CTS Director Kyle Shelton sat down with Senior Fellow Robin Hutcheson last month for a wide-ranging interview on freight, transportation at the federal level, and her own career journey. This is the first installment of that interview, edited for length and clarity.
Kyle: Tell us a little bit about your background and what’s brought you to the senior fellow role at CTS.
Robin: I’ve been working in transportation since 1995, first in the private sector as a consultant and then in the public sector in leadership positions. I was lucky enough to move to Minnesota in 2016 after being recruited by Mayor Hodges to serve as public works director for the City of Minneapolis. I had previously been in Salt Lake City, where I was the director of transportation. In late 2020, I received a curious email inviting me to apply for a position in the Biden–Harris Administration. From that, I was appointed deputy assistant secretary in the policy office of Transportation Secretary Buttigieg, and then I stepped into the role of administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
I think it's uncommon to be handed an opportunity later in your career that really expands your knowledge and perspective, and that’s what happened when I learned about trucking, freight, and supply chain at FMCSA. Up until that point, I had focused on mobility from the perspective of moving people, without giving much thought about what it takes to move goods.
I’ve been very fortunate to have worked on so many aspects of transportation and infrastructure over the course of nearly 30 years. I’m excited to work with CTS as a senior fellow, an advisor, and a thought partner. It’s reminiscent of how I got my start in transportation, working for a consulting firm that put research and data at the heart of good transportation planning. I’m especially interested in contributing to the “Unpacking Freight” focus and hope I can bring different sectors of transportation closer together.
Kyle: Speaking of freight, it seems that for most people it’s something operating in the background. It touches our lives every day, but we don’t really think about it. Why do you think that is?
Robin: In the public sector, we’re often planning for people and focused on the public good and public benefit. Freight—while for the public benefit—is entirely a business proposition. So those two circles of work don’t have a natural way to come together and solve problems. But that is happening more and more because of a growing understanding of the fragility of freight movement, paired with the idea that cities can be more creative with maximizing their public right-of-way for the public good.
I think there’s a growing recognition that the seemingly separate parts of the transportation system must work together because the right-of-way space is shared by both people and goods. Cities like Miami, Seattle, Portland, and now Minneapolis are focused on how urban delivery can be safer and more sustainable. Pilots across the country are bringing freight and city partners together to solve urban issues such as safety, economic development, and climate.
COVID really illuminated freight issues for everyday Americans. At the USDOT, we dug deep into trucking and the underlying issues that make that part of the supply chain more brittle. In working directly with truckers, I’ve heard their top concerns. One is the lack of safe and secure truck parking for long-haul drivers. It’s imperative they have a safe place to rest. If I unpack this one issue, I can see opportunities to encourage freight transfers outside of cities, which opens up opportunities for truckers to avoid going into the middle of congested cities entirely—something they really do not like doing—while making last-mile deliveries greener, safer, and more efficient. It’s these kinds of “all-around wins” we can achieve if we can see the common goals from both an industry and a city right-of-way perspective.
Kyle: Relating more broadly to your transportation work, what are you most passionate about? Where do you see opportunities to affect the most change?
Robin: The things that excite me most are the ones where if we take an action, it helps everything at once. I can’t not see all of the interrelated parts of the system. I’ve always prioritized roadway safety, and with each new professional experience I’ve grown to see it as the first basic need for all other transportation strategies to be successful. If safety is the first thing we focus on, then all the other things start to catch. For example, FMCSA is responsible for regulating the trucking industry and ensuring the safety of drivers and equipment. I quickly realized that’s about the driver before everything else. There are nearly 6,000 fatal crashes every year involving a commercial motor vehicle; within that, 800 are driver fatalities. That’s a terrible number and we should not accept these on-the-job dangers—in addition to the persistent health issues among truck drivers. These [issues] lead to high turnover, and high turnover means we’re not getting the safest drivers on the road, and we’re not contributing to a stable supply chain. Improving professional conditions means making roadways safer and simultaneously strengthening the supply chain. It all comes back to safety.
Another example: Technology is being developed and deployed more rapidly than ever. In the mobility space, I think the technologies that focus on roadway safety first are so valuable because they will solve root issues first, with multiple benefits following. The key is to be clear about the local problems that need to be solved, then invite technologies that can solve that problem and more. This approach will hopefully ensure that technology isn’t being developed in search of a problem. I look forward to working with the University of Minnesota to advance beneficial technologies—and to continuing this conversation.
