interesting but caution our pace of implementation will be set by how safely it can be adopted to the vehicles and to the infrastructure and to so site. Platooning is one sample. This is where a lead or a pilot truck, it is wirelessly linked to a truck following behind it. The volvo group and the California Partners for advanced Transportation Technology or path is are the process of implementing a twotruck demonstration at slow speeds that will be extended to three trucks in 2016. Full scale demonstration has unyielded 10 fuel efficiency because of the reduced air drag. Were developing technologies for connected and automated driving because of the potential to enhance safety and productivity. Increasing the speed of adoption for the technology could be achieved if we eliminated 12 federal excise tax added to the purchasech a new truck and offsetting that with a higher fuel tax. Another challenge is that though our products roll across state lines, different states are developing different regulations to propoet autonomous testing. We need a National Standard before the vehicles can become operational. With uncertain funding and surface transportation system, adoption of the new technologies will allow us to move increasing amount of freights for a growing population but it wont solve all of the freight capacity problems and doesnt let congress off the hook of providing federal funding and passing a longterm surface transportation bill. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today and i look forward to questions. Thank you. Mr. Misner, thank you. Thank you madam chair. Thank you for having. It was this month in july 1995, our challenge was to create at scale a new form of warehouses where truckloads of palates of goods would be received an stores but instead of new pallets being trucked out to Retail Stores we ship brown boxes via carriers directly to carriers. Thus we developed pallet in, box out. First it was only retail but now Third Party Sellers are responsible for 30 of the units sold through amazon and Many Services and many use the services to warehouse and fulfill orders of their goods. So now we receive not just pallets of goods, we also receive small brown boxes to be stored waiting for a customer to place an order for the goods. In some our warehouses which we call Fulfillment Centers support box in and box out. Last year Time Magazine illustrated this process and thank you madam chair for showing it here today. It begins deep inside of a truck trailer parked at the loading dock at a warehouse looking backwards as the trailer door is opened. There is sound for this. Here we go. Thank you. After we receive an item, it is stored awaiting a customer order. Those orange things are robots. They move shelves that way up to 750 pounds. Once a customer orders an items it retrieved and sent for packing. And then it is loaded on a truck for shipment. While we continue to improve the efficiency of operations within our facilities, we also have developed and invested in a more efficient way to hand off boxes to the u. S. Post office. Rather than giving them a bunch of boxes, we provide the usps groups of boxes all roughly going to the same location. This arrangement as well as amazons package volume benefits the usps but letting it make better use of facilities, equipment and personnel without incurring the costs of additional capacity if the up stream logistic network. But we and our partners an our customers need government to keep up by providing at quat funding innovative policies and balanced regulation. Thank you again for inviting me to testify. I look forward to your questions. Thank you very much. Mr. Fox, welcome. Thanks. Thank you very much for the opportunity. My name is greg fox. Im executive Vice President of operations for bnsf railway. What i would like to do today is walk through hout bnsf is improving safety and efficiency of our network. Bnsf is a large western rainfall. Over 32,000 route miles and 47,000 employees. My team runs the railroad. And in my 31 years ive seen safety improve year after year. In 2014 bnsf and the Rail Industry achieved betever safety results an you can see the trend over the last decade. Technology has clearly played a role in this success. While technology is the focus of todays hearing, investment in Rail Infrastructure and an in collusive Safety Culture for all bnsf employees are critical contributions as well to our safety results. Investment in maintenance and renewal of the rainfall, the orange bars on this chart, is an important piece of safety. The bnsf invest significant amounts of this kind of capital into the network to contribute to safe operations and to ensure reliability of our network for our customers. This is the largest component of our 6 billion of capital spend in 2015. The nations rail operations are basically 140,000 mile outdoor production line. This cope and complexity means that infrastructure and equipment sometimes fails. Or that human error can occur. Because of this, bnsf focuses on a riskbased initiative for all aspects of our operations. This slideshows the categories of incident causes an the examples of the Counter Measures we put in place to reduce risk. They are a combination of safety processes, as well as technology. While you are very familiar with