Driving Our Economy Forward: Freight Forum
This week Thrive Regional Partnership’s held the 5th annual state of freight forum in Ringgold, Georgia.
The event centered on the future of alternative fuels and sustainability in transportation.
Take a look at this week’s driving our economy forward.
“How many people in here are in the trucking industry?”
“Today is our fifth annual Freight Forum. We’ve been doing this since about 2000, became a way for us to host an event alongside our Freight Mobility Coalition, and focus on some emerging Trends Technologies things that we should be watching as an industry in this region our Freight mobility Coalition is made up of more than 40 industry uh partners, government entities, set the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission; everyone who has eyes on transportation in the region. So across Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama,” said COO of Thrive Regional Partnership Shannon Millsaps.
“We bring that solution uh to the customer, and it it gives them something that if it’s applied correctly, if they have the utilization you know for those vehicles, can actually save money.”
“We’re excited to host people today at the Catoosa County College and Career Academy. Shed a little light on the incredible work they’re doing here, to educate our juniors and seniors, and make viable pathways including logistics,” said Millsaps.
“Well we’re a full service warehouse and transportation company. We are in the US and and international. So we we deliver to the world. This is a wonderful forum, and I think that Bridget and Shannon and her team did a great job to. If you can get like a coalition folks from from industry, from government regulations, manufacturers; you know we got the biggest car company in the world here; all in the room talking about where we are as far as infrastructure, technology, energy; it is… it’s wonderful, and my hopes is that it just grows,” said Bruce Tranthan, CEO & Co-owner of Tranco Logistics.
“Part of the secret sauce and what we do is really building these cross sector collaborations, and this framework for collective impact. And it’s all about being in relationship with one another, so as clay mentioned um even as say a freight dependent manufacturer, you’re bringing Goods in. Maybe it’s pieces in parts and you’re shipping out final product. It’s really good to have a general understanding of what all sides of that sector are dealing with. So what we found is there becomes magic in the networking, simply being in the room together,” said Millsaps
“We’re all for technology. I think we were one of the first federal agencies to accept electronic record keeping.”
“This is priceless for us to be able to see where we’re going, where the technology is going. So what we invest in, what we we spend our money and our capital. Oh it’s it’s very important,” said Tranthan.
“Today is really an opportunity for us to to elevate the Coalition and to talk about some of the things that are are coming down the pike. We’ve heard a little bit about electrification and the changes to Hazmat handling. We’ll have a conversation here in a moment, about alternative fuel Technologies. Everything from hydrogen and compressed natural gas to maybe algae based biofuel. Really just want to make sure that we’re having eyes as a coalition and as an organization on where things are headed in the transportation space. So that we can arm communities with the data they need to make the best decisions for their infrastructure,” said Millsaps.
