When L’Kiesha Markley attended the Freight Academy in 2015, she was Assistant Division Chief in the Regional and Intermodal Planning Division at the Maryland State Highway Administration. Her core role was not related to freight, but her responsibilities were expanded to include freight when the previous program manager retired. She went to the Freight Academy to learn more about the industry, and to close the gaps of her knowledge about freight while teaching her basics about the industry to which she hadn’t yet been exposed, as well as insights to freight flows and network challenges on the national, regional and even international level.
“We went around to different locations to see everything, like refrigerated manufacturing and distribution centers,” she said. “It gave me a lot of insights into the internal workings of the freight industry, and then it also connected the dots for me. It helped me understand the state’s role, and what was the industry’s responsibility. I got a broad overview of the industry, which I needed because all I knew was what our state agency did.”
In her office, she worked on projects like updating the Maryland Truckers’ Maps, assessing new routes to add to the freight networks, and other coordination on the planning side. The Freight Academy gave her a better understanding of how all the parts worked together. She gained information about the workings of the supply chain, freight fluidity, and her agency’s role in all of it. She learned where different hubs were in Maryland, and she examined how trucks connected to other intermodals such as the airports, railroads, and ports.
“Having to complete projects related to freight allowed me to understand where the needs were and more about the bottlenecks and other safety concerns,” she said. “It served as a catalyst for my understanding of freight and helped me eventually understand the mega regions aspects and impacts as well. Our decisions impact other states, and I learned that truck parking is a huge component of those freight conversations.”
Discussions on all these topics helped her better understand how it all worked together with further conversations about the supply chain, freight fluidity, and safety.
L’Kiesha has a personal interest in the trucking industry. Several members of her family including her father, are truck drivers. She appreciated learning more about what it was like for him to drive a truck that transported gasoline, and it gave her a deeper perspective about the realities of the challenges of the job.
“Before the Freight Academy, my knowledge of what my father and some of my uncles did was just peripheral,” she said. “Now I’m one of those people who think freight is exciting and interesting. There are so many intricacies and challenges in the industry, and it’s at my end that the pieces of the puzzle can be addressed. I can try to work at improving the problems, make the network better, and make the experience better for people traveling through our state.”
Since completing the Freight Academy, L’Kiesha has been able to work more on the freight planning end for truckers, making their experiences safer and better. She has lent her new expertise to state freight plans, serving as lead for the recent update in 2017 and a stakeholder in the most recent update in 2022.
“It was a major effort,” she said. “We examined trucking challenges, created a roadmap as to how to address those issues. The data from the 202 Statewide Truck Parking Study resulted in our travel forecasting team becoming better equipped to forecast truck drivers’ parking decisions based on their movements. I’m proud of those efforts, and my participation in the Freight Academy helped me lead those studies for the state.”
One of her most important takeaways from her experience at the Freight Academy is to learn ways to persuade and educate elected officials and other internal/external senior managers about the freight challenges related to truck parking, and why these issues are so important. Truck parking is a significant problem facing transportation industry professionals all over the country, but she noted that many elected officials and other stakeholders need to be made aware of the urgency and impacts of these issues.
Equipped with the skills she gained at the Freight Academy, she was able to effectively explain the issues that need to be prioritized.
“Truck parking is something everyone is dealing with now,” she said. “After the Freight Academy, I had the confidence to talk about it more clearly. We all must address freight fluidity and truck staging and parking. Before I attended the Freight Academy, I didn’t fully understand the needs of my state, but now, I’m able to do my job better. My experience was transformational.”