the implementation of positive train control, i would like to share a brief video that illustrated the inspection and technology that we deploy on the railroad to produce safety benefits. They include track geometry vehicles. They utilize Optical Technology to monitor track geometry or the rails at one point or over a distance. Rail detect internal rail defects. Wheel temperature detectors that use infrared technology to see vision machines for defects and passing trains. Bnsf is deploying unmanned erik systems or drones for supplemental visual and track inspections in a variety of conditions. Earlier this year, we were one of three company as warded the Pathfinder Program status from integrity flights. The d. O. T. Has been valuable in advancing the Drone Technology in our safety program. All of these technologies, as you might expect, generate a tremendous amount of Technology Data and through advanced analytics is where we are headed next. We are working with ibm on a big daisa advanced initiative to take the information that we already use for to detect safety standard deviations to ultimately draw a further understanding of the factors that cause the deviations in the first place. Our goal is to drive proactive maintenance practices that ultimately prevent derailments from occurring. Lets take a look at one example. Ill walk you through how were improving rainfall equipment safety. You saw that in the video earlier. Bnsf has over 2,000 trackside detectors located along the 32,000 mile network. They continual lymon tor the over all Equipment Health of passing trains, using a combination of acoustic thermaging visions and other technologies. Thoed they identify defective equipment and addressing the defects as they are identified. Our goal is to move to a proactive and preventative type of response. Well go from focus on absolutely alarms, really to understanding composite alarms that tell us when a combination of factors have been combined in a way that an unsafe condition could occur. Big Data Analytics will allow us to monitor Equipment Health over time, over geography and across railroads and ultimately assist in extending asset life and improving capacity and safety. As you can see, the current breadth of technology an the potential here is tremendous, as long as we have a Regulatory Framework that encourages innovation. The technologies and the advanced analytics themselves are complex and evolving at a very fast pace. This means that the regulatory focus should be on safety out come s that they focus on producing. One of the most significant things that congress can do for us is make sure we have the right overall Regulatory Framework for railroads. If it does, the Railroad Industry will continue to support Risk Reduction and invest in infrastructure, maintenance and renewal. Thanks four your opportunity for your opportunity today to testify and i look forward to your questions. Thank you mr. Fox. Mr. Christensen, welcome. Madam chairman, members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. Technology will help us address the unprecedented challenges that are facing our industry which i believe are as revolutionary as the advent of containerization was 50 years ago. Big ships and ocean carrier alliances are gamechangers. Ill spend the next few minutes talking about specific technologies and strategies that were implementing to meet the challenges. Modernizing our infrastructure is the first strategy with a no port in the United States investing more than the port of long beach through the 4 billion Capital Improvement program. Our 1. 3 billion Middle Harbor terminal is the port of the future. It is the greenest, most sustainable container cargo terminal in the United States that can accommodate the worlds biggest, greenest ships, up to 22,000, 20 foot equivalents or teus. Middle harbor will strengthen us to compete against canada and mexico for the trade that sends cargo to every Congressional District in the United States and supports a million and a half american jobs. The terminal, by itself, it would be the fourth largest port in the nation. And it will boost the capacity at the port of long beach by 20 . Long shore jobs at the terminal will also be modernized and will shift to technical occupations, with long shore labor increasing over current levels when the terminal reaches the full capacity. Now these advanced technologies will help improve efficiency and reduce air pollution but also demand a great deal more electricity. So how will we deal with this increased demand for reliable electric power . The answer is our Energy Island initiative. A technologydriven strategy for transitioning energy at the port to resilient and sustainable selfgeneration systems an Renewable Power sources. So ive talked about the infrastructure or lets call it the hardware strategy. But what about the software . Well it will not be possible to meet the challenges we face without changing the way the port operates. Our joined our neighbor, the port of los angeles, in a federal maritime sanked joint Port Initiative that is aimed at enhancing the velocity and the reliability of shipments that come through the san pedro gateway and were making progress on this with the active involvement of stakeholders which include the full range of beneficial