Even how we hail a cab. We have opportunities to dramatically reduce Public Safety, address infrastructure problems in creative new ways. The federal government can be a key player in helping to advance and utilize the developing technologies. Lets take a look at safety. While trafficrelated fatalities injuries 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 system. Our country has already invested billions in interstate highways, bridges, rails and ports. Technology can help us to get more out of what weve already built. Today, there are exciting marketready proving solutions to make our roads safer. From automatic breaking, dispensers and even Autonomous Cars and drones. Advancements in taking control of a vehicle if it drifts out of their lane, with stopped traffic ahead. Technology with enable a smartphone using realtime information to suggest to a driver the best time to hit the road for a commute or family trip or direct the driver to the nearest available onstreet parking place, something we need in washington. Harnessing the technology will not only save time and fuel, it will reduce Traffic Congestion for everybody on the road. Something that drivers in my state and the northeast know all too well. It can improve the efficiency of our rail and port facilities. It is critical how we plan for the future and make the best use of these technologies. I look forward to hearing from our Witnesses Today and about how the federal government can help existing businesses thrive. How the federal government can be a worldwide leader, help us to be a worldwide leader innovation, an advance not saw in transformative innovation. Thank you. Thank you, senator booker. I would like to welcome our first panel of Witnesses Today. We have ms. Susan alt, the Senior Vice President of public affairs. Vice president of Global Public policy amazon, mr. Gregory fox, executive Vice President of operations, bnsf railway and mr. Michael christianson, Senior Executive lead supply chain. Chairman fisher, Ranking Member booker and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to be here today to talk about new Transportation Technologies and how to improve the safety and efficiency in our network. And the role that the federal government plays in either facilitating or hindering that development. The volvo group is the world leader in sustainable transportations. We build stuff that makes the roads and we build stuff that uses the roads. In the u. S. We produce heavy trucks. Volvo construction equipment, marine engines and novo transit buses. We have more than 12,000 u. S. Employees with nine manufacturing facilities in six states. And our goal is zero accidents. We learned a comment today from a heavy duty trucking implement. Buyers of heavy duty trucks today can have technology that keep the drivers and others safer. Things like warning departure systems, or braking. But on the drivers, we see tests to vehicle and v to eye technologies. Messages for v to v and eye applications are sent on the 5. 9 g gigahertz radio system. In 1999 the government got it right when it set aside and protected this frequency for only safetyrelated communications. But in 2013, the fcc also proposed to support wifi users. Proposals have been provided, but no consensus reached. The concern is that it could create a lag or latency in saving lifesaving communication signals. So let me clarify. Lets say vehicle number one is approaching an investigation with a green light. But the view is blocked by a building. Using the application, the driver in vehicle number one can be alerted to the oncoming vehicle number two that is not slowing down. And it will allow the collision to be avoided. If there is in latency, for example, wifi user watching the video the accident likely would not be avoided. So until a solution is found for spectrum sheering, we want it to remain dedicated for safetyrelated applications only. An example of vehicle to infrastructure is the roadside weight and inspection stations where trucks stop along the interstate to wait in long lines that can create potential hazards. The volvo grip has already demonstrated Technology Using v to eye communications, protocols from the truck to the weigh station that allows moving trucks to wirelessly communicate to the station. Such as if the weight is below the limit or the driver is wearing a seat belt it keeps those trucks moving and allows authorities to focus on the condition of other trucks that have not been validated in a program we call trust to trust. Let me emphasis the talk of the town, Automated Technology or autonomous vehicles, using the technology. We think the area is very interesting but caution our pace and implementation will be set how safely it can be adapted to the vehicle, to the infrastructure and society. Platooning is one example of Automated Technology. This is where there is a lead or pilot truck, wirelessly linked to a truck following behind it. Providing for Transportation Technology or path are in the process of implementing a twotruck demonstration at slow speeds that will be extended to three trucks in 2016. Fullscale demonstration has yielded 10 fuel efficient gains because of the reduced air drag. Were developing technologies because of the potential to enhance safety and increased productivity. Increasing the speed of adoption where the technologies could be achieved if we eliminated 12 federal excise taxes added to the new truck and offsets the added fuel tax. Another challenge is the product rolls across state lines. Different states are developing different regulations to promote autonomous testing. With uncertain funding for the u. S. Transportation surface transportation system, adoption of these new technologies will allow us to move increasing amount of freight for a growing population. But it wouldnt solve all of our passenger problems and it doesnt let congress off the hook to do its job in providing federal funding and passing a longterm surface transportation bill. Thank you for the opportunity to testify to you today. I look forward to questions. