GAO Reports Calls for Better Identification of Air Cargo Infrastructure Issues
A Government Accountability Office report released July 23 recommends that the Department of Transportation office handling multimodal freight infrastructure get better at identifying infrastructure needs and policy changes that affect the air cargo movements.
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The report, "DOT Should Communicate Data Limitations and Identify Stakeholder Challenges," focuses specifically on air cargo infrastructure, although it acknowledges the involvement DHS has in handling air cargo via the Transportation Security Administration and CBP.
DOT's Office of Multimodal Freight Infrastructure and Policy "has not used existing information, such as freight plans that states share with DOT, to identify challenges. Additionally, the office has not communicated with air cargo stakeholders to understand challenges they face. Doing so would help DOT determine whether it needs to act to help address challenges," the report said.
Multimodal Freight Office officials said they plan to reach out to stakeholders within the next year, according to the report.
GAO's two recommendations for DOT are: to ensure that Bureau of Transportation Statistics leadership fully assesses the reliability of air cargo data in the Freight Analysis Framework and National Transportation Atlas Database and communicates the limitations of the data; and to ensure that the assistant secretary for multimodal freight infrastructure and policy evaluates existing sources of information and routinely communicates with air cargo stakeholders so that challenges to the efficient movement of cargo can be identified and potentially addressed.
While the report focuses on transportation infrastructure, it noted that infrastructure can affect the ability to move cargo for CBP inspection. It gave an example of CBP's planned implementation of a central examination station at one airport that has garnered mixed reactions. While officials have said the planned central examination station could improve cargo screening efficiency, a stakeholder said the planned station "was across the large airfield from the airport’s planned location for new cargo warehouses. They said this distant location would slow operations, because ground handlers would have to tug cargo to and from the station for screening," the GAO report said.