cargo owners, ocean carriers, Marine Terminal operators and licensed Motor Carriers that get this to destination, and chassis partyers and labor partners and management. Now a few things have already come out of this joint Port Initiative. The supply chain optimization is largely datadriven. The current highly proprietary and siloed supply chain suffered from inadequate data sharing. The San Pedro Bay port authorities are examining new roles to gather, filter and distribute reliable data to the benefit of the entire supply chain. Promising entrepreneurial software is also appearing and holding great potential. One example is software called cargo mattic, it operates on a smartphone. It is an uberlike application being used in the San Pedro Bay. And under the system, the Truck Drivers move from the ports to inland destinations much as a taxi driver would move passengers from an airport. And the u. S. Department of transportation freight advanced traveller Information System or fratis, is transferring information in realtime between vehicles and trucking operations so stay tuned for much more coming from the joint Port Initiative. In conclusion, our supply chain optimization efforts are heavily reliant on technology to meet the objectives the not only good, but world class fell osity and reliability. As local public agencies, the San Pedro Bay ports are shifting from the traditional landlord role to one of active supply chain participant. We hope to see the federal Government Support us in this new role by engaging with us and in setting effective Goods Movement policy that recognizes the value of sea ports and created infrastructure and Energy Funding that support the land and the water Side Investments required to accommodate much needed growth and internet trait. We look forward to working with our Forward Partners in this exciting venture. Thank you for your attention. I look forward to answering any questions. Thank you all very much. Well begin our round of questioning at this time. Miss alt, some research on the Autonomous Truck Market estim e estimates that by 2020 to 2022 were going to see level three autonomous truck technologies introduced in certain states. And at level three a driver is still required to be in the vehicle but the truck can be switched into an auto pilot mode when circumstances permit. When do you think that were going to see trucks equipped with that level three driving technology on american highways and can you go into it a little bit more on how that all works . You said that you read something about that it was going to be available in 2020. So we are so five years from now. And you said in certain states. Right. That is possible. There are states that have more flexible laws to allow for testing. The challenges of course, is the products we build go across the state so we need to have some sort of a federal standard. The technologies is leading the society. The tule for two vehicles to talk to each other, the lead truck or the pilot truck, leading the trucks behind it and that is your level three, that technology is not that far away in terms of the actual technology. The challenges then is how can it be accepted and what roads can it be driven on and are you comfortable in your vehicle with 160,000 pounds of freight moving beside you with a driver that is not they are in control but not fully in control. So i think that the technology is possible, but the societal changes will have to be much more alerted to us. And then also we need, again, a standard across the nations because our vehicles dont operate in one state at a time. I understand in the united king dom they have the least restrictive regulations with regard to the autonomous vehicles. Within the United Kingdom they are not restricted then by the boundaries, right . I dont think so. I dont know the answer to that fully. Sorry. It is my understanding they dont need special permits or even insurance in the United Kingdom to be able to do that. I know that Many Companies are planning on doing some testing in the United Kingdom on british roads for that reason specifically. What do you think we need to do here in the United States . Is it possible for the federal government to move federal with regulations if society is not ready for it, yet . So it is a balance. You dont want to be identifying which technology to use and put that into some sort of federal regulation. You want the market to establish that. But there it is a new world that were in. In the regulations, even putting terms like what is a driver, is the driver the system moving the vehicle, is the driver the guy or gal sitting behind the truck, or the driving wheel. What is the system. There is so many semantics that we have to think about differently as we put the legislation into place. What we have to look at differently is what can we do across all of the states so when we design these vehicles they can operate in all of the states. So we need standardization of simple things like the terminology, i think is one step. How close are we . Were a long way away from that. Mr. Fox, in january this Committee Heard testimony from the u. P. Regarding the importance of encouraging perform acebased standars in regulation. In performance standards they move government away from design based