Editorial

Across three industry events in the span of just a few days last week, the evolution of automated driving was front and center, with everyone from government leaders to technology innovators looking ahead to how — and at what pace — automation might someday reshape the trucking industry.

A viable remedy to one of trucking’s most vexing problems is at the industry’s fingertips, but current federal law stands in the way. The problem, if you haven’t guessed, is the driver shortage. The remedy, if you haven’t guessed, is bringing younger drivers into the fold.

In the nine years that the American Transportation Research Institute has been producing a list of the worst bottlenecks in the United States, three spots have had the inauspicious honor of landing at the top of the list. These same three are consistently awful, even if from year to year one is worse than the others.

We were surprised that President Donald Trump did not focus more on infrastructure during last week’s State of the Union address, particularly since he chose to include some pointed language to describe the North American Free Trade Agreement.

A polar vortex can slow a lot of folks down. But you can count on the trucking industry.

A gangbusters year marked by soaring freight rates and frenzied order and sales activity for equipment ended on a soft note, as December saw reported declines in both truck tonnage and trailer orders. It had to happen eventually, but some may feel cheated that the industry didn’t get to close out this otherwise stellar year on a high note.

Now that we finally we have some resolution on the issue of whether interstate truck drivers must follow federal or state rules regarding where and when they can take meal and rest breaks, it’s time to stop the legal wrangling and move forward.

Trucking industry shareholders will remember 2018 fondly. The prospects for next year are pretty bright, too.

In the news business, if journalists believe a story has some long-term relevance, we say the story “has legs.” The term is meant to suggest that a topic could carry forward for a while, or that an article could be published at a later date, since the content has lesser risk of growing stale.

The trucking industry has been through quite a period of transformation during the past 12 months. Perhaps it’s time to take a breather — and take stock of where we are. As 2018 draws to a close, things aren’t as hectic as they were one year ago, but change still persists.