RECORD OF MEETING

FREIGHT TASK FORCE

 

DATE/TIME/PLACE:  Monday, April 24, 1995; 2 PM; CDTC Offices, Colonie

ATTENDANCE:  Dick Corp (NYSTA), Ted Thompson and Dick Carlson (NYSDOT Region One), Tom Magliocca (Port), Denny Cotrell (NYSDOT Commercial Transport), Carl Belke (CP Rail Systems), Kristina Younger (CDTC)

 

DISCUSSION SUMMARY: Status Reports:  Contact with new New York State Motor Truck Association Director, Daniel McCormack has yielded a commitment to participation in ongoing CDTC goods movement planning activities.  The Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce is also going to be reviving its Transportation Committee in the near future, and has requested ongoing coordination with CDTC efforts to prevent duplication of efforts.  EZPass on the Thruway is now being implemented.  It is expected, after start-up glitches are resolved, that this will significantly help with toll collection-related delays.

 

Traffic Primer:  Review of the Scenic Hudson Traffic Primer that the Arterial Corridor Management task force will be using as a basis for a Capital District-specific manual occured.  Major points included:

 

*          Primer does not adequately address truck delivery concerns.  In general, the deliveries need to be planned for through site design considerations.  The conceptual site plan on page 20 was cited as inadequately considering truck access, in particular.

*          In general, truck deliveries, particularly at retail establishments, need to be physically separated from passenger activity, particularly transit vehicles.  This is NOT necessarily in conflict with access management concepts, such as shared driveways.  It really is more of an architectural and site layout concern -- providing an adequate number of loading docks for anticipated deliveries, adequate pavement to allowing backing up into delivery areas without blocking streets, and adequate height/width of loading bays for the size of trucks that will be making deliveries.

*          The provision of service roads in commercial areas was strongly supported.  Commercial parking (loading zones) provision in more dense urban areas was also emphasized as needing more attention.

*          There was a debate about truck size that should be provided for.  There was an argument that there is a limit to how accommodating local facilities should be for large vehicles.  The counter argument regarding trends in the industry and changes in the trucking industry that have lead to the use of larger vehicles (driver shortage, etc...) was also presented.

 

Additional resources on desirable accomodations for truck delivery access should be located (UPS Foundation, ATA Foundation, TRB Freight Community, ITE) and forwarded to the Arterial Corridor Management task force together with these comments.

 

Roundtable Evaluations and Results:  Draft report was reviewed and corrections and edits were offered.  The conclusion offered on page 19 were supported.  A suggested re-working of the Vision Statement to incorporate Roundtable feedback was discussed and endorsed.  The discussions of intermodal connections highlighted the need to have more input from shippers (as opposed to carriers), differing public/private roles in providing such connections, and the importance of the lack of downstate linkages to the volume of freight moving through the Capital District.

 

When forwarding the results to Roundtable participants, the main point to emphasize is the influence that the Roundtable is having on policy and the importance of ongoing participation.

 

ACTION ITEMS:

*    NEXT MEETING:  Monday, May 22, 1995, 2 - 4:30 PM, CDTC Offices.  Agenda to include:  Re-worked vision statement, actions/strategies discussion, performance measures, plan for ongoing industry involvement

*    Kristina to forward Traffic Primer concerns to Arterial Corridor Management Task Force, together with any industry resources on access and site design that can be found.

*    Kristina to re-do Vision Statement, reflecting discussion points.