Press & Media
World Business Chicago Op-Ed | Ghost Writing
Title: “How Chicago is leading Secretary Buttigieg’s innovation agenda”
By: WBC CEO Michael Fassnacht & ELITE Transit Solutions CFO Kimberly DeCarrera
Secretary Buttigieg,
We are pleased to see you guiding the Department of Transportation through new initiatives of institutional collaboration, ingenuity, equality, and forward-thinking policy. It has been far too long since an administration took into account the effect the DOT can have on everyday Americans rather than the effects it can have on their own personal pocketbook. As a city uniquely centered around logistics evolution, we’d like to assert ourselves, with ever-growing insistency, as the leaders of a transportation future that is already under construction.
Chicago’s positioning in the center of the continent and at the intersection of vital waterways has made it a historic bastion of transportation innovation. From the city’s first railroad—built more than a decade before the Civil War—to today’s logistics startups and fulfillment centers, Chicago remains the unrivaled leader in using muscle and brain power to move people and goods.
Secretary Buttigieg, your recently articulated principles for technological development in transportation are certain to forge a new mold for how the nation moves transportation tech forward.
You’ll find in Chicago that spirit of innovation is alive and well in promising city initiatives, innovative companies like ELITE Transit Solutions, and in the hearts of our carrier partners who work tirelessly to transport goods across America. Let Chicago be a shining example of that which you strive to realize throughout the U.S.
Between #Striketober and the Great Resignation, America is in the midst of a labor movement that shows no signs of slowing down. With that, we look to move forward as an industry by providing clear paths to success for a fresh workforce and new ways to support our current industry partners.
In 2019, Olive- Harvey College, part of the City Colleges of Chicago network, completed a 103,000-square-foot Transportation, Distribution and Logistics Center. This facility includes an on-site central store warehouse that supplies the city colleges, a third-party logistics training center, automotive and diesel engine laboratories, CDL classes, and many other programs to prepare students for today’s logistics jobs and opportunities in Chicago. The many possibilities here and the flexibility of these programs prioritize continual improvement and positive change in our rapidly growing industry.
At ELITE, we’re invested in cultivating a more sustainable working environment for our current carrier partners. We understand that one of the largest challenges facing today’s truck drivers is the burden of invoicing and delays in payment that come with it. This typical corporate precedent keeps a hard-earned wage from a truck driver for 30 days or more. We’ve recently partnered with our preferred factoring company, Connect Capital to get wages into the hands of drivers at unprecedented speed. By leaning on the positive relationship between Connect Capital and ELITE, we can pay drivers in under 48 hours and get them the wages they deserve, faster.
But working conditions are not just limited to individuals, they’re also the conditions of our global community. In 2017, Chicago became the first American city to hold itself to the goals set out by the Paris climate agreement, understanding that as a city the necessary changes would present many industry challenges while understanding that we must preserve ourselves a quality of life that continues to make industry possible.
Through partnerships between private and public sectors, the city of Chicago is making huge strides toward reducing transportation-related carbon emissions, increasing solar installations for renewable energy, and standardizing modernization in both commercial areas and residential neighborhoods to increase the city’s energy efficiency. At ELITE we harness the power of our technology partner Chameleon LLC to make each contract we broker as efficient as possible.
The Chameleon software is the ideal marriage of intuition, innovation and customization. Our brokers can easily see shipping routes to and from one destination and book the same driver for back-and-forth routes. Not only does this guarantee the driver more money and stability, it lowers the useless emissions of empty trucks traveling back to their hometowns.
Our focus, and the focus of logistics as a whole, must be on adaptability. Whether it’s private companies utilizing technology to make drivers’ lives easier or the public sector developing quality infrastructure for more frequent rest stops, safer travel stations and more transparency in training programs, we have to work together to create a safer, more harmonious working environment for our future.
We hope that the new priorities outlined by the Department of Transportation prove to be as flexible and as supportive as you present. If we can align on the importance of innovation and sustainability, perhaps we can see our united goals come to fruition.
Here, in the center of the country, we will certainly be the first to feel what changes come as we continue to be the heartbeat that fuels the pulse of movement.