tandars toward a goal of Oriented Approach to achieving that outcome. For example the fra mandates that intervals between certain types of locomotive inspections. Do you believe that performancebased standards could help foster innovation and Technology Driven safety enhances better than the design based standars . Yeah. We absolutely believe performance based standars are the way we need to progress because they are focused more on the outcome versus the method. And by focusing on the out comes, were free to innovate with technology and process changes. Weve had great example of working with the safety regulator on performance based standards through waivers. The predecessor of the ptc system was an example of that on the bnsf. So it can work. And it can drive innovation, absolutely. And how effective have they been . Weve made some progress on waivers and at that same time going through the waiver process does take time and at times is pretty frustrating. Okay, thank you. Senator booker. Thank you, chairwoman. Miss alt, im concerned that you first of all im confident you and i share the same goals of increasing safety on the nations highways and i appreciate your work and the things your company does. But im really just kind of concerned when i read your written testimony. You refer to the legislation i introduced with senator rubio in it and i was pretty shocked at what i read. The wifi innovation act which is a bipartisan in both house and senate piece of legislation, the bill for those who read it, places time lines in and guidelines in place for the fcc to test the five digga percent 5 gigahertz testing and with you need more testing alone. I can understand why people in the industry want to attack this, as you did in your written testimony and maybe even mislead people because we have been sitting on this spectrum since 1990 and i want to be clear about what this bill does for you and others. For over a decade they are working on technology and at the same time radar sensors have evolved without using dedicated spectrum. Over a billion dollars of taxpayer Dollars Money has been spent on this r d and our bill simply asks for testing to see whether this limited resource this Precious Resource that you indicated, can be shared. It is a factfinding bill and that is all. It is not if it is not safe to share, i agree and the bill clearly said, there will be no sharing. But if it can be safely shared, now as other technologies are evolving, im sure people would agree it should be. So im disappointed in the portrayal of my and senator rubios legislation in your testimony. Im shocked, ive been in the senate for a short time but ive never seen something so clearly misleading in the senate. Im worked closely on stakeholders, from soekt fox to soekt fox to advanced safety and v to v technology and senator rubio and i were advocates of safety. Safety should come first. But im disappointed by the exaggerated tacts but the question is did you read the legislation. Yes or no. No. And you didnt read it but you say it wouldo up is a false statement. And that is very frustrating. And so encountering something that you know, when i was mayor i used to say in god we trust but everybody else bring me data. Bring me the facts. Everybody else wants to obscure that but the truth should come through. And so a factfinding bill that simply looks to understand what is the best way that we can achieve the safety goals that your company puts first that this senator and im sure the whole panel puts first. So my last question to you is i believe consumers should have all options on the table that should advocate safety and im wondering if you agree our transportation policy should be based should be technology neutral, should be about what is best to ensure that policy and safety dont lag behind the best cutting edge technology. Do you agree with that . Of course i agree with that. And may i respond to some of your comments then . You certainly may. Sure. I think were on the same page with that. The unlicensed wifi doesnt have a governance structure like a licensed frequency does and the ieee, which is the industrial electronic engineers group, that is the group that has put two proposals forward. They have not come to conclusion. Our position is that the legislation is premature. Miss alt, im sorry, your testimony to the United States senate doesnt say what you just said. It says and indicates you are against this bill because it would open up 5. 9 gigahertz frequency spectrum. Dwhats is not true and you agree with that. What the bill does when you read it which i hope you will is simply saying hey, lets have a fact finding endeavor that better understands the usage of the spectrum and the question, this is a precious asset, this is why i know your Company Wants to protect it, can it possibly be shared without infringing on safety . Thats all were looking to do. So attacking the bill on clearly false standings is insulting. My time has run out. Thank you, senator booker, i welcome senator nelson. Thank you, madam chairman. What about that, miss alt . What about what senator booker said . Well, weve come to an i agreement that we do not want to see that that spectrum is shared with other technologies until and unless the governing bodies are shower that there is no