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you, madam chair, thank you for having me. They began selling on line 20 years ago in july 1995. Our challenge was to create a new form of warehousing where truckloads of pallets of greats would be stored. We would ship brown boxes via carriers directly to customers. Thus we developed pallet in, box out. At first the sales through our website were only at retail. But now Third Party Sellers are only responsible for the sales sold through amazon. And many use our services to warehouse and fulfill orders to their goods. So now we receive not just pallets of goods, we also receive orders waiting for the customers to replace the goods. In some offices they now support box in and box out. Last december, Time Magazine produced a video illustrating this process. And thank you, madam chair for showing it here today. It begins deep inside a truck trailer, parked at the loading dock at one of our warehouses, looking backwards as the trailer door is opened. There is sound for this. There we go. Thank you. After we receive an item it is stored, waiting for a customer order. Those orange things are robots. They move shelves to up to 750 pounds. Once a customer orders an item it is retrieved and sent for packing. And then it is loaded on a truck for shipping. While we continue to improve the efficiency of operations within our facilities we also developed and invested in an efficient way to handle offboxes at the u. S. Federal service. Rather than giving a stack of boxes we developed a center that produced groups of boxes all going to roughly the same location. This method benefits the usps by letting it make better use of its facilities without incurring the cost of the additional capacity. Of course we and our partners and ultimately our customers need government to keep up by providing adequate funding, innovative policies and balanced regulation. Thank you for inviting me to testify. I look forward to your questions. Thank you, mr. Fox, welcome. Thank you very much for the opportunity. My name is greg fox. Im the executive Vice President of operations for bnsf railway. What i want to do today is walk through bnsf to show how technology is improving our efficiency and networking. It is a large western railroad, over 32,000 miles and over 47,000 employees. My team runs with the railroad. And in my 31 years at the railroad, i have seen improved safety. In 2013, we achieved the best ever safety results. You can see the trend that we achieved over the last decade. Technology has clearly played a role in the success. While the technology is the focus of todays hearing, the investment in Rail Infrastructure and the inconclusiinclusive safety. They invested significant amounts of this type of capital into our network to contribute to Safety Operations as well as to ensure the 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 scope and complexity means that infrastructure and equipment sometimes fails or that human error can occur. Because of this, bnsf focuses on a risked based initiative for all aspects of our operations. This shows the measures and countermeasures that we put in place. There are complicated processes as well as technology. While youre very familiar with the implementation of positive train control i would now like to share a brief video that illustrates the numerous other inspections and technologies that we deploy on the railroad. These vehicles utilize electronic and operations. Where the relationships of the rails at one point are over a distance. The detection systems that detect the internal rail defects. Temperature detectors that use infrared technology to identify the Barrel Technology and the Machine Systems that inspect the cars for defects and passing trains. Now, deploying Unmanned Aircraft systems for supplemental bridge, track and a variety of conditions. Also earlier this year we were one of three Companies Awarded the Pathfinder Program status for faa extended range track integrity flights. The dot has been a valuable partner for advancing our safety program. All of these technologies as you might expect generate a tremendous amount of inspection data. Leveraging this data through advanced analytics is where were headed next. Bnsf is currently working on an advantaged initiative to take the information we already use to detect safety standard deviations to understanding what caused them in the first place. Our goal is to drive proactive maintenance practices that ultimately prevent derailments from occurring. Well walking through one to learn how to use the advanced safety. You saw the equipment in the videos earlier. Bnsf currently has two trackside detectors located along our 32,000 mile network. They continually monitor the Overall Health of passing trains, using a combination of thermal, vision and other technologies. Today, these systems