If you have a copy of the Oct. 16 extra-large issue of Transport Topics, there’s a decent chance you’re attending American Trucking Associations’ annual Management Conference & Exhibition in Orlando since that is the special edition that is distributed at the event. Either that, or you’re a regular subscriber. In either case, we’re grateful for your interest in being up-to-date on what’s going on in the trucking industry. And there’s a lot going on.
The industry was front and center when President Donald Trump at an event Oct. 11 touted how his proposed tax plan would benefit trucking fleets, both in terms of daily operations as well as when the time comes for family-owned businesses to be handed down to the next generation. TT was there, and you can read our report here.
During his remarks, where a tractor-trailer served as the backdrop, Trump went so far as to call some trucking executives by name, including outgoing ATA Chairman Kevin Burch. It was one of several events Burch has attended featuring Trump. He was there in March when ATA members visited the White House to support the president’s efforts to overhaul the Affordable Care Act and was back on Oct. 12 when Trump signed an executive order designed to give small businesses more options in offering health care to employees.
Burch reflects on his time as ATA chairman in an op-ed piece in the Oct. 16 issue before handing the chairmanship of the federation over to TCW President David Manning during MCE.
They’re just two of the many leaders whom the industry will hear from at the event. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta are also slated to appear and will discuss how goings-on in Washington affect the industry. ATA President Chris Spear also will deliver the federation’s annual “State of the Industry” address.
He has a lot to talk about.
In addition to the issues listed above, the industry is just months away from enactment of the electronic logging device mandate — and a tightening of capacity that is expected to accompany it. Trucking also is dealing with the shortage of drivers and infrastructure that needs repair nationwide. These are issues that Spear, Chao, Acosta and many others are grappling with — and ones that surely will be topics of conversation in Orlando.
Transport Topics will be there as well, and you can read all about it online as it happens and in the Oct. 30 issue of Transport Topics.