interference from other technology. Do you they technology is practical to basically the spectrum . Do you think the spectrum is practical to be used by the Automobile Industry any time in the near future . I dont know the answer to that. The position is can bit shared with other technologies . The governing bodies have not come to a conclusion after putting forward two proposals. There are 4,000 crashes no, there are 4,000 people that are killed each year from serious truck crashes. How would you suggest technology is used to lessen that . The far vehicles can speak to each other vehicle to vehicle, this is trucks talking to trucks and or trucks talking to cars, the more that they can say hey, im here that is a technology that can help reduce crashes. Over last week i met with a grieving mom whose daughter on her honeymoon when the traffic had stopped on interstate 95 and it had literally come to a stop and her new soninlaw and daughter in the traffic stopped but a truck with the driver not having had a lot of sleep because of his company reporting live from a round trip within the state of florida in the same day of 16 hours. The truck driver was basically sound asleep and so she is a grieving mom because of that truck plowing into the back of all of those stopped vehicles. How would you think technology could address the issue of truck im a morjs i would grieve with her, obviously. Thats horrible. There are electronic on board recording systems that would record the hours of service of that the driver can drive. Perhaps if there were a technology that would actually shut down the truck if you went beyond his hours could be something but requiring that trucks have these on board recorders, this technology is available and i believe its close to being legislated. Those are things that can help. And this particular truck was intrastate, not interstate. So what rules that we have up here, for example, we dont allow the tandem trucks in our rules more than 28 feet, but they are allowing two tandem trucks on intrastate, inside 0e state. Which is an issue that will be in front of this committee with regard to truck safety. Let me ask you, mr. Christensen, you all have accommodated the big ships from asia but when the panama canal is completed in its expansion theyll come to the east coast. Do you want to give any quick pointers what we could do that youve learned, Lessons Learned on handling those huge, huge container ships . Senator nelson, thank you for the question. They are a game changer but the term of big ship is a changing term. When i started working in the port about ten years ago, a big ship was 8,000 teus, in 2012, the port of long beach started handling 14,000 teu ships. About the same time the locks in the panama canal which are going into construction could accommodate a 13,000 teu ships. The ships were handling now will not fit in the new locks on the new panama canal. We are now ordering 20,000 teu ships, so its very much a moving target to our colleagues on the east coast, theyre already dealing with this with ships that are transiting the suez canal and it really has to do with depth of channel to get them there but once theyre there dealing with how those ships are stowed and how those ships are unloaded and that is exactly the focus of our joint working groups is to figure out a whole new way to operate our ports so that we can deal with a very large amount of relatively unsorted containers hitting us in ways weve never had to deal with before. The questions was what are the Lessons Learned that you can share with the other ports . The lessons were still learning senat senator, it these do with working closer with the steamship lines in putting more discipline in the stow waj of the vessels which has been put aside because of the way the vessels are calling on the asian ports and the way the shipping alliances are work ing working s to do much much more closely with the shipping of data which were finding siloed within the supply chain being able to provide a terminal ocb÷ operatoh information more than two days before that vessel hits their termin terminal. Im not sure we can tell too much more about how we deal with beyond that. Thank you for holding this hearing and the witness, mr. Mizer, in congratulations on 20 years, it seems like yesterday. I didnt hear in your testimony discussion about the drone issue from a Technology Perspective but clearly this committee, larger full committee has had testimony on that and its one area and mr. Christensen, loved everything that you said except for it would have been great of you if you had said it was about seattle tacoma instead of l. A. long beach. Still very happy to hear your description of the Economic Opportunity before the United States. That we actually can increase the cargo shipments because there is the demand and product to be shipped. Whether we have to continuously make improvements. This is something we see in seattle where somebody estimated instead three million cargo containers, it would be Something Like six. Its not out of the question. So youluzm described that that d be good for longshoremen even though youre making Technology Investments so were talking about both. Youre talking about efficiencies. So my question to you is even though were talking about only the