Speaking before the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee's Subcommittee on Highways & Transit yesterday, Mullings said weakening current law would devastate more than 97,000 businesses that operate at the exits along the [image-nocss] nation's interstate system while threatening 2.2 million jobs and slashing funding for county governments.
Click here to read an exclusive CSP report on how truckstops and travel centers operating on exits off interstate highways are facing their biggest threat in nearly a decade.
"It is deceptively easy to mistake this issue as a pro-business initiative, a move to privatize rest area services," Mullings testified. "But this is not privatization. True privatization is transferring a service or function from the government to a private-sector business to achieve comparable or superior results. The government is not in the business of selling food and fuel; the private sector is already meeting that need. This is a move to expand government, at a cost to businesses, county governments and consumers."
Congress outlawed commercial activities at interstate rest areas to foster competition and the growth of local communities near the Interstate Highway System. Today, this policy continues to promote a vigorous competitive environment. In the few states that operate commercial rest areas, there are 50% fewer businesses at interstate exits, according to a University of Maryland study.
Commercial rest areas drain local businesses of customers, jobs and local tax revenues by putting established businesses in direct competition with the state. Commercialized rest areas give the state an advantageous location on the interstate right-of-way, siphoning away customers who normally patronize exit-based businesses.
Click here to read Mullings' full testimony.
Click here for more hearing details.
NATSO, founded in 1960 as the National Association of Truck Stop Operators, is the trade association of America's travel plaza and truckstop industry. It represents the industry on legislative and regulatory matters; serves as the official source of information on the diverse travel plaza and truckstop industry; provides education to its members; conducts an annual convention and trade show; and supports efforts to generally improve the business climate in which its members operate.
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