Editorial

Most people in trucking quietly do their useful work and don’t expect to end up on the pages of the New York Times.

From last week’s happy exploration of trucking, especially its 100 largest companies, we return to the La Brea Tar Pits of politics: surface transportation funding.

We are proud to bring you, in this issue, our annual Top 100 For-Hire list of U.S. and Canadian trucking companies.

We welcome the U.S. Department of Transportation’s announced independent review of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the legislative proposal from Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), which would bring closer oversight of FMCSA.

While people in the real world continued to make and deliver useful products and services, the 535 elected souls on Capitol Hill took a few worthwhile steps related to freight transportation last week, although it remains far from certain when or if anything will actually get accomplished.

It can be a frustrating endeavor to monitor the events on Capitol Hill. Our elected leaders are quite adept at saying the correct things, and we believe they aim to make the right decisions.

Thinking before acting is an admirable habit, especially with respect to governmental decisions. One can never anticipate every possible unintended consequence, but making an effort to look for them is important.

Few things within trucking are scarier than a fully loaded, heavy-duty rig swerving uncontrollably or rolling over.

"Semper Fidelis” goes the U.S. Marine Corps motto, meaning “always faithful.” Trucking is about as close as you can get to this venerable maxim without being an actual leatherneck, and trucking does have its share of such former Marines.

Congress and the administration still are struggling to do something more than absolutely nothing on a multiyear transportation plan, so consider the nation’s economy instead.