identified defective equipment and actions to address these actions. Our goal is to move to a more proactive preventive type of response. We go from alarms to really understanding composite alarms that tell us when a combination of factors that are combined in such a way to monitor equipment health, over geography and across railroads and ultimately assist in extending asset life, improve will capacity and safety. As you can see, the current breadth of technology and the potential here is tremendous as long as we have a Regulatory Framework that encourages innovation. The technologies and the advanced analytics themselves are very complex and evolving at a very fast pace. This means that the regulatory focus should be on the safety outcomes they focus on producing. One of the most significant Things Congress can do for us is ensure that we have the right Regulatory Framework for railroads. If it does, it will continue to Deploy Technology in support of Risk Reduction and invest adequately in maintenance renew al. Thank you for allowing me to testify today. I look forward to your questions. Thank you, mr. Fox. Mr. Christensen, welcome. Madam chair man, 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 advent of containerization was years ago. Big ships and ocean carrier lineses are game changers. Ill spend the next few minutes talking about specific technologies and strategies that were implementing to meet these challenges. Modernizing our infrastructure is the first strategy. No port in the United States is investing more than the port of long beach in our 4 billion Capitol Improvement program. 1. 3 billion Middle Harbor term knoll is the port of the future. Its the greenest, most sustainable container cargo terminal in the United States that can accommodate the worlds biggest, greenest ships up to 22,000 20foot equivalents or teus. Middle harbor will strengthen our ability 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 this terminal by itself would be the fourth largest port in the nation. And it will boost the capacity for 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 actually increasing over current levels when the terminal reaches full capacity. Now, these advanced technologies will help improve efficiency and help reduce air pollution, but they will 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. The technologydriven strategy for transitioning energy at the port to resilient and sustainable selfgeneration systems and Renewable Power sources. So ive talked about the infrastructure or lets call it the hardware strategy. But what the software . Well, it will not be possible to meet the challenges we face without changing the way the port operates. We have joined our neighbor, the port of los angeles, in a Federal Maritime Commission sanctioned joint Port Initiative that will be aimed at enhancing the velocity and the reliability of shipments that come through the San Pedro Bay gateway. And were making progress on this active with the active involvement of stakeholders, which include the full range of benefit cardinal owners, ocean carriers, Marine Terminal operators, licensed Motor Carriers that take it to the destination, chassis, railroad partners, labor and management. Now, a few things have already come out of this joint Port Initiative. The supply chain optimization will largely be data driven. The current highly proprietary and silo supply chain suffers from an in adequate data sharing. 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 a software called cargomatic. It operates on a smartphone. It is an uberlike operation. It is being used as a pilot study in San Pedro Bay. They move containers to inland port as much as as taxi driver would move passengers from an airport. U. S. Department of transportations freight advanced traveler Information System or fratis is showing great promise in transferring information in realtime between Marine Terminals and trucking operations. So stay tuned for much more that will be coming from this joint Port Initiative. In conclusion, our supply chain optimization efforts are all heavily relying on technology in order to meet our objectives of not only good but world class velocity and reliability. As local public agencies, san bead row bay ports are shifting from 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 by creating infrastructure and Energy Funding that support the land and the water Side Investments required to accommodate much needed growth in International Trade. We look forward to working with our federal partners in this exciting venture. Thank you for your attention, and i look forward to answering any questions. Thank you all very much. We will begin our round of questioning at this time. Ms. Alt, some research on the autonomous truck estimates that by 2020 to 2022 we will see level 3 autonomous truck technologies introduced in certain states. A at level 3, drivers still are required to be in the vehicle. But the truck can be switched is into an autopilot mode when circumstances permit. When do you think that were going to see trucks equipped with that level 3 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 that it was going to be available in 2020. So we are it says five years from now. And you said in certain states. Right. Thats possible. There are states that have more flexible laws to allow for testing. The challenge of course, the products we build go across the state. So we really need to have some sort of