Editorial: Reviewing 2012

This was a year of generally steady, but modest, gains for the economy as a whole — and trucking in particular — as detailed in this issue of Transport Topics.

Freight levels rose in every month except October, when the disruptions caused by Superstorm Sandy took their toll on production and distribution throughout the Northeast.

But by November, freight growth had resumed.

Truck sales were strong, if unspectacular, driven in large part by the advanced age of the existing fleet, which pushed fleets to buy new trucks. However, in most cases, it appears that fleets retired an old vehicle when they acquired a new one, because the overall fleet size was relatively steady.

However, the rising cost of new equipment was taking a toll on smaller, less-capitalized fleets, as they struggled to replace old equipment with higher-priced new models.

This issue helped spark a round of acquisitions by larger fleets, which were looking to secure drivers as much as anything.

The driver shortage appeared to be growing, even though freight gains were modest. By year’s end, analysts were predicting a larger shortage if tonnage growth expands, as some have predicted for later in 2013.

The year was also marked by a series of refinements by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on the primary safety rule for motor carriers, the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program.

While many fleets were far from satisfied with the changes offered by FMCSA, there was general agreement that the agency was moving in the right direction on most issues.

Carriers continued to express serious concerns about how the agency assesses blame in crashes to carriers, even when their drivers aren’t at fault.

The year did finally bring a new highway funding bill, although it was only for two years at a funding level that was well below industry desires and with no new revenue to allow a major infrastructure upgrade.

Perhaps the biggest news of the year for trucking was the emergence of natural gas as the major alternative fuel.

By year’s end, several new engines designed to run on natural gas were heading to market, and many fleets were looking to incorporate the fuel into their operations. Natural gas continued to sell for substantially less than diesel, and distributors were rapidly expanding their retail networks.

And as the year closed, analysts were generally optimistic that 2013 would be at least as good as 2012, and possibly better. And we’ll toast to that.