Are you a motor carrier? Do you plan on ever hiring a new trucker to drive for you? If you answered “yes” to those questions, chances are you already are aware that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is attempting once again to craft a rule on minimum training standards for entry-level commercial vehicle drivers.

It seemed almost everywhere you turned last week, federal officials were talking about highway funding.

Trucking is quite often referred to as a “resilient” industry. It provides the priceless service of delivering the nation’s goods. The task is carried out with little fanfare — and even less complaining about the hardships and obstacles that have to be overcome every day.

Whether the ice is cracking is a strange question for mid-February, certainly, but in this case we’re talking about the ongoing impasse concerning a multiyear, federal surface transportation plan.

An outline of the revised Grow America Act shows the Obama administration wants to spend $478.26 billion on surface transportation over six years starting Oct. 1.

Recently, we’ve fielded questions from acquaintances not in trucking who ask if fleet executives are deliriously happy because of the eye-catching plunge in diesel fuel prices.

Life can be tough and challenging, something people in trucking know well.

If you have ever attended some of the sprawling conferences hosted by the trucking industry, you know that it’s difficult to see everything.    

For now, fleet managers will have to settle for the notion that virtue is its own reward with respect to trucking’s superior performance on drug testing for drivers and other safety-sensitive employees.

Of all the reports that cross our desks, few have as much emotional effect as the fatality report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.