federal standard. The Technology Actually is leading the society. The technology for two vehicles to talk to each other where the lead truck or the pilot truck is leading the trucks behind it, and thats your level 3. That technology is not that far away in terms of the actual technology. The challenge is then how can it be accepted, which roads can it be driven on. And are you going to be comfortable in your vehicle with 160,000 pounds of freight moving inside you with a driver thats not theyre in control but theyre not fully in control. So i think that the technology is possible but the society al changes will have to be alerted to us. And well need a standard across the nation because our vehicles dont operate in one state at a time. I understand in the United Kingdom they have the least restrictive regulations with regard to the autonomous vehicles. Within the United Kingdom, theyre not restricted, then, by the boundaries, right . I dont think so. I dont know the answer to that fully. Sorry. Do they its my understanding they dont need special permits or even special 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 forward with regulations if society is not ready for it yet . Yeah. So its a balance, isnt it . You dont want to be forcing or identifying which technology to use and then putting that into some sort of federal regulation. You want the market to establish that. But its a new world that were in. In the regulations, even putting terms like what is a driver. Is the driver the system thats moving the vehicle . Is the driver the guy or gal sitting behind the truck or the driving wheel. What is a system. There are so many semantics we have to think about as we put the legislation into place. What we have to do differently is look at what can we do across all the states so that 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. Okay. Mr. Fox, in january this Committee Heard testimony from the u. P. Regarding the importance of performancebased standards in regulation. In performance standards they move government away from designbased standards towards 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 advances better than the designbased standards . Yeah. We absolutely believe performancebased standards are the way we need to progress. Because performancebased standards are really focused more on the outcome versus the method. By focusing on the outcomes, were fry to innovate with technology or process changes. We have had some great examples of working with our safety regulator on performancebased standards through waivers. The predecessor of the ptc system was an example of that on the bnsf. So it can work. It can drive innovation, absolutely. And how effective have they been . We have made some progress on waivers. And at the same time, going through the waiver process does take time. And at times it is pretty frustrating. Thank you. Senator booker . Thank you, chairwoman. Ms. Alt, im concerned that you first of all, im confident you and i share the goals, the same goals of increasing safety on the nations highways. I appreciate your work and i appreciate the things your company does. Im just really kind of concerned when i read your written testimony. You refer to the legislation i intruced with senator rubio in it. And i was actually pretty shocked at what i read. The wifi act, which is bipartisan in both house and senate piece of legislation or bill for those who read it places timelines and guidelines in place for the fcc to test the 5 gigahertz spectrum band in consultation with the department of transportation. Some of the testing has already happened. Were excite build that. But our bill provides further structure for testing alone. I can understand why a lot of people in the industry want to attack, as you did in your written testimony, and maybe even mislead people. Because the industry has been sitting on this spectrum since 1990. I want to be clear what this bill does for you and for others. For over a decade, the industry has been working on new technology while at the same time other technologies using radar sensors radars and sensors have evolved without using dedicated spectrum. Over a billion dollars in tax payer 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. Its not if its not safe to share, i agree. And the bill clearly says there will be no sharing. But if it can be safely shared, now other technologies are evolving, im sure people will agree it should be. So im disappointed in the portrayal of my and senator rubios legislation in your testimony. Im shocked. Ive only been in the senate a short time. But i have never seen something so misleading in the shore time ive been in the senate. I worked closely with stakeholders across the board, secretary fox to advance safety, and supporters of the v to v technology. Safety should come first. But im disappointed by these exaggerated attacks. Did you read our legislation, yes or no . No. So if you didnt read the legislation, but you open this up, that is not true. That is a false statement. And that is very frustrating. 