that helps us move and be more knowledgeable about the product, we still need to make investments in freight mobility from a federal perspective to make sure those products are being moved around. Our technology isnt measuring stuck in congestion and then making us less competitive. Thank you for the congratulations. Ive only been here those 20 years. I think we are looking for innovative policies youve introduced a bill with senator booker. If anything, it could be broader. It could be applied to more than just multimodal freight but that kind of thinking and that kind of communication mr. Christensen mentioned communication of data. Theres also a need for communication among stakeholders and thats a big part of your bill is to get the stakeholders talking with one another, to figure out innovative solutions. We also have fans of communication of data as mr. Christensen mentioned. Thats something were doing with the u. S. Ps. Big component is making sure they get forecasts of what were seeing. What were going to be shipping and that is particularly important for sunday delivery. So they can use the most efficient way. Well, youre global and mr. Christensen has fixed costs so he mentioned the magic words as far as im concerned, panama and canada. And this is about competition so this is about if were going to make improvements necessary to move our product cost effectively or whether that business will go to canada or via the panama canal. Do you support further straight efforts at the federal level . Yes, and senator cant well as surely as were sitting here, as we see International Trade continue to increase, and we are now at levels that are peaking over the prerescission we will surely be seeing bottlenecks develop that are infrastructure related. The strategies are both structure efficiency and w technology infused along with operational efficiencies and i believe that the legislation youre proposing is timely, its critical to the future of our supply chain optization and we would hope the continue to collaborate with you and your team. Recognizing that infrastructure bottlenecks dont go away a year after you recognize them, it takes years and years of focus and funding and policy to make them to zoll thesolve these bottlenecks as they come up. Your testimony, i appreciated it because you describe what the future opportunity was and that it was Growth Opportunity in jobs as well, not just in automation. How do you think we tell the story on a National Basis . Is this data that the supply chains from other ports have . Its data but fractured data. Its important to make this transparent. We have challenges ahead of us. Were working on those in our working groups and joint port effort as seattle and tacoma has worked very hard on their joint port efforts as well and we benchmark whats going on up there closely. So there are opportunities but a lot of opportunities ahead of us but work to be done. Thank you madam chair. Thank you. Senator klobuchar . Thank you to the witnesses. Thank you for holding this hearing. Mr. Fox, 2013 Government Accountability Office Report found that the fra faces a lot of challenges, rail safety challenges, including the fact the inspectors only have the capacity to inspect less than 1 of all railroad activities. I come from a state where we are a bit of an entry point for oil from canada as you know so weve had an enormous increase in rail and accompanying derailments. And as you know, the fra partners with states to oversee the inspection of signal, tracks and mechanical operations and in april i sent a letter to the Appropriations Committee urging increased funding for more rail inspectors. Id like to hear more about what technology bnsf uses to prevent derailments. Do you think theres Better Technology that could get us through this. I think weve shown as an industry and bnsf weve leveraged and continue to Leverage Technology and the results have clearly been best ever safety results last year from a safety and derailment perspective. Beyond that, though, theres opportunity. Theres tremendous opportunity. Again i think as we talk about regulation part of our challenge today is regulation based on design standard and as we look at focus on outcome, again, i think that will allow the industry to innovate innovate with technology, with process change. And how would what kind of technology would help with this . As we look forward, as i mention in my testimony, i think this Drone Technology very early in practice has a real potential. This Pathfinder Program with faa will move beyond line of sight so where we could utilize drones to travel along our private 32,000 mile network for hundreds of miles a day, taking high speed images, High Definition images of our network down to a quarter inch accuracy. Postprocessing that data will help us understand exceptions. Okay. I was in the last week up in international fall, minnesota. This is not a Burlington Northern issue where a i thought i was in trouble. [ laughter ] its where a bridge collapsed, a small railroad bridge, but it happens to be near minnesota. Its if biggest entry point on the canadian boarder into the u. S. And its right by international falls, which is the larger town. And so one of the things we talked about in addition to some issues, this was a Canadian