Stunned reaction to Penn Pike's blow to IBTTA (ADDITIONS)

Shock and awe were the main reactions we picked up Friday to the news that the Pennsylvania Turnpike had departed in protest from IBTTA the toll industry's long established and generally well-regarded trade association. There had been rumblings of discontent about dues, about conference content, about representation, and about and the overdramatic sound effects at some meetings. But they were rumblings only - the kinds of dissatisfactions that can usually be managed with adjustments and compromises, or just lived with.

That one of the premier toll authorities and a founding member of IBTTA suddenly withdraws from the association and its CEO denounces it as committed only to the interests of its private sector members is unprecedented.

IBTTA mum

We couldn't get through to any IBTTA staff yesterday and they have said nothing about this dramatic development. Indeed the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is still listed as a member on their website list of members.

No coordinated move to dump IBTTA

The public toll agencies we were able to contact said they'd been taken by surprise by Joe Brimmeier's move. They declined to express an opinion, saying they wanted time to digest and discuss it. We've got the strong impression Brimmeier acted alone, and that other public toll agencies are not likely to quickly follow the PTC out of IBTTA.

But part of what he says could resonate with many of the public toll agencies - that they need their own association where they can discuss matters of mutual interest and lobby for those. Even if they don't follow him out of IBTTA they may join his proposed American Association of Public Toll Agencies.

"I believe in public toll agencies," Brimmeier says. "We need an association that advances their interests."

That pitch may well go over with a number of heads of public toll authorities and their boards of directors.

IBTTA had to stay neutral in the recent fights over concessioning tollroads in Chicago, and Indiana and in the debates in New Jersey, Texas, and of course in Brimmeier's Pennsylvania.

Federal lobbying requirements growing

Traditionally most of the lobbying and politics has been internal to the state or bi-state region in which the public toll authorities are located. Much representation will remain at that level. However with the growth of federal government and programs for extending tolling via HOT lanes, area pricing and mileage charges, and credit programs such as TIFIA and PABs the demands for national representation grow.

One of the oldest trade associations

IBTTA is one of the oldest trade industry operations in Washington DC. It goes back to 1932. It was formed around American public toll authorities and northeastern ones at that. The first president was DB Steinman famous bridge engineer of the New York Port Authority, predecessor of the Port Authority New York New Jersey. By now it has an impressive membership list of over 300 from some 30 countries on all continents.

By our classification and sort of its membership - see IBTTA2 Excel spreadsheet - IBTTA now has almost exactly equal numbers of public toll agencies (PTAs) 76, and toll road concessionaires (TRCs) 75.  The largest number 103 are service companies (SERs), followed by 37 toll system suppliers (TSSs), 17 finance groups (FINs) and 7 associations (ASS).

Despite this diversified membership public toll authority members dominate the 20 person board of directors of IBTTA and Americans at that.

The board (see right) comprises:

- 13 American PTA representatives

- 7 European and South African TRCs

One of the seven is Brimmeier's nemesis Abertis - represented on the IBTTA board by Jordi Graells, their manager for North America.  (CORRECTION: we previously failed to recognize Rich Raczynski as a PTA rep - we thought he was Cintra's guy in Warsaw - so incorrectly had the score 12/8 REVISION 2009-02-16)

The executive committee comprises Kary Witt Golden Gate Bridge District, Steve Snider Halifax Bridge Commission Canada, Ed DeLozier E470 Public Highway Authority CO, Maurizio Rotondo, Italian association of concessionaires, Susan Buse, NTTA Dallas and Pat Jones. Excluding Jones there are four north American PTAs and one European TRC.

Membership sorted by country (IBTTA3 spreadsheet below) shows IBTTA is still predominantly an American association. 212 out of 311 members (68%) are American. Other countries membership is: Chile 21, Italy 16, Canada 13, Australia 7, Spain 6, France 6, and a lot of countries with just 2 members.

Vendors or suppliers to the toll industry who pay considerable dues have long felt resentful of being excluded from the board and executive committee but the reasoning of the toll authorities has been that they need IBTTA more than IBTTA needs them.

Pay & power

IBTTA's dues structure and its relationship to representation is kept confidential and we have only a poor understanding of how it works, so we have nothing to report on that - beyond the trite observation that it's a contentious and difficult issue.

And there has been a view of non-Americans that IBTTA is an American association with foreigners allowed to play a role but always a minority role.

Each year five new members are appointed to the board of directors for four year terms and of these five three are always Americans and so far entirely PTAs. The rest of the world gets two board positions each year. There is therefore a permanent 12 North American PTA board members to eight rest of the world members who tend to represent the concessionaires. (Until 2005 it appears the ratio was 4/1. REVISION 02-16)

This balance on the board in favor of US public tollers rather undercuts Joe Brimmeier's claim that the organization is weighted to the private concessionaires. If anything they could claim the board representation and especially the executive committee is stacked against them.

Has to be neutral on public vs private

IBTTA does however have to be neutral on the public versus private authority issue, and there is some difficulty in it being both an international organization, and a lobby group in the US.

As trade associations go it is very productive. With a fulltime staff of ten it organizes an extraordinary number of conferences, does a decent job of representing the industry, produces a nice industry magazine and maintains a useful website.

Pat Jones is usually praised as a fair and effective manager, although some groan and roll their eyes at his over-the-top evangelical style of public speaking.

No doubt Jones is working to avert any further public toll agencies from following Pennsylvania out. He may succeed. Joe Brimmeier's planned association of American public toll agencies may also succeed in getting launched as a more narrowly focussed association, and there could well be dual membership. And dueling organizations.

IBTTA membership list with our crude classification in Excel ASS=associations, PTA=public toll authority, TRC=toll road concession, SER=services company, FIN=finance, TSS=toll systems supplier (This classification was done in a hurry so should be treated as a first shot for getting an impression, and is subject to revision:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/IBTTA2.xls

Membership by location:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/IBTTA3.xls

TOLLROADSnews 2009-02-14 ADDITIONS 2009-02-15 11:00 REVISION 02-16 08:30