6 and so when i have mayor i said in god we trust. But everybody else bring me data. Bring me facts. Everybody wants to obscure them. But the truth should come through. But the factfinding bill that looks at what is the best way to achieve the safety goals that your company puts first, this senator and im sure the whole panel puts first. So im just curious, 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 Technology Neutral . It should be about what is best to ensure that policy and safety dont lag behind the best cuttingedge technology. Do you agree with that . Of course i agree with that. Okay. So, again and may i respond to some of your comments then . You certainly may. So 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, the industrial electronic engineers group, that is the group that has put two proposals forward. They have not come to conclusion. So our position is that the legislation is simply premature. Ms. Alt, im sorry. I can believe your testimony that you submitted to the United States senate, which doesnt say what you just said. It indicates that you are against this bill because it would and i quote, it would open up 5. 9 gigahertz frequency spectrum. That is not true. And you have agreed with that. What the bill, and i hope you read it, is saying is lets have a factfinding in defer that better understands the usage of this spectrum. Can it poeubl be shared without infringing on safety. So attacking the bill on clearly false standings is insulting. My time has run out. Thank you, senator booker. I welcome our Ranking Member today from the committee, senator nelson. Thank you, madam chair man. What about it, ms. Alt. What about what senator booker said . We do not want to see the spectrum shared with other technologies until and unless the governing bodies are sure there is no interference from other technology. Do you think that 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, if it can be shared. Thats really the position is can it be 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 more that vehicles can speak to each other, vehicle to vehicle, this is trucks talk to go trucks and or trucks talk to go cars, the more that they can talk to each other to let the other one know, hey, im here, you need to stop, that is a technology to 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 literally had come to a stop. And her new soninlaw and daughter were in the traffic stopped but a truck with the driver not having had a lot of sleep because of his company requiring a round trip 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 Driver Safety . Yeah, thats a great question. Im a mom. I would grieve with her. Obviously thats horrible. There are electronic on board recording systems that would record the hours of service that a driver can drive. Perhaps if there were a technology that would shut down the truck if he went beyond his hours possibly. But having the trucks have these onboard recorders. This technology is available. And i believe its close to being ledge slated. Those are things that can help. And this particular trust was intrastate not interstate. So what rules 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 the state, of 33 feet. 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. And soon, in a year or two when the panama is complete indeed its expansion, they will come to the east coast. 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. It is doctor they are a game changer. But the term of big ship is a changing term. When i started working in the port about 10 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 new locks in the panama canal were going into construction, which can accommodate a 13,000 teu ship. The ships were handling now in the San Pedro Bay ports will not fit in the new locks on the new panama canal. We are customers at the port of long beach are now ordering 20,000 teu ships. So it is a very much a moving target to our colleagues on the east coast. They are 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 the 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 coming across the wharf and hitting us in ways we have never had to deal with before. The question was, what are the Lessons Learned that you could share with the other ports . The lessons were still learning, senator. And they really have to do with having adequate supplies of chassises, which has to do with an inneroperable chassis pool. It has to do with working closer with the steamship lines in closer with the steamship lines and putting more discipline in their stowage of the vessel. And the way the shipping alliances are working. It has to do with working much, much more closely with the communication of data which were again finding extraordinarily siloed within the supply chain being able to provide an operator with information more than two days before that vessel hits their terminal. These are all lessons were learning. Im not sure we could tell more to our friends on the east coast beyond that for dealing with that. Thanks, madam chair. Thanks for holding this hearing. Congratulations on 20 years. It seems just like yesterday and definitely would say the transformation of delivery of goods and services has been quite impressive. I didnt hear your testimony discussion about the drone issue from a technology perspective. Clearly this committee, the larger full committee has had testimony on that and its one area of continuing to move forward on technology and delivering the product. Mr. Christianson loved everything that you said, except would have been great if you said it was about seattletacoma instead of l. A. Long beach. Still happy to hear about your description of the Economic Opportunity before the United States that we can increase the cargo shipments because there is that demand and product to be shipped. We have to continue to make improvements and