National rail issue and negotiation the bridge collapsing and the workers not allowing us the issue was theyve been having grade crossing issues there. Eight to ten hours a day the trains are in the middle of the town so you can imagine thats a lot of time and people have to drive around the town. So what i wonder is, even though this is not a Burlington Northern issue, is that the Railroad Safety institute at the university of minnesota is studying train delays to more accurately estimate train arrival times at grade crossings and one of the things the mayor said is that they could have a signal for the people as theyre deciding to take the two and a half mile route if trains were on the tracks before they made that decision with some technology so that it would empower drivers to know what to do, that would be helpful. I wonder if you had any ideas about that crossing issue. I just did an amendment on the rail bill we just passed through on this issue and it was brought home to me this week why i did it. I think when we talk about federal funds supporting freight prorjs great separations clearly needs to be part of that. Weve been active in those with grade separations. I also think when were talking about train headlights, we also have to talk about taillights and looking at the complete equation. But more federal funding for grade separation seems to be part of the answer. And this side tracks, is that that was another thing they brought is up if the trains could wait somewhere else and i think theyre building one then they wouldnt be waiting in the middle of the town. We all have requirements about how long we can block crossings. Youve been very ive called about a number of issues which ive appreciated so thank you. And madam chair, one more question on distracted driving. Right now only one state received our funding for the distracted driving grant which we would really like to have changed. It was a ton of money sitting there and we have emerging problems and thats why the senator and i have sponsored a bill with senator booker to change some of the criteria so we can get that money to the states for education efforts on distracted driving. Its called the improving Driver Safety act and i thought id ask you, ms. Alt, on what kinds of technology we know that drivers are doing things they should dont in the cars. A lot of them have admitted to this in surveys and its killing people to the point where weve had, you know, 424,000 people injured in 2013 and more than 3,000 People Killed that we know of from distracted driving. And, again, these are individuals making decisions on their own. But are there any technologies you think from the Car Companies that could be helpful with this . I can speak not the Car Companies. The group that im with, we dont make cars, we make everything but cars. I can speak from the heavyduty truck side and that is where we have alerts that are built in for a driver to wake them up if their eyes begin to dim and its through either some sort of vibration in the seat or some loud sound. So, you know, its thats from a heavyduty perspective. And, of course, then theres lots of regulations because theyre commercial drivers about what theyre allowed and not allowed to do regular or thely behind the wheel. Okay, well, i think as we know and i appreciate your words on trucks, but this is an issue for all vehicles as we try to figure out if theres anything to create shutdown of technology when people are in a car so they stop doing it or when someone is driving that they stop doing it because its a growing problem. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, senator klobuchar. Were going to have a second round of questions in case any other senators are still trying to get here to the Committee Hearing and i would like to begin with mr. Meissner. First of all, on your video, if you could have had the teddy bear delivered to nebraska or new jersey, that would have been a great ending for little guy. Were happy to do cameos if you would like us to be hug give ago teddy bear at the end of the video. We can do this. Were multitalented up here. As we look at more efficient Logistic Networks out there, how do you think that that will benefit consumers . Thank you, madam chair very much. The improvement of Logistics Infrastructure along with the more broad transportation infrastructure is very important to consumers because it affects how they receive the goods they Purchase Online and on behalf of our customers, weve been trying to improve this for at least 20 years and automation has always been a big part of the amazon solution to this challenge. And increasing automation is going to be very help to feel making sure consumers get the goods when they need them. But they have a choice and thats what weve tried provide them weve talked about drones. Drones was the only way we figured out how to get goods to consumers in less than 30 minutes but for longer period of time s there are many alternatives and we are also offering customers a slow delivery alternative that gives them additional benefits if theyre willing to accept it wherever it comes so if youre ambivalent to whether it comes in two days or two weeks, then its they can get an additional benefit from us. So its all about providing customers the choice and