this is something we see in seattle as well that somebody estimated instead of 3 million Cargo Containers we can do Something Like six. You described that. You described that would be good for long shore men even though youre making technology investments. Youre talking about efficiencies. My question is, even though were talking about technology that helps us move and be more knowledgeable about the product, do we still need to make investments in freight mobility from a federal perspective to make sure as those products are being moved around that our technology isnt measuring stuck in congestion and making us less competitive . Senator cantwell, i appreciate that very much and thank you for the congratulations. Ive only been here for 15 of those 20 years. I think we are looking for innovative policies. Youve introduced a bill that proposes such policies. We congratulate you for that bill. If anything it can be broader. Can be applied to more than multimodal freight. But that kind of thinking and mr. Christianson mentioned communication of data. Also communication among stakeholders. Thats a big part to get the stakeholders talking and figure out innovative solutions. Were fans of data. Thats something were doing with the usps. Big component of our interaction with them is making insure they get forecasts of what were seeing, what were going to be shipping. And that is particularly important for sunday delivery to have the most efficient routes. Youre a global business. Mr. Christianson has fixed cost, if you will. He mentioned the magic words, panama and canada. This is about competition. This is about if were going to make improvements necessary to move our product cost effectively or whether that business is going to go to can do or via the panama canal. Do you support further freight efforts at the federal level . Just 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 prerecession levels, well certainly be seeing bottlenecks develop. As i mentioned in my testimony, the strategies are infrastructure efficiency with technology infused along with operational efficiency. I believe the legislation is timely. Its critical to the future of our supply chain optimization, and we would hope to be able to continue to collaborate with you and your team on that because its critical to be looking ahead. Infrastructure bottlenecks dont go away after you recognize them. It takes years of funding and policy to solve these bottlenecks as they come up. Your testimony, i really appreciate it because you described what the future opportunity was. Not just in jobs but automation. How do we tell the story on a national basis. Is this data the supply chains from our reports have . Its data but fractured data. Its critically important that we bring this data in to a through a reliable gateway and make it transparent in the public. We have challenges ahead. As seattletacoma has worked very hard on their joint port efforts as well. We watch and benchmark whats going on up there very closely. There are opportunities but theres a lot of opportunities ahead of us but a lot of work to be done. Thank you, madam chair. Senator klobuchar. Thanks for holding this hearing. Thanks for the witnesses. Mr. Fox, december 2013 Government AccountabilityOffice Report found the fra faces a lot of challenges. Rail safety challenges, including the inspector only has the capacity to inspect less than 1 of all railroad activities. I come from a state where were an entry point to oil from canada and agriculture products from everywhere. We have had an enormous increase in rail. As you know, the fra partners with states to oversee the inspection of signals, tracks and mechanical operations. In april, i sent a letter to the Appropriations Committee asking for increased funding for rails. Id like to hear about what technology bnsf uses. Do you think theres Better Technology that would get us through this . I think weve shown as an industry that we continue to Leverage Technology and the results have clearly been best ever safety results last year from an employee safety and derailment perspective. Beyond that, theres opportunity. Theres tremendous opportunity. Again, i think as we talk about regulation, part of our challenge today is regulation based on a design standard. As we look at focus on outcomes, again, that will allow the industry to innovate. Innovate with technology, process changes what kind of technology would help with this . As we look forward, as i mentioned 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 to where we can use drones to travel along our private network for hundreds of miles a day, taking highspeed images, High Definition images of our network down to a quarter inch accuracy. Post processing that data will help us understand exceptions. And i was just in the last week up in International Falls, minnesota. This is not a Burlington Northern issue where i was in trouble. Its where a bridge collapsed, small railroad bridge, but it happens to be the biggest entry point on the Canadian Border into the u. S. And right by International Falls which is a larger town. One of the things weve talked about, this was a Canadian National rail issue, and in addition to the bridge collapsing and some issues theyve been having with that railroad and workers not allowing us to cross the railroad, the issue was theyve been having a lot of Gray Crossing issues there. 8 to 10 hours a day the trains are in the middle of the town. Thats a lot of time and people have to drive 2 1 2 miles around the town. What i wondered about is the Railroad Safety institute of the university of minnesota is studying train delays to more accurately investigate train delays at railroad crossings. They have a signal for the people, whether they are deciding to take the 2 1 2mile route or go into town. Some kind of technology so it would empower drivers to know what to do. I wonder if you have any ideas about that crossing issue. I did an amendment on the rail bill we just passed through and this was brought home to me this week why we did it. When we talk about federal funds supporting freight projects, it clearly needs to be part of that. And, obviously, weve been active in that area with contributions against those great separations. I also think when were talking about train headlights at the crossing we need to be looking at taillights. More federal funding for grade separations seems to be part of the answer. And the side tracks. If the trains could wait somewhere else. I think they are building one, then they wouldnt be waiting in the middle of the town. We all have requirements on how long we can block thank you. And just if i could, just 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. Theres a ton of money sitting there and we have an emerging problem. Thats why senator hoven and i have sponsored a bill with senator booker to change that criteria to get that money out to states for education efforts. I thought id ask you, ms. Ault, whats kinds of technology . We know thats drivers are doing things they shouldnt do in the cars. A lot of them have admitted to this in sorry have as surveys. Weve had more than 3,000 People Killed that we know of from distracted driving. Again, these are individuals making decisions on their own. Are there any technologies you think from the Car Companies that could be helpful with this . I can speak not from the Car Companies. The group im with, we make everything but cars. The heavy cute truck side we have alerts built in for a driver to wake them up if their eyes begin to dim. Its some sort of vibration in the seat or loud sound. Its from a heavy duty perspective. Of course theres lots of regulations because theyre commercial drivers. Okay. Well, i think as we know, and i appreciate your word on trucks. This is an issue for all vehicles if we try to figure out if theres anything to create shutdown of technology when people are in the car or while someone is driving they stop doing it because its just a growing problem. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, senator klobuchar. Well 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. Misener. 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 the little guy. Were happy to we can do this. Were multitalented up here. As we look at more Logistic Networks out there, how do you think that will benefit consumers . Thank you, madam chair, very much. That logistics the improvement of logistics with the more broad transportation infrastructure is important. It affects how they receive the goods they purchase online. Weve been trying to improve this for at least 20 years. Automation has always been a big part of the amazon solution to this challenge. Increasing automation is going to be helpful to making sure consumers get the goods when they need them, but they have a choice. Its a choice at various speeds. We talked about drones. They were really only the way we figured out how to get goods to consumers in less than 30 minutes. We are also offering our customers now a slow delivery alternative that gives them additional benefits. If they are willing to accept it whenever it comes. If you are ambivalent to whether it comes in two days or two weeks, they can get an additional benefit from us. Its about providing our customers the choice. It applies more broadly to american consumers. How i would love to talk more about drones. We share a passion for that and a desire for the United States to catch up to the rest of the world. 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 came out with a study showing it takes these trucks about 22 feet longer to stop. Thats a car length and a half. The larger and heavier trucks are the greater where the greater destruction occurs when accidents happen. I have a couple of questions on that. Has your company done an analysis of the impact of safety . How will these impact the number of crashes and fatalities . Weve been persuaded by the carriers that the 33foot trucks are going to be safer because there will be fewer on the road driving fewer miles. Its a balancing of fact. I get that. Theres not any particular magic to 33 over 32 or 34 or the current number which is 28. Were trying to find a solution that will improve efficiencies for sure. At the same time if we can drive down the number of miles driven. The increase in length without increasing the Weight Capacity or the total weight of the trucks because the weight is what goes into the inertia and kinetic energy. Weight times velocity is the inertia, not the weight of the truck. Safety should be the first but also the impact on the infrastructure. Those heavier trucks, would they tear up more of the roads. Not increasing the weight limit at all. Increasing the length can help it because going over a bridge, the weight is less concentrated and, therefore, easier on the bridge. Lastly, another balancing act is you want greater safety but you also want to see what the least