this applies more broadly to american consumers. Thank you very much. Senator booker . Mr. Misener how i would love to talk with you about droens. It has transformative possibility bus sadly im coming back down to earth to talk about trucks. Your testimony recommends the use of ten feet longer trucks known as twin 33s. The department of transportation recently came out with a study showing it takes these trucks about 22 feet longer to stop. The length thats a car length and a half. The larger and heavier trucks are greater are the greater destruction with where the greater destruction occurs when accidents happen so i have a couple questions on that. One, is has your company done an analysis of the impact of safety . How will these longer trucks impact the crashes . The number of crashes and fatalities . So weve been persuaded by the carrier wes work with senator that the 33foot trucks are going to be safer because there will be fewer of them on the road driving fewer miles any policy choice like this is a balancing of factors, i totally get that. Im not sure theres particular magic to 33 over say 32 over 34 or particular magic to the current number which is 28. Were trying to find a solution to will improve efficiencies for sure and that can be done but at the same time if we can drive down the number of miles that are driven and the number of trucks on the road, thats a safety improvement. Were persuaded the right balance was the increase in length without increasing the weight capacity, the total weight of the trucks because the weight, of course, is what goes into the inertia or kinetic energy. The weight times velocity is inertia. And i appreciate that, safety should be the first but its also the impact on infrastructure as swollen to with those heavier trucks, would they tear up more local roads . We dont support heavier trucks, to be clear. Our support is for a longer truck. Not increasing the weight limits at all so increasing the length of the truck should not affect the infrastructure adversely. It can help it. While going over a bridge, for example, the weight is less concentrated and therefore easier on the bridge. I appreciate that. Lastly, really quickly, another balancing act is you want greater safety but you want to see what the necessary the least necessary burden on businesses and how they operate. So the big issue of minimum insurance is one that i have some concerns about and id love for you to give me your thoughts. With the truck size and weight we realize that the trucks are getting bigger, causing bigger accidents as well over the last 20, 30 years and the minimum insurance has not been raised since the 1980s. So im wondering, do you think that there is a needed minimum assurance level increase or at least pegging it somehow thats elevated regularly on an ongoing basis . Senator, it seems reasonable to me. I mean, the carriers that we use are the ones who are going to be directly affected by that. We dont want our products traveling over problematic or difficult carriers so im not sure i have the direct answer for you simply because that wouldnt be directly affecting us at this point. Thank you very much. You can meet me out by the capitol with the drone if youd like. Thank you senator booker, i would like to announce that the hearing record will remain open for two weeks and during that time senators are asked to submit questions. Upon receipt, the witnesses are requested to submit their written answers to the committee as soon as possible. I would like to thank the witnesses for being here today and i thank my colleagues who attended the hearing. Thank you. We are adjourned. Wednesday between 1 00 and 8 00 p. M. On cspan 3, programs on Constitutional Rights will begin with two panels hosted by the National Constitution center on First Amendment questions in todays world. Followed by a debate on campaign finance. Then senators Patrick Leahy of vermont and rand paul of kentucky at an awards ceremony hosted by the constitution project. Today on cspan 3, programs about technology. Coming up next, author larry downs on Disruptive Innovation as a result of the digital revolution. Then a discussion on the impact of technology on the u. S. Economy and the work force former treasury secretary Larry Summers is among the speakers. After that, a hearing on new technologies to improve the safety and efficiency of the nations Transportation Systems. Officials from volvo, amazon, bnsf railway and the port of long beach testify before the Senate Commerce committee. Author larry downs says we are now in the Second Generation of disrupted innovation as a result of the digital revolution. Soon everything from our home they are stat, drier, car and door locks will communicate with each other in the sensor revolution. He joined Communications Consultant Robin Murdoch and author sean dubravik about Data Collections and electronics at the Churchill Club in san jose, california. Welcome everyone. Im the chief economist for the Consumer Electronics n, possibly best known as the producer of a small little trade show in las vegas called the international cs. Were just off our biggest year, almost 50 years of history. 2. 2 million square feet, 170,000 of your nearest and dearest friends so im sure well be talking about that today and this is my