necessary burden on businesses and how they operate. The big issue of minimum insurance is one that i have some concerns about. Id love you to give me your thoughts. The truck size and weight, we realize the trucks are causing more accidents over the last 20, 30 years and the minimum insurance has not been raised since the 1980s. Do you think theres a needed minimum insurance level increase or at least pegging it somehow that its elevated on an ongoing basis . The carriers we use are going to be directly affected by that. The carriers are reputable ones. Wed not want our products traveling over problematic or difficult carriers. Im not sure i have a direct answer because that wouldnt be directly affecting us at this point. Thank you very much. Meet me out by the capitol with the drone. Ill be there. Thank you, senator booker. The hearing record will remain is open for two weeks. During that time, senators are asked to submit any questions for the record. Upon receipt, the witnesses are requested to submit their written requests to the committee as soon as possible. Id like to thank the witnesses for being here, and i thank my colleagues who attended the hearing. Thank you all. Were adjourned. Next, a conversation with freshman representative norma torres, democrat of california. Currently the highest ranking american elected official of guatema guatemalan descent, worked for a time as a Police Dispatcher and served in the california state assembly. Norma torres from the 35th Congressional District as a freshman member of congress, whats the difference between serving here and serving in the California Assembly in the state senate . It is quite a difference between the two chambers. I should say the three chambers because i serve both in the assembly and the state senate. The biggest difference, i think, is our inability to work across the aisle. In california, we certainly did a better job with that. How do you fix it . I think members just have to commit. We have to commit personal time getting to know each other, traveling into each others districts and learning about the issues that are important and respecting those i. And the differences we have between each other. I would expect another big difference is the amount of money it takes to run for congress and to get reelected. Whats that been like for you . It is incredibly hard. To get here. The money involved in politics is makes it almost impossible for someone like me and im an average mom from pomona, a 911 dispatcher by trade. Its incredible i made it this far. But here i am. And why did you decide to seek Elective Office . I answered a call as a 911 dispatcher of a little girl, 11yearold girl that died at the hands of her uncle. It really pushed me into a political world that i frankly didnt know it existed. I was the average mom raising my children. All i wanted to do was go to work, come home, raise my children and pay my bills. But over that issue, it was a very difficult time for the city of los angeles and the state of california. We were facing proposition 187 at the time. And i was asking for changes to help the primarily spanishspeaking community in los angeles to hire more bilinguals and to be more responsive to their needs. Let me go back to that story. You have talked about it. But let me take it one step further. What happened . You get the call . She is with her uncle. Shes 11 years old. Tell us the full story. It was a very hot summer night. There were only three dispatchers that spoke spanish at that time. This person called for help. The calls started very early with her uncle taking his livein girlfriend into he put a gun to her head and dragged her next door where the little girl lived. It took 20 minutes for me to answer that, answer her call. By the time i answered it, all i could hear was screaming, something. Later i learned that, you know, the horrific sounds that i was hearing was her head being bashed. Against the wall. She was shot five times pointblank. The person that shot her fled. And our officers were there within, you know, 20 seconds of me advising them. That there was a crime in progress. I really felt that we couldve done more. So i did more. I began a process of trying to get my department to be more sensitive, to recruit bilingual dispatchers, not only in spanish, but in other languages. Then i had to go before the Public Safety committee in l. A. And many times, i had to testify against my own department. Certainly, thats not easy to do. Did they apprehend the suspect . They did. Eventually, he turned himself in. He served, i believe, four or six years in jail for that crime. I spent many months waiting to go to trial. I had i was her only witness, you know. It was the call. That captured the shooting, that captured the screams. That captured her last words. Which i really didnt know what they were until i went through the process of translating the tape for the officers. And her last words were, uncle, please dont kill me. In many ways, i think she changed my entire life. What does that tell you about the criminal Justice System that he only served six years . It was very disappointing. Disappointing that his family was well off. And they were able, you know, to hire an attorney who was able to convince a jury that by drinking one beer, he was intoxicated and therefore he did not know what he was doing. And it was a crime of passion. What was the girls name . And have you